The tl;dr version of this story is yes! The long version, though, is fascinating.
Fourteen-year-old Suvir Mirchandani's science project could save the U.S. federal government around $400 million in printing costs annually. The best part? Those savings represent using fewer resources. They wouldn't have to print less or cut back in any way. All they'd have to do is begin using Garamond - a font that's included for free on basically any computer.
The font is nothing fancy. What Garamond has going for it are its thinner lines, which means using less ink to create each letter. When you consider that the fed prints around 2500 documents per day, that's millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of ounces of precious printer ink.
Garamond: How switching fonts could save millions
Mirchandani's science project began at the school level. He did the math and discovered that his school could save $21,000 per year by using 24 percent less printer ink. Just by changing the fonts that teachers and administrators use in their handouts. His project was so impressive that it made it into Harvard's Journal of Emerging Inventors.
This might seem like a silly question, right? After all, we are talking about a bottle of water. Isn't the answer right there in the question?
The thing about producing bottled water is that not only are there wasteful (and toxic!) plastic and unhealthy carbon emissions to consider, but bottled water production actually uses a lot of water.
Bottled Water by the Numbers
NPR's The Salt dove into the bottled water issue recently, sharing some numbers from the International Bottled Water Association (IBA), who claims it takes 1.34 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water. So according to them it takes about 30 percent more water than just turning on the tap.
Thirty percent more might not sound that bad, but remember: the IBA is a lobby group for the bottled water industry. Trusting their numbers is like trusting Monsanto when they tell you that GMOs are safe or trusting McDonald's when they say they are helping their workers. What the IBA's number leaves out is all of the water used in the supply chain. Here are some examples of the bottled water supply chain:
"Packaging makes a significant footprint," he says, adding that three liters of water might be used to make a half-liter bottle. In other words, the amount of water going into making the bottle could be up to six or seven times what's inside the bottle.
Drilling for oil to make plastic, Ercin says, uses a substantial amount of groundwater. And you need water to make the paper, too, he adds. (emphasis mine)
Ercin does concede that producing bottled water is a bit less water-intensive than producing soda, because soda uses all of those resources plus the resources needed to make dyes, produce sugars and add carbonation.
So what's the best choice when it comes to staying hydrated? Good old tap water. If you're worried about the tap water quality on the road, there are water bottles out there that include a built-in filter! A little digging turned up this stainless steel filtered water bottle from Ecoflo, for example.
What do you think about the water footprint of bottled water? Does the IBA's 30 percent sound accurate, or does the WFN's six to seven times seem more correct?
Image Credit: Remixed Creative Commons photo by ToddMorris
Last Wednesday - August 21st - was Earth Overshoot Day. What does that mean for the planet and the people who live here?
Earth Overshoot Day marks the day that we - as inhabitants of this planet - have used one year's worth of planetary resources. That's right. We went through a year's worth of the Earth's bounty by mid-August. That is not good, you guys. Not good at all.
While it’s only a rough estimate of how fast humanity is drawing down our ecological bank accounts, Earth Overshoot day has arrived sooner than ever before. This stark reminder of the growing pressure humans are putting on our natural resources means we’re borrowing against future generations to cover today’s bills. (emphasis mine)
As a new mom, that last bit really strikes home for me. It means that beginning on August 22nd our cars, our electricity usage, and our water all represent resources that our children might not get to enjoy unless we start making some big changes. Right. Now.
Earth Overshoot Day falls earlier and earlier each year. In 1993, it was on October 21. In 2003? September 22. Ten years from now, will we even make it half the year before gobbling up all that the planet can offer us? Or will we start taking conservation and efficiency seriously? Wouldn't it be great to buck this very scary trend?
Earth Overshoot Day: What You Can Do
We have a lot of power as consumers and as citizens to make a difference. Here are some ways that you can get heard:
Spread the word! A lot of folks have never heard of Earth Overshoot Day. Talk about it!
Get efficient. Choose home improvement projects that help improve your home's efficiency. For example, you can replace old windows or cover them with insulating film. Replacing windows is expensive, but you don't have to do them all at once. Go one room at a time, starting with the draftiest. Speaking of drafts! A simple draft dodger under your doors and windows can help reduce your energy usage!
