1. Christmas wrapping paper – just be careful when you unwrap presents on Christmas day, a little bit of care and you can reuse the same paper the next year. As well as help save paper this is a great way to save money too!

2.    Turkeys - Buy your Turkey from a local butcher that you know produces their own meat. This should be preferable over the big supermarkets that mass produce millions of turkeys each year. Buying locally will reinvest money into your local economy and more often than not the turkey will be organic or have been fed on natural feed –plus I guarantee it will taste better.

3.    Christmas Trees – Instead of taking your dead Christmas tree to the local dump you can reuse it for your household use. Depending on the size of the tree you can break the arms into chippings and use on your flower beds, using the main trunk as firelighters or small logs.

4.    Christmas lights – Instead of using the traditional Christmas fairy lights why not consider solar fairy lights? They run entirely on solar power and can be used outside as well, although they may not be as bright as normal Christmas lights they run in a close second!

5.    Cooking – When cooking your Christmas roast be sure to keep your lid on your saucepans, this will help the vegetables cook quicker and it will also help save you energy and money!

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The implications on humanity are severe and not limited to long-term effects. The Beijing 2008 Olympics in China have, if anything, brought to light how the issues of pollution are startlingly real and often manifest to uncontrollable proportions before authorities are can gather the necessary resources or political will. Consider also the instances of London, Los Angeles, or California – all of which are well known cities that in recent years have received strong media criticism over poor pollution records. Inevitably, we are increasingly living in a world where smog and haze are becoming the most prevalent aspects of society.

Even then, aesthetical issues may actually be the least of our worries. Perhaps one of the more alarming problems, or at least to individuals, would be health-related complications. Traffic emissions, for example, are now known to dramatically increase the potential risk of a fatal blood clot known as DVT, or deep vein thrombosis. Asthma, respiratory complications, and even heart or lung disease are also some of the more commonly known health effects of long-term air pollution that are associated with exhaust emissions.

These numerous issues, however, are comparatively inconsequential when contrasted against the controversy surrounding climate change. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth sparked worldwide debate when he pointed out, among other things, how carbon dioxide emissions may eventually lead to widespread flooding, droughts and even steady increases in global temperature should current trends persist.

The problems of pollution, exacerbated by exhaust emissions, hence seem to promise a depressing and bleak future ahead and cause little wonder to why some even go as far as to condemn the motor vehicle to be mankind’s worst invention. Environmental degradation has since ceased to be a domestic affair, but has instead part of an exclusive group of global challenges that Kofi Annan famously coined as problems without passports.

Thankfully, the notion of pollution being uncontrollable is merely a myth, though it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy if too widely accepted. Hydrogen-powered cars, where water undergoes electrolysis to produce a mix of hydrogen and oxygen, are merely some of the more relevant examples of alternative technologies becoming increasingly developed today. “Going-green” is quickly ceasing to be an idealistic concept but a pragmatic one with rising fuel costs and the realization that oil wells will eventually run dry. The odds are surely stacked against us, but if history is any indicator, mankind’s ingenuity may eventually triumph yet again.

The consequences of exhaust emissions are real, damaging, and drastic. And supposing we truly recognize that, now might just be our last chance to make that clarion call for change.

Living Green isn’t as difficult and expensive as many people think. Here are a few simple things your family can do to ‘Go Green,’ and preserve our environment and natural resources in the process.

Recycle - Children can easily learn to throw their plastic, bottles, and paper into designated bins. Make a game out of it – take them to a thrift store and find some funky containers to serve as your recycle bins. Place the bins in accessible places so children are more likely to use them. Talk with them about the threat to our natural resources if we continue adding waste and using resources, even if you think they’re too young to “get it.” Eventually, they will get it! Make sure you check your local municipality to find out exactly which products can be recycled. If your area doesn’t recycle particular things you use, consider finding a friend who would be willing to take your recyclable containers and put them out with their recycling, or find a local school or church that has a recycling program. Some large health food chains have collection bins for products that local municipalities typically do not recycle.

Keep your eyes and ears open for local recycling programs to recycle things like paint, batteries, computers, other electronics, etc. You can typically find these programs listed on your local news station sites, and at local “big box” electronic store sites.

Consider offering your used (working) appliances to women’s shelters and churches that will donate the appliances to needy people. Sometimes these programs will take appliances that aren’t working, fix them, and then donate them.

Don’t throw away old clothing. Go to your local elementary school or a local church or synagogue, and inquire about families in need. Or take your used clothing to a local thrift store.

Consider using recycled products for your own personal use – during minor and major home renovations; buy used clothing; buy products made from recycled materials; buy used electronics.

Turn off the Water - When brushing teeth, only use water to wet and rinse the brush and paste out of your mouth. When shaving, fill a cup with a small amount of water to rinse out the razor. Only turn the water on to rinse the soap/cream off after you’re finished. Turn the shower water off when soaping up. Run the shower water initially to get wet, and then to rinse off. Your family can save thousands of gallons of water this way!

