Monthly Archives: April 2011

How Does Being Eco Friendly Effect Your Relationship?

One of the most difficult parts about trying to raise a family in an eco friendly way is when you don’t have agreement in your household about what you should and should not be doing. Very often one person will feel much more strongly than the other about environmental topics, and this can lead to disagreements. Is being eco friendly being hard on your family?

Kids

Kids are interesting creatures, as any parent will tell you. They can be so amazingly eco friendly one day, utterly indifferent the next. They’ll be passionate about things you may never have considered.

It’s vital that you give your kids the habit of being green. This is easiest when they’re young, so it’s just a fact of life for them.

If they’re resisting, talk to them about it. Resistance can be a sign of not understanding the problem, an issue with peer pressure or simple disinterest. See what you can do about it.

Fortunately, more and more kids are aware of environmental issues these days, so you can find good examples for them if you look around.

Husband

If there’s anyone more difficult for a mom to change than her kids, it’s often her husband. Most mean well, they try, but if it’s not a subject he’s interested in you’re going to have quite a battle.

With my own husband, it’s his willingness to go the easy way rather than considering sustainability at times that can drive me up the wall. I finally have him understanding why plastic bags don’t go in the regular recycling. Not because I told him, but because he talked to a professional who explained that plastic bags tend to generate static electricity, stick to everything else whether or not it’s the right sort of plastic, and generally cause trouble. They need to go through the recycling at the grocery store.

On the plus side, he gets the recycling mostly right, loves to garden, and composts when possible, which sadly isn’t much where we are now. He also likes his Klean Kanteen water bottle I got for him to use at work.

The key is proper communication with each other. It doesn’t do a lot of good for your relationship to yell at each other over your differences. It’s better if you can talk about them.

Make sure your communication includes why you’re making the changes you are and why you support the causes you do. Education is a big part of being environmentally friendly. Otherwise it all feels like extra hassle to a lot of people. If you show your husband and kids as appropriate why you don’t use certain things or certain brands, they may be more cooperative in the matter.

Your own attitude can be a problem as well. If you have too much of an attitude that you know best, you’re going to put people off. You need to accept that sometimes you will have different priorities and even develop different opinions despite looking at the same information. That’s fine. What you should be hoping for is that you will both make an effort to understand the other’s perspective.

Remember, marriage doesn’t make you one. You are still two different people hoping to spend your lives together. You’re going to have differences. Don’t let the differences obscure what’s good.

The Parts You Can Enjoy Together

The great part about raising your family in an eco friendly way is that there are so many things you can enjoy together. Hiking, camping, fresh foods. Even learning to live with less than others can be a pleasure with the right attitude. It’s not things that make us happy, as a rule. It’s having people you care about with you.

How Viable Is Solar Power?

Since I’m posting on nuclear power, I think it makes sense to post about the alternatives. The big reason there’s such a push for nuclear power is that too many people think the less polluting alternatives aren’t viable. I think they are, although I recognize that it’s going to take a long time before they’re in sufficiently common use.

Solar power in particular has improved in recent years. Panels with a lower cost per watt have been developed, as low as $1 per watt, although they’re not yet in common use. There are even solar roof shingles, so you don’t have to have to put up separate panels.

It’s not all about putting solar panels on houses, for example. Back in the 1980s there was some interesting work on a solar power tower that could generate electricity even at night and on cloudy days.

More big box businesses have realized that solar power is affordable enough for them to put panels up on their roofs – a great use for the space, I think. Solar power has come a long way to be seen as a reasonable investment for businesses to make for powering their stores.

Can Solar Power Take You Off the Grid?

Many people see solar power as a way to get off the grid. It’s a lovely goal, but not absolutely necessary. You may prefer to remain connected so that when you aren’t generating enough power on your panels, you still get electricity from the grid.

