“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Henry David Thoreau

The Energy Department said a white roof can knock 10% to 20% off a building’s electric bill. To that end, it is encouraging anyone replacing or building a roof to take advantage of substantial tax credits and promoting “cool roofs,” which don’t have to be white and could include silver reflective paint or even rooftop gardens.

Whitening the world’s roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all the world’s cars for 11 years.

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Once or twice a year, the familiar ‘sonic boom’ at American front doors marks the arrival of the “yellow pages” – one or two books, 2 – 4 inches thick, making up the local telephone company’s Yellow, White, and Blue pages. Wrapped in plastic so that the pages don’t get ruined by the rain, dew or sprinklers.

It takes 19 million trees, 1.6 billion pounds of paper, 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, and 7.2 million barrels of oil to produce the 500 million directories that are delivered across the U.S. each year.

YellowPagesGoesGreen.org will contact your local phone company for you if you no longer wish to receive yellow pages, their service is free. This organization works to stop the delivery of unwanted Yellow and White Pages Books.

— OR Call —

Verizon (Superpages/Idearc): 800-888-8448
Dex (Yellow Pages): 877-243-8339
Yellow Book: 800-373-3280
ATT/YellowPages (formerly SBC/Bell South): 800-792-2665 for AR MO and TX only
All other states call 800-848-8000

— and ask them to stop delivery to your household and/or business.

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Swapping one incandescent bulb for a CFL reduces carbon dioxide by 500 pounds a year; replacing 17 has the equivalent effect of taking one car off the road for a year.

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Foot activated kitchen faucet saves about 3,000 gallons of water a year

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Americans run through about 100 billion plastic bags annually, using up an estimated 12 million barrels of oil. How to stop this? By bringing your own reusable canvas totes to the supermarket or store.

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And finally, in the words of Chief Seattle more than 150 years ago, much more incredibly poignant today:

“Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the Earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

Enough said ——

—- as the green future unfolds.

Tags: ar mo, bell south, blue pages, dex yellow pages, earth, environment, Environmentalism, front doors, henry david thoreau, incandescent bulb, Kids and Teens, kilowatt hours, kitchen faucet, local phone company, local telephone company, money, pages books, reflective paint, rooftop gardens, School Time, sonic boom, substantial tax, superpages, Sustainability, Sustainable living, yellow and white pages, yellow book, yellowpages

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Going Green, Green Living, go green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.