energy conservation
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Ask Umbra on wasps, researching your own eco-questions, and energy vampires
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Every time the weather gets warmer, it’s the same: the wasps! They insist on trying to make their home in my balcony! I tried many different things, like citronella candles, but some of them apparently attract instead of repelling wasps. I don’t want to kill them; I […]
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Ending North Carolina's dependence on dirty coal
As a state that depends heavily on coal-fired power, North Carolina currently dumps more climate-disrupting carbon dioxide pollution into the environment from burning fossil fuels than 186 nations. But a new analysis [pdf] by a clean-energy advocacy group finds that it would be relatively easy to break the state’s dirty energy dependency — and eliminate […]
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Daylight saving time doesn’t save energy
You can’t save daylight by moving around the hands on your clock, of course. So daylight saving time remains as absurdly named as it ever was. The general pointlessness of DST was the subject of a Rachel Maddow interview Friday (video below) with the author of a whole book (!) on the subject. What’s germane […]
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The State of Electricity Prices
I was messing around with some spreadsheets, and out popped this little guy: The chart plots the 50 states — minus Hawaii but plus DC — with the price of electricity on the vertical axis and consumption on the horizontal axis. (I left off Hawaii because it’s a serious outlier, with average electricity prices nearly twice as high […]
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Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on supermarket shopping
Dearest readers, Sometimes when I’m down in the stacks researching answers to your latest dilemmas, I enjoy taking a stroll down Ask Umbra archives lane. Here are some glossy tidbits I culled from my past advice on lessening your impact when it comes to grocery shopping. Have any of your own green grocery tips? Let […]
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This Friday, don’t just Buy Nothing — use nothing!
Courtesy AdbustersFor twenty years, the people behind Buy Nothing Day have been pleading with consumers to avoid the frenzy inherent in “Black Friday,” the no-holds-barred shop-o-rama that comes the day after Thanksgiving. This year, they’re ramping things up and calling for an all-out Wildcat Strike against the “capitalist consumption machine.” Socialists, you say? No, just […]
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Ask Umbra on shower caps, computers, and junk mail
Q. Dear Umbra, I’ve taken to washing my hair less and less often to keep it from drying out. Since I’ve switched to the “no-‘poo” method (baking soda followed by a vinegar rinse) it stays cleaner longer. However, I still take a shower (brief and lukewarm) most days. To keep my curly hair from becoming […]
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Ask Umbra on climate-skeptic teachers, low-flow toilets, and more
Q. Dear Umbra, I know it’s a little early, but I had this great idea for a New Year’s resolution. Every month in 2010, I pick a certain eco-area of my life and focus on that for a whole month. So far I have: reduce energy consumption; reduce water consumption; reduce material waste; reuse; recycle; […]
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4.5 things I learned at my energy audit
As my family and co-workers will readily attest, I looked forward to my energy audit with disturbing anticipation after I made the appointment about a month ago. I was nearly giddy at the thought of having all my energy-efficiency questions answered: Should I replace my windows? Insulate? Wrap my water heater? Were there huge drafts […]