Consider replacing an old hot water heater with a ‘hot water on demand’ type hot water heater. While these hot water heaters are definitely more expensive initially, in the long run they are much better for the environment (you won’t use all that water trying to heat the water up to a comfortable temperature!), and they will cost you less money in heating bills.  And don’t forget to turn the temperature all the way down when you go on vacation (and ideally, whenever you are not using hot water).

Turn out the Lights - When you leave a room, turn out the lights (don’t forget the TV!). Replace as many light bulbs as you can with low energy bulbs. These bulbs use up to 90% less electricity than standard bulbs (how’s that for saving money?) and typically last about 10 times longer.

Unplug - Did you know that even when household appliances, electronics and lights are not in use, they are still using energy? Did you ever notice how battery chargers, cell phone chargers, iPod chargers, etc., are warm if they are plugged in but not charging anything? That is because they are using energy in passive mode (that is, even when they are not in active operation). Your microwave has to use energy to keep the clock ticking. So does your oven and your coffee maker. Same with your alarm clock. One plasma tv can cost as much as $160 per year when not in use! You can help save up to 75% of power consumption simply by unplugging unused lights, electronics and appliances (okay, leave the fridge plugged in). Another alternative is to put lights and electronics that are in close proximity onto a power strip. Then get in the habit of only turning the power strip on when you need to use something on it.

Use cloth instead of paper. Paper products clog our landfills. Whenever possible, use washable plates and napkins (and make sure you use eco-friendly products and minimal water to clean them!). Put the paper towel rolls away so children aren’t tempted to use them. Keep a dishtowel in plain sight. Only buy single-ply toilet paper and instruct your children on using as little toilet paper as possible when using the bathroom. If you have a child in diapers, consider using cloth diapers.

Use natural cleaning products. Most households already have everything they need (like baking soda, vinegar, and soap) to clean naturally. These products are cheap and environmentally friendly ways to clean your house. And they work! If you need to buy cleaning products, make sure you read the labels carefully to ensure you are actually getting chemical-free products. And don’t forget to check the recyclability of the container!

There are many more ways your family can go green – like eating one meatless meal a week, composting raw food waste, bike/walk instead of drive, carpool, buy used (including appliances and electronics). You will find that once you change your habits, being green really isn’t very difficult!

And remember, you don’t have to do it all. Every little bit helps.

In past decades, America’s food came from large family farms, which could be pollinated naturally by wild bees. However, today much of America’s food comes from large corporate farms which are typically too large to be pollinated naturally. Instead, honeybee colonies are shipped by truck to the corporate farms around the time the crops are expected to be blossoming. With fewer and fewer bees available to pollinate America’s crops, this presents a pending catastrophe for America. Even home gardens more and more are failing to produce fruits and vegetables.

This is not just an American issue, either. Other countries such as Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland Greece, the UK, Croatia, China, and counties in South and Central America are now being affected. Some in the UK believe honeybees could be extinct in that location around 2018. The crisis is widespread and could cause major global issues in the near future, with increased food and clothing prices and shortages increase.

While theories about why this is occurring have run the gamut since the hives first started disappearing in 2004, the majority of scientists have pinpointed the main cause of the decline to a virus which leads to colony collapse disorder. With colony collapse disorder, honeybees leave the hive and simply fail to return. The size of the colony decreases rapidly, and this effect is widespread. While a virus is believed to be the main factor, there may be other contributing factors as well, such as pesticides, global warming, stress and poor nutrition.

In addition to affecting the US food supply, it also affects the U.S. economy to the tune of close to $15 billion dollars per year. In fact, 87 of the top 115 cash crops are those that are pollinated by honeybees. Scientists have spoken before Congress on this issue, but funding for additional research into the matter has not yet been approved. Major corporations are also getting involved such as Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen-Daz, and Burt’s Bees. In the meantime, this leaves beekeepers and scientists scrambling to find a solution to this problem.

While a cure to the illness is unlikely to be found in the near future, genetic diversity and providing safe environments for honeybees may help ease the problem. In the meantime, some farms are taking matters into their hands. Several farms in China have hired humans to systematically go through their fields acting as human honeybees and pollinating the crops by hand with a feather.

Sick honeybees will affect the general consumer with limited produce or alarmingly higher priced produce at the supermarket, as well as higher costs in meat and clothing. Food shortages may be just a few years away. For home gardens to be productive, the additional step of hand pollination may be required for even those small gardens to thrive. If colonies continue to decline in size, larger corporate farms may be forced to hire workers to hand pollinate as well. While the effects of the declining honeybee population seem drastic and the pending possibility of human honeybee’s hand-pollinating crops would cause crop prices to skyrocket, this is a reality the country could be faced with if this problem is left unchecked.

The Solar Monkey is a modern day rechargeable battery powered by solar, pretty neat huh? The Solar Power Monkey can connect directly to your mobile phone, PDA, ipod or even a PSP!

