Pastor
Pam Fickenscher, Pastor
Carol Mork,
Pastor Warren Salveson, Pastor
Erik Strand
Office
Manager Eileen
Supple
| Caring for Creation |
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Welcome to our page... ECLC Caring for Creation Committee If you have ideas for our page or questions about our committee, please email Adele. Congregations Caring for Creation website: www.c3mn.net In Ireland Plastic Bags Go the Way of the Snakes •
In 2002 Ireland passed a tax of $.33
per plastic bag
•
The government collects the tax which
finances environment enforcement programs
•
Within weeks plastic bag use dropped
94%
•
Carrying plastic bags became socially
unacceptable
•
This January 42 million plastic bags
were used world wide (according to www.reusablebags.com)
•
Plastic bags account for 2% of land
fill use. They never go away.
For more information see the
article by Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Motivated by a tax, Irish spurn
plastic bags,” from New York Times, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008
SAVE A TREE Tired of all the unwanted catalogs in your mail? There is something you can do about it.
Each catalog has a web site where you can go to unsubscribe to the catalog. These days before Christmas this can be a lot of web sites. There is a better way. As Pastor Pam noted in her blog in November, there is a web site where you can go to cancel all unwanted catalogs. As of December 13, 2007, 296,981 persons have opted out of 3,670,845 catalogs. That is a lot of trees. Gather up the catalogs you'd like to STOP and go to http://www.catalogchoice.org/. Help save your mail carrier's back and save a tree. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take a quiz Quiz 1: Paper or plastic bags - which should we use? Quiz 2: Best to idle your car engine or turn it off? Quiz 3: Is it more environmentally efficient to use cloth diapers or disposables? Quiz 4: Which uses the least water and energy: dishwashers or hand washing? |
| Minnesota Energy Challenge The goal of the Minnesota Energy Challenge is to empower Minnesotans to take simple steps to reduce their energy use and Minnesota's CO2 emissions. The Caring for Creation Committee urges everyone at ECLC to go to the website and take the challenge. (If you don't have internet access at home, you can go to the library and use their computers.) The website can be found at www.mnenergychallenge.org . If you invest in 5 compact fluorescent bulbs you can also check off the first item in the “Minnesota Energy Challenge”. For information on that, go to www.mnenergy.com/homelighting . As of February 19, 2007, six ECLC member units had logged in and taken the Challenge. If we're feeling competitive, we've got a ways to go. But even without feeling competitive, “it's the way to go”! |
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Compact fluorescent light bulbs: buying, recycling Xcel Energy sells compact fluorescent light bulbs, as do other sources. By buying and installing compact fluorescent light bulbs you can save energy and save money -- in the long run. You may be able to find bulbs at a lower price by shopping around, because there will be a shipping charge from Xcel. However, as an initial purchase, and as an assurance that you are buying certified “ENERGY STAR” bulbs, buying from Xcel may be the easiest way to get started. Xcel Energy also will help you pay the cost of recycling used fluorescent bulbs at your your county recycling center or participating area retailer. Download 50-cent-off coupons from Xcel's website and find links for participating retailers and county recycling sites. |
FACT OR FICTION?? Want to venture a guess? Well let's take a look at some facts. Quiz 1: Paper or plastic bags - which should we use? Quiz 2: Best to idle your car engine or turn it off? Quiz 3: Is it more environmentally efficient to use cloth diapers or disposables? Quiz 4: Which uses the least water and energy: dishwashers or hand washing? a. Made from non-renewable polyethylene
plastic (a crude-oil by-product)
b. Consumes 40% less energy than
making paper bags
c. Uses up less landfill space
d. Could still be around in 1,000
years. (That's like forever)
- Think
what our great, great, great, great grandchildren will think and
the price they
may
have to pay for those "ancient" bags of ours
2. PAPER BAGS
a. Use up more landfill space -
but decompose in the landfills
b. Are more likely to be picked
up at curbside recycling
- 20% are
recycled
- only 1% of
plastic are
So, friends, here is the inevitable question. Which is
better?......Actually, NEITHER!
So, what do we do? The experts have an easy solution.
Bring along reusable cloth bags for shopping. Actually, there
are stores who give discounts when you bring in your own bags.
Question is, are we willing to do that?
Quiz 2: Best to idle your car engine or turn it off? l. "Warm" up your car? a. Modern cars do not need to
be "warmed" up, except when the temp is below 10 F
b. Then only for a minute
2. Idle your engine or turn it off?
a. Idling your engine for more
than half a minute uses more gas than restarting it.
b. Long idling is actually bad
for your engine
- It results
in excess internal carbon build-up
How did you do? Perhaps we need to shift our thinking and habits. Not always easy, as we are, often, stubborn and selfish creatures of habit - especially when it comes to fact or fiction decisions. (From SOLUTIONS, Vol. 37, #4, by Green Living. Submitted
by Vicki for Caring for Creation Committee) |
Quiz 3: Is it more environmentally efficient to use cloth diapers or disposables? (You may be saying it has to be disposables...maybe you don't want anything to do with the work of cloth ones.) 1. Cloth diapers are reusable and the "experts" say each can be used, at least, 150 times.
2. Disposables:
So which is best? Ready for this? Believe it or not, the experts leave it up to each of us and they suggest:
- Use whatever works for you
- Use disposables where water is scarce
-
Use cloth where landfill is scarce
The U.S. Dept. of Energy may throw you for a loop on this one. If you always wash full loads, dishwashers use 1/2 of the energy and 1/6 of the water of hand washing done several times a day and is much less expensive. (The above answers were taken from the 9/06 issue of SOLUTIONS
put out by "Green Living")
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