A Guide to Sustainable Living

Everyone wants to be able to do their part to fight global warming. But it's not easy to figure out what exactly everyone should do. What exactly can you do to help with the climate crisis? You can't stop driving a car altogether, and there certainly is the myth out there that to stop global warming means a complete shift in the way you lead your life. That's not true. The fight can mean a number of very small steps and alterations that can lead to big changes down the road. The key to fighting global warming is if everyone did their best to achieve sustainable living.

What does sustainable living mean? Sustainable living is an attempt by a person or family to achieve a balance in terms of using the Earth's resources. Many of the Earth's resources are non-sustainable, meaning that there is a finite supply and that they might one day run out. Oil is a perfect example. Other resources are sustainable, such as wind and solar power. We could never run out of either of those things and as a result, they are both key to sustainable living.

So what are some of things you can do to achieve sustainable living? Well, one of the first steps towards sustainable living is to reduce your carbon footprint. The chief cause of global warming is the overwhelming amount of carbon dioxide that humans are emitting into the atmosphere. This can happen in the form of factories, but one of the main culprits is automobile emissions. Sustainable living might mean trading in your car for a hybrid or increasing your usage of mass transit or using your bike to commute or go shopping.

Another key to sustainable living is by changing your diet. Manufactured and processed foods create a lot of waste and have a huge impact on carbon dioxide emissions. Also, trying to support locally-grown farms and stores means that corporations spend less money and energy shipping foods around the world - lowering their carbon footprints immensely. Buying from your local farm or farmer's market will go a long way in starting sustainable living.

Sustainable living is important because the future of our planet is at stake. And I don't just mean our children's children's children's planet. Many scientists agree that if we don't start working now towards sustainable living that many of the effects of global warming will be felt in our lifetime. There is no time to wait, the time to choose sustainable living is now.

Harnessing Wind Power

When you see windmills what comes to your mind? Do you think of the Dutch countryside scattered with these structures? Do you think of the windmill-fighting Don Quixote, the fictional Spanish nobleman? Whatever comes to your mind, one thing is true; wind solar power is now a reality in many places. After decades of neglect, windmills are being adapted and changed in design to allow them to produce the needed energy that is so vital for life in the 21st century. Although used to turn a grinding stone that would be used to obtain flour for bread, wind mills are being for a completely different purpose today – to produce electricity through wind power. In California, there are more than 16,000 wind turbines that are run by windmills with huge rotor blades.

The exploration of wind power is not a new concept. Early, humans have always sailed the oceans even before the advent of the engines. Ships are driven by wind and for centuries, humans have used wind power to pump water and saw wood. Today, they are still used to pump water where power outages occur. In the 20th century the ease with which fossil fuels could be harnessed and the resultant greater power from these resources pushed wind power to the back seat. In the years following the use of fossil fuels, it seemed that this form of fuel was cheap ad plentiful and thus easily eclipsed wind solar power. However, the 173 oil crisis changed the viewpoint of many and since then, wind solar power again came to light and has done that ever since.

From an environmental point of view, wind solar power clearly stands out and has taken on a new appeal. Wind and sunlight being inexhaustible were thus seen as the best alternative. In addition, they are also much easier on the environment and do not produce fearful weather and climate phenomenon as is seen with fossil explorations. Wind energy produces no chemical emissions whatsoever making it one of the most user-friendly alternative energy resources out there. So how much energy can a wind turbine produce? Wind energy varies as a cube of the wind speed. This means that when the speed of the wind doubles, the power provided is 8 times more. You can therefore see why a small increase in wind power can result in a massive boost of energy output. This is called the Cube law. To take advantage of the law, wind turbines are placed on hilltops where wind accelerates as it passes. Wind is just one of the many alternative energy sources that may preserve our environment from the effects of fossil fuels.