Grow your own food (or shop local!). The agricultural industry is one of the most resource-intensive in the world. Between inputs like fertilizers and pesticides to the footprint from shipping food worldwide, our food industry is a beast. Even growing some of your own food can make a big difference. When you can't grow your own, shop farmers markets or join a local CSA to keep your foodprint as low as possible. Local Harvest is a great site to help you find local food no matter where you live.
Had you heard of Earth Overshoot Day before? This was a totally new concept to me, and it really shook me up. Tell me what you're doing to use fewer resources!
Can you believe this day of earth-friendly behavior and learning has been around for 43 years? It's hard to imagine there was a time, not so long ago, when people knew almost nothing about chemical pesticides and industrial plants were free to dump their waste directly into lakes and rivers.
Thanks to the hard work of Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, and millions who share his passion for a healthier planet, we've come a long way since then. Although we might not always like how well they're enforced, laws like the Clean Air and Water Acts ensure that we have at least some recourse against those who would treat our only planet like a landfill.
Sometimes, fighting to protect the natural world can feel like a losing battle. For those who believe we are meant to be stewards of this marvelous blue marble, it's important to remember how far we've come, how much has been achieved. Browse the infographic below for interesting facts and figures from the first Earth Day until now.
And then do your best to get outside today...enjoy the beauty of this amazing place we call home! Feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face. Breathe some fresh air. It'll help remind you why we're fighting so hard to save it.
The coal lobby has thrown billions of dollars at convincing consumers that "clean coal" is the future of American energy. It's abundant, it's cheap, and thanks to carbon capture technology, burning coal isn't as bad for the planet as it used to be! That's the claim, and it's partly true. Unfortunately, there is really no such thing as "clean coal."
Coal is abundant and cheap, if you're only measuring that cost in the money coal companies have to spend to get it out of the ground. The problem is that we've mined most of the coal that's really easy to get, so now companies have to take extreme measures to get the coal that powers most of the homes in the U.S.
It started with strip mining. When coal mines began to become more scarce, coal companies turned to this new technique which uses heavy machinery to scrape away layers of the Earth to get at more tucked-away coal stores. All of that stripping polluted surrounding air and waterways.
Our thirst for energy now has us using even more extreme measures to acquire coal. Instead of stripping the land, the common practice is now mountaintop removal mining (MTR). MTR uses explosives to literally blow the tops off of mountains. It scars the landscape and is far more polluting than strip mining, which was already pretty bad.
In fact, according to advocacy group I Love Mountains:
In Appalachia, children are 42% more likely to have birth defects — if they live near a mountaintop removal coal mine. Individuals are 50% percent more likely to die from cancer.
Check out this video from Appalachian Voices about how MTR is affecting public health.
This has nothing to do with burning coal. No amount of carbon capture is going to change that MTR is a major public health and environmental threat.
Mountaintop Removal Mining: Get Heard
If you are as sickened by that video and MTR in general as I am, I hope you'll take a moment to sign the I Love Mountains Petition asking President Obama to stand up for Appalachian children and ban this practice.
As individuals, we can work to rely less on coal-fired power by using less electricity. If you have electric heat, take steps to winterize your home. You can also do simple things like turn off the lights when you leave a room and unplug electronics you're not using to eliminate vampire power use in your home.
If you have the money, switching out electric appliances for alternatively-powered ones can also make a big difference. Consider a solar hot water heater, for example, instead of an electric one, or install solar panels. Even if they only replace some of the coal-fired electricity in your home with renewable power, you're still contributing that much less to our coal problem, right?
I'd love to hear from you guys! What are you doing to reduce your dependence on coal-fired power?
After twelve years of promoting eco-conscious living and valiant efforts at keeping their carbon footprint low, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has once again raised the green bar.
This week, Bonnaroo and it's partners announced the installation of its first permanent solar array. Although the use of PV panels and solar-powered stages is not new to the festival circuit, Bonnaroo is once again pioneering the way for eco-minded music festivals. Generating more than 61,000 kWh per year, this system will mark the first of it’s kind for any US musical festival.