This can be a great backup to those going camping or holiday abroad. The exact compatability
for the solar power monkey is:

Nokia & Mini Nokia
Motorola V66
Samsung E900
LG Chocolate
Sony Ericsson Wide connector
Mini USB
Femal USB charging tip
iPod connector
DC4.0 for Sony PSP

Well I came across this site a while ago Green Fingers
and I purchased some of their solar powered lights. It was nice to see they offered a variety of solar powered lights for different purposes, i.e.

1. Decorative
2. Practical
3. Other (funky designs)

I bought 3 different lights and they are very bright! I was entirely surprised and I shall be buying more in the future to sproose up my Garden at very little cost!

1.    Nigel’s Eco Store

Nigel’s Eco Store is really a first class website to buy a vast selection of green products online. The website has a “homely” feel to it and the products are nicely classified, they also offer Paypal as a method of payment which is a must for online shopping these days.

It also seems Nigel has picked up some awards along the way which helps buyers associate trust with the website, some of these include; Yahoo! Finds of the year 2007, Real Homes eco award 2007 and SCIP web awards 2006 – although I think it will be a bigger battle for 2008!

2. Green Rewards

Green Rewards opened up shop around 4 months ago and I have to say I’m impressed. The website looks modern with the ability to start “saving energy” immediately on the website by clicking a button that turns the background from white to black. The theory behind this is that a computer will take up less energy this way – although this is a bit of a gimmick it’s a nice touch.

Green Rewards were also one of the first green online reseller that offer rewards for buying eco friendly. If you purchase green items you get points which can be exchanged for free green gifts. You can also shop at normal high street shops like John Lewis and iTunes and receive points – seems like a great deal to me. Altogether these guys have got it right and are providing the necessary steps to help consumers shop green.

3. Ethical SuperStore

Ethical Super Store has by far the best website design, easy to use navigation, fast loading, clear product descriptions and also the ability to search by brand. The only puzzle for me is that they have chosen blue for their branding colours which doesn’t shout “green” to me. Putting that slight quarrel aside it’s a fantastic sight and a must for dedicated eco friendly shoppers.

4.  Smartly Green

Smartly Green is another fairly new player in eco friendly shopping world but don’t let that fool you into thinking these guys don’t know what they are doing. They have an extremely extensive catalogue of green products and other useful items. Although the homepage looks more like a resource site when you click on categories a whole other world of information opens up.

5. The Green Shop

The Green Shop has one of the easiest names to remember and is part of a much larger network called the Green Shop Group. The green shopping part of the site is again very extensive like the other top green shops. It is very content rich but don’t let that put you off, they have some competitive prices which help when shopping green!

Recycling, eco friendly living, global warming are the words that are commonly used in our daily lives. These issues are becoming more important to us as we are learning more about our planet day by day. By making few changes in our lifestyle we can protect the environment. You can achieve a better lifestyle through healthy natural living, all things organic, green and eco friendly.

There are green shops that provide goods that are eco friendly. The products such as man made papers, eco wheels, eco fans, eco shoes, eco furniture, eco friendly paints, solar products, handicraft products, etc are the eco friendly products. By making use of all these eco friendly products we can protect our environment and live a healthy life.

One should always go for green shopping and made use of eco friendly products in our daily life. Everyone should adopt eco friendly lifestyle so that we live a healthy life. Eco friendly green lifestyle helps in changing the world. Everyone should be eco smart and make use of eco products. We should make use of energy saving bulbs, we should not leave our appliances such as tv, computer on stand by, drink tap water instead of bottled water, use environment friendly cleaners, use paper bags than plastic bags, etc. Use of organic vegetables and fruit, bamboo instead of wood are some changes that can bring change in our daily life. By practicing all this we can have eco friendly lifestyle. Eco friendly products are available everywhere, from groceries to latest fashion boutiques.

There are products that come in label that specifies that its eco friendly. We must change our lifestyle and be aware of what we use and what products we throw away. Awareness of ways of recycle is very important. Therefore, everyone should adopt an eco friendly lifestyle and live a healthy life.

By making use of all these eco friendly products we can protect our environment and live a healthy life. Green stores help us by protecting the planet and adding to a healthy life. They give knowledge and awareness to the people about the recycling of their everyday products. Green stores have wide variety of products from furniture to the latest fashion products that are eco friendly. The goods available at these stores have eco friendly marks on them, so the customers feel satisfied. This is also true for conflict diamonds; you can now request that the stones you buy in jewelry are “conflict free”

Green stores are found all over the world and the number of green shops is increasing as people are becoming aware of their environment. Everyone should prefer to buy products that are eco friendly rather than anything else. Green shop emphasis on the usage of paper bags than plastic bags. They sell goods that can be recycled, use less energy, low price.

There are green shops that sell beauty products that are eco friendly, actually made from herbal or organic material. Everyone should use green shops to have a healthy life. Therefore green shops are the stores that provide large variety of products that are eco friendly, made of organic material so that people may have a healthy life.