Clean Air Everywhere!

Hunter Harvath from Monterey Salinas Transit was with us today. In early August MST plans to harvest some mustard seed which should create enough bio diesel to power one of their buses for an entire year. This project is sure to prove successful. It also shows how much of the seed would need to be planted to convert MST entirely to bio diesel. They do, however, plan to power all of their buses with 20% bio diesel which will reduce co2 emissions by 10-20%. Look on the MST website to find out about BIO-Easy, a workshop being held to demonstrate the bio diesel process.

Plug in Buses are a possibility in the future, however MST has six years before the will have to replace their buses. In six years, depending on technology, purchasing or retrofitting their current buses into plug in electric powered buses is a possibility. Wouldn't that be cool! Zero emissions whatsoever! Well we certainly hope that will happen in our near future. Hunter tells us that MST also plan to make their buses more bike friendly, with room to carry more bikes. At the bus stop shop down town Monterey, MST will be providing workshops to help riders become secure with bringing their bikes on board, etc. Please visit the One Stop MST shop down town Monterey. To conserve the energy of stopping and going, MST has also proposed fewer stops with longer distances between stops.
Hunter reminds us to be sure to take the Big Sur line down to Big Sur, now that they are back in business. Thank you Hunter!

Monthly Business Review:

Kevin Scherschligt from Clean Air Lawn Care, based out of Carmel spoke with us today. Clean Air Lawn Care uses 100% electric equipment, powered by wind and solar energy. Traditionally, lawn care businesses use gas lawn mowers, which dump carbon emissions and are completely inefficient and horribly polluting. CALC uses simple electric powered lawn mowers. 10% of total air pollution comes from lawn care. CALC would like to change this. CALC is completely carbon neutral. They have solar panels on their trucks to charge throughout the day, but plug in to the grid at night purchasing offsets to maintain the purity of the company. Traditional mowers cause air and noise pollution, and spill a lot of oil. Clean Air Lawn Care aspire to change that, and they are already well on their way!

They use Newton Mowers which are all cordless electric and cut wonderfully. Even their weed-wackers are less noise polluting, comparable to a hair dryer in noise level. Contact Clean Air Lawn Care or call (831) 541-5510 to get your service started! Scherschligt asks that we join him in his mission to eliminate gas powered lawn mowers.

As always thank you for listening, and have a great weekend!

Olana & Deborah

Pre-Screened Green

Deborah and Spencer reviewed the Plug In Conference today. Their favorite part included the information about converting school buses to be battery powered electric motors.
However, the conference was lacking in conversion kits for cars. Many new vehicles were presented which include new electric technology, yet they are new...and there are enough cars already in existence. Some innovative vehicles can be found at Zap World and at Green Transporter.
Spencer shared an interesting tidbit with us. Did you know that a 1987 Geo Metro can get 75 miles to the gallon if driven correctly. Keep this in mind when car company's try to fool us that the technology doesn't exist to make vehicles more efficient; because clearly it existed even back in the eighty's. There seems to be a suspicion that the evolution of efficiency in vehicles is going backwards, while the evolution of comfort and style continues forthright. What's up with that? To contact Spencer with more details about his electric bike, email him at info@lindsaydigital.com.

During the second half of the show Lydia Corser from the Green Space in Santa Cruz, CA joined us for our monthly business review. The Green Space prides itself on providing the greenest of all products available in any given category. Products include flooring, paint, adhesives, bedding, plaster, and much more. The business's criteria is wide, as Lydia feels it is important to pre-screen items. Is it biodegradable? Made of recycled materials? Is there toxic chemicals in it? Is it locally made?

Also held at The Green Space are plastering workshops, a space for meetings, and guest speakers. Monthly Ecology Action Presents; Cool Ideas, Green Drinks. Friday August 15Th, 5:30-8:00 PM join Lydia at The Green Space for this forum for creative solutions and critical thinking about climate change and sustainability.

Thanks for listening and feel free to comment!

Worm Box Composting

Today we visited with Kimberle Herring, a public education coordinator with Monterey Regional Waste Management. Herring spoke with us about worm-composting with worm boxes. In short, Red Wriggler worms make fertilizer by eating our garbage. The worm boxes are available at the Last Chance Mercantile. Also available are pamphlets explaining the process, and tours of the demonstration garden.

Worms prefer to eat certain things: No meat, dairy or citrus peals. They enjoy a little grit in the box, and melon seems to be their favorite food. These boxes work easily on porches, balcony's, or even under your kitchen sink. They are comfortable in temperatures ranging from 45-85 degrees. To prevent fruit flies, Herring suggests layering the top with 2-3 inches of shredded newspaper. If it's too late, you can leave the lid off of your box for 10 minutes a day and let them fly away. Or, a small dish of apple cider vinegar will attract and end the infestation.

