Flushing the Toilet

So, this might sound really odd but one of the things I am doing to live within my ecological means is following a simple saying that was above the toilet in a friends house when I was growing up...it goes something like this...

"If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."

Now, I don't know how much water I am saving the planet by doing this but, I do know that our toilet uses a lot of water and my philosophy is that every little bit helps...so, make up a song teach it to your partner, kids, friends, whatever...have fun with it and when guests come over...don't worry about the fact that there is yellow water in your toilet...just teach them about ecology and let them know that you are doing your best to save the environment.

I am thinking that if we only flush the toilet every 5 times or so, that we are saving our earth at least a little bit...thanks and heres to thinking creatively about living in peace with our planet.

Salt Lake City's Carbon Footprint

Salt Lake City residents emitted an average of 2.5 metric tons of carbon per year for highway transportation and residential energy use in 2005, according to a recent Brookings Institution report, "Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America". In the study of the per-capita carbon footprint of 100 metropolitan areas in the United States, Salt Lake City was number 50. This compares with 2.24 tons of carbon emitted by the average metro resident from transportation and residential energy. Residents in the largest metro areas emit less carbon than the average American, who emits 2.6 metric tons. In 2005, the lowest per-capita emitting cities of the 100 were Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Portland, while the highest were Indianopolis and Lexington-Fayette, KY.

Salt Lakers' footprint decreased 3.88 percent between 2000 and 2005. Interestingly, although the portion of the footprint due to transportation use went up 9.9 percent, the portion due to residential use went down 18.3 percent.

The Brookings report cited "significant policy leadership" from states and cities producing a "staggering" diversity of activities. Mentioned in the report were the Western Climate Initiative and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, with participation from Utah and Salt Lake City, respectively. The report called for expanded federal action to decrease the energy intensity and carbon intensity of the U.S. economy and cited numerous federal policy failures.

Drive at 50 instead of 70 mph

(Posted on behalf of Andy Schoenberg)

I submitted this letter to the editor this week:

We could do something immediately to reduce our gas consumption, improve air quality, reduce global warming, save money and lives. Let's drive at at 50 instead of 70 mph on our freeways. Department of Transportation studies show that such a speed reduction would increase average gas mileage by 20%. The reason is that the power needed to overcome air resistance increases as the cube of speed. If you cube the ratio of 70/50 you get 2.74 or a 274 % increase in power requirement. At $3.50 per gallon a 20% improvement of gas mileage will save you 70 cents per gallon. This is much better than the proposed savings by eliminating the federal tax on gas of 18 cents.

The proposed speed reduction will reduce stopping distance by half as well as the energy absorbed by your car and your body in a crash. This is due to the fact that kinetic energy is proportional to speed squared. A reduction in the 40,000 killed, 3 million injured, and more than $200 billion in car insurance per year would likely be another advantage. Contact your representative to propose such a change.

-Andy Schoenberg

Utah Vital Signs

For more information about UPEC's sustainability research project, Utah Vital Signs, see this site: http://www.utahpop.org/vitalsigns.