You can, of course, have your panels charge batteries so that you don’t need to be connected to the grid. It’s an added expense to the system, but not impossible, and is a great choice if you’re not close enough to be easily connected to the grid anyhow.

But Doesn’t Solar Power Need Subsidies to Be Economically Viable?

Many people say that solar power isn’t viable because it takes subsidies from the government to make it worth anyone’s while. That’s close enough to true, but it’s not the whole picture. Nuclear power gets subsidies. Oil companies get subsidies. Why is it so unreasonable for solar and other renewable energy sources to get subsidies as well?

Consider also that in California there are companies right now willing to install solar power systems on homes for free, and then charge the homeowners for the the electricity generated. The idea is that the homeowner will get a steady rate even if electricity prices go up (or down, that’s the gamble, unlikely as down may seem). These companies aren’t doing that out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect to make a profit while doing something good for the environment.

What About the Environmental Impact of Solar Panel Materials?

There is absolutely an environmental impact to the manufacture and disposal of solar panels. Just as with any other material, we have to mine for many of the supplies. We mine for coal, pump oil from underground, and mine for uranium too.

The wonderful part about solar panels is that significant parts of the panels can be recycled. They won’t just end up in the landfill, or have to be stored safely away for generations. They can be taken apart and made into new things.

How Long Until Solar Power Is More Common?

There’s the big question. What’s it going to take for solar power to become more commonly used, so that more people can see that it is viable?

I can’t say exactly, but I believe the time is coming. Cleco Company in Louisiana is testing solar panels there now, as well as other renewable energy technologies. The U.S. Government has a Solar Energy Technologies Program which focuses on developing solar technologies. The viability of solar power is being reviewed in Pennsylvania (PDF) as well.

Overall, progress is being made, and solar power is becoming steadily more practical. If you have the budget and a place to install solar panels, it’s worth researching to see what benefit you can get in your area.

Are The Benefits of Nuclear Power Worth the Risks?

Events in Japan have focused many people’s attentions on the risks of nuclear power. While the nuclear accident there hasn’t had the direct human cost of the earthquake and tsunami that started the entire mess, it’s still of great concern for its potential. It’s natural to fear what you can’t see, and many people don’t find enough reassurance in being told that they are not at risk from the radiation that has been released.

The interesting part to me is that so far coal power is far more dangerous to human lives and long term health than nuclear power, at least according to some calculations. Coal powered plants release more radioactivity than a well maintained nuclear power plant. They release more pollutants. Coal mining is a risky business. Yet many people are more comfortable with coal power plants than nuclear power plants.

The trouble is that it’s really difficult to calculate the exact impact on human health (or to the surrounding environment) when it comes to nuclear accidents. Most of the damage won’t be seen for years, and you can’t really tell which damage is caused by it in the long run. This is why estimates vary so widely.

A big part of the problem in my view is also that of long term storage of nuclear waste. Most current nuclear waste will have to be carefully stored for thousands of years. Even if we go to thorium reactors, the waste is hazardous for about 500 years. I’m not so fond of betting on anyone keeping track of any sort of waste that long, never mind keeping it secure. I wonder how the cost of nuclear power really balances out when you consider the long term storage issues.

So Why Support Nuclear Power?

With all that said, I’m not completely against nuclear power, and it’s for one simple reason. Plants are going to be built, I have no doubt about that. I’d rather push for safer plants if they’re going to be built, and keep pushing for other energy sources that don’t have such long term issues.

Truth be told, I’d far rather see us find ways to rely primarily on wind, solar and geothermal energy than on coal or nuclear. But with the opposition that exists to these, plus all the naysayers, it’s going to be a battle to get there. The way things are, there’s going to be a step between relying on coal and going to more renewable energy sources, and I strongly suspect that will be nuclear power. I’d like us to use the safest possible version of such power in that case.

Is nuclear power worth the risk? I certainly hope so, because I have no doubt that the risk will continue to be taken. Let’s hope safety continues to improve.