Kimberle Herring will be at the Solar Home Tour on September 27th, giving composting demonstrations. She also suggests Mary Applehof's book, titled Worms Eat My Garbage. To learn more you can look online at the California Waste Management site, and at Worm Farming Secrets. Also, please look at Monterey Waste Management District for great resources, like where you can find your worms, and your Wriggle Ranch worm boxes to get started.

Thank you so much Kimberle for sharing with us today! As always, thanks for listening and feel free to leave comments.

Olana & Deborah

We Can Solve it, Euro Style.

Our guest today was Juliet Johnson, sustainability director for Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. She spoke with us about a Green Energy Tour throughout Europe, in which she just returned from.
Some recommended sights to look in to.

Bedzed which is zero-fossil fuels housing development in Europe.

The Eden Project

Industrial Symbiosis Institute in Denmark.

Lets live up to Al Gore's challenge. We can solve the climate crisis within ten years, omitting fossil fuels and replacing with renewable energy.

Juliet also suggests looking up Samso, Sweden, an island which has accomplished a goal quite similar to Gore's challenge.

Thank You Juliet, and thanks for listening.

Olana & Deborah

Eco Geek Product Review

Tested for today's show was the Sink Positive. This water saving device filters fresh water into a lovely little sink above your toilet tank before running it into the toilet. This system provides two uses for the same water, which is wonderful. It seems ludicrous to be putting completely fresh drinking water into our toilets.

Some highlights of the show today included:

We are pleased to announce that Deborah Lindsay will be running for city council in Pacific Grove, CA.

We will be reviewing more products soon!

Happy Monday!

Olana & Deborah

Eco Parenting

Lydia Neilsen, an Eco Parent, spoke with us about raising children with mother earth in mind. Lydia, Permaculture instructor and founder of Dirt Dragon Design, has a third talent, which is raising a seven year old who will inevitably become part of the solution. Already solution minded, this youngster is asking questions, and seeking answers, about new energy sources, sustainability, and alternative fuel powered vehicles.

Neilsen discussed summer travel with children. Tips included were plentiful:

1. Bring your own healthy snacks on the plane, and stay away from sugar to avoid the stir-crazy sensation.
2. Eat something salty to trigger thirst, so that you both stay hydrated.
3. Bring cloth napkins during your travels, and refuse all those paper items. After all, "refuse" is the fourth "R" in "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."
4. Get jazzed about homeopathic methods for ear infections etc, and remember gum for ear popping on planes.

Neilsen answered a difficult question for us. How do you break the bad news to kids, when it comes to today's issues such as climate change, and our dangerous dependency on fossil fuels? She suggests keeping your discussion honest, and solution based as to avoid leaving the child with a sense of hopeless gloom and doom. It is also very helpful to ask them what they think the issue is all about first off, then take a cue from them about how much to elaborate. This approach encourages children to come up with solutions, which they actually tend to enjoy being part of.

Most important:
Let's teach our children not to want things, which is difficult in our consumer based society. It is difficult to get a kid out of a store without a battle for a pretty plastic item. We must provide the ethic of doing rather than buying when raising our kids. Involving children in a project in which you would normally hire someone else to do, such as building shelves, or gardening, proves to be a great learning experience. It is also more rewarding and entertaining to participate in an activity together than simply pulling out the credit card.

Thank you Lydia for joining us today. You can contact her at LNeilsen@earthlink.net for any Eco Parenting questions or comments. And as always, feel free to leave your comments here. Have a great weekend.

Olana & Deborah

Let's Be Ready for Change

Our guest Matthew Stein, author of When Technology Fails suggests that those who are responsive to change are those who will survive in this ever changing world. It is equally important for us to be ready for minor to major catastrophe's and also that in the time being we live more self-reliant, sustainable lifestyles.

Stein shared a 12 point "Make the shift to Sustainability" checklist with us. This checklist is available and further explored in his book, of course.

1. Change the tax structure.
2. Rebuild the cities.
3. Rebuild the mass transit systems and roadways.
4. Rebuild offices, factories, and homes to be more energy efficient.
5. Limit population growth.
6. Get off fossil fuels.
7. Support renewable development.
8. Share the wealth with third world countries for conserving resources.
9. Reach out to developing countries. Help them learn from our mistakes.
10. Get away from coal burning.
11. Buy local.
12. Make our business and political decisions based on sustainability.

Stein suggests that this new level of thinking can mirror the 100th Monkey phenomenon by reaching its critical mass and exploding, catching on everywhere, and helping the world to re-prioritize. Matthew Stein encourages us to "do your best to change the world, and be ready for the changes in the world."

Thank you Matthew Stein for speaking with us today, and thanks to everyone who listened and contributed.

Olana & Deborah