The first American Flag sewn by Betsy Ross was made of Hemp!

Recycled aluminum cans has saved 15 million barrels of oil per year.
This is the amount of energy it would take to manufacture new cans
had the recycled ones been tossed.

The DOE (Department of Energy) is faced with cleaning up 1.4 billion
cubic feet of contaminated soil (enough to fill 17 sports stadiums),
and 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated ground water.

One ton of recycled paper saves about 30 trees, 7,000 gallons of water,
4 kilowatt hours of electricity, and 60 lbs of air pollutants.

A landfill in Florida will soon be using Plasma-Arc Technology to
vaporize its garbage at 10,000°F. The 3,000 tons of trash burned daily
will generate enough electricity to power 36,000 homes.

Wind Turbines

The tallest wind tower in America — 345 feet — is in Scurry County,
Texas at Enel North Americas Snyder Wind Project. By comparison, the
Statue of Liberty is 305 feet.

The tips of a 300 foot diameter wing spread are moving at about 100 mph.
The blades revolve about 21 times per minute.

Who taps the wind?

Germany leads all nations in production of wind power. It also has a huge
investment in solar power. Both technologies are heavily boosted by tax
incentives.

Below are the World Wind Energy Association’s rankings of wind power by
megawatts installed:

Germany 22,247
United States 16,819
-Texas 4,356
- California 2,439
Spain 15,145
India 7,850
China 5,899

Wind through the home:

All homes need adequate ventilation. Without it, contaminants such as
formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), unpleasant orders can
linger, radon gas can accumulate, and excess moisture will cause mold
growth.

In the past most homes got adequate ventilation from the natural air moving
through the unsealed windows and doors, etc. But with improved housing
technology, uncontrolled ventilation has been drastically reduced to such
an airtight degree that it’s necessary to compensate by installing a whole
house ventilation system. You may remember attic fans, same thing, just
new and improved.

Most applicable in cold climates during the summer. Not advisable in warmer
climates with humid summers because the fan can draw moist air into wall
cavities, where it may condense and cause moisture damage. However, even
in those locations, they can be run in the fall and early spring.

Whole house ventilation systems creates healthy home enviroments and are
extremely energy effiecient especially compared to air conditioning.

Standard home construction is extremely wasteful, 30-40% of the materials end up in
landfills. And 30-40% of landfills are construction waste. On the other hand,
pre-fabricated home construction on average have only 2% construction waste.

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Setting your refrigerator to 38-42 degrees will make it run 25% more efficiently.

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If every American changed out just ONE incandescent bulb with a CFL it would save
enough energy to light almost all the homes in Los Angeles for a year. Plus CFL’s
last 10 times longer than the conventional bulbs.

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Over 4 billion trees a year get cut down just for paper goods.

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In 1978 because of the Love Canal tragedy, the Federal Government started a program
called Superfund mandated to identify and clean up toxic waste sites across the
U.S. The EPA has identified nearly 1600 contaminated sites. Of those, nearly 1400
have polluted ground water. Currently one in four Americans live within 3 miles of
a Superfund site. Thirty years later and Superfund still spends $500 million a year
on clean-ups.

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I do not know about you, but here in East Texas, they have been advertising about
the transition to digital signal for your TV in February, 2009.

So your analog TV will not receive a signal from your local channels with an
antenna. You will have to purchase a digital converter for $50.00 in order to see any
of your favorite shows.

With this transition, there could be more than 80 million analog tv sets thrown away
due to this conversion. TV’s are considered hazardous waste as they contain lead,
mercury and other contaminants. So major cities are setting up recycling centers as
fast as they can.

Once the TV gets to the recycling center, they can be broken down by taking out the
plastic, boards and tubes. But they are having problems of what do to with some of
the toxic parts. Some dump sites are set up for the toxic waste but not all.

If you are hooked up to cable or satellite, you are ok with your analog tv set. These
options take care of converting the digital signal for you. If you lose these
services, you will not be able to view TV with the free airwaves you have today.

As technology progresses, everyone is trying to keep up with all of the changes. This
includes the local stations. From High definition to wireless, soon there will be
nothing you can take from the air like we have for many, many years. I am sure that
the next item to go will be the radio.

Are you ready for this?