Turn Over a New Leaf

(Page 3 of 4)

October/November 2002
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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At the Kansas City, Kansas, ReStore, reclaimed paint goes for $3 a gallon. Solid wood doors can be found for $10 at the ReBuilding Center in Portland, Oregon. Most materials are priced at least half of what they'd fetch in do-it-yourself stores.

RELATED CONTENT

Find a warehouse in your neighborhood on the Used Building Materials Association's Web site at bcn.boulder.co.us/environment/ ubma/index.html or Habitat's ReStore Web site at www.habitat.org/env/restoreusa.html.

TREE-FREE PAPER SOURCES

Vision Paper (kenaf)
(505)294-0293
www.visionpaper.com

 Crane & Co. (kenaf)
(800)268-2281
www.crane.com

 Green Field Paper Co. (hemp)
(619) 338-9432 ext. 11
www.greenfieldpaper.com

Neenah Paper (bagasse)
(888) 558-5061
www.neenahpaper.com 

Arbokem Canada (straw)
(604) 322-1317
www.arbokem.com

Conservatree (straw, kenaf, hemp)
(415) 721-4230
www.conservatree.com

Energy Literacy: it's Elementary

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Your children have heard that they should eat their Wheaties to fuel their busy bodies, but do they know how much energy their bus used to deliver them to the school's steps, or even where that energy originated? Funded solely with oil overcharge funds from an Exxon settlement, the Texas State Energy Conservation Office has developed the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program (REDP), one of a handful of organizations promoting renewable energy literacy. REDP offers more than 20 lesson plans, from examining the energy savings of electric cars to calculating the biomass fuel potential of a peanut, for children of all ages. These hands-on exercises, which are grouped into three age levels, are easy to understand, fun and free. You can download the lesson plans at REDP's Web site, www.infinitepower.org, or request them by calling (800) 5315441, extension 31796.

REDP's Web site also offers fact sheets on renewable energy options like solar-electric, geothermal and wind energy, and adults and children can tally their own global pollution scorecard and measure their effects on global warming with the electric power and carbon pollution calculators.

Our energy amnesia is just one of the consequences of our plug-and-play society. When electricity is delivered to us with a flick of a switch, it's easy to forget how it actually got there. Dwindling supplies of nonrenewable fossil fuels (experts estimate worldwide oil and gas reserves lasting only another 50 years) will force the next generation to tap into other options, such as solar, wind and biomass, to feed their energy needs.

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