By Kenneth Barbalace

When we think of China and the environment, we often think of choking haze, belching smokestacks and mountains of coal. Yes, China's environmental record leaves a great deal to desired. Last year EnvironmentalChemistry.com even reported about China's lack of environmental controls resulting in toxins making it into European and American food supplies via Norwegian farm raised salmon. Even the pet food recalls in the U.S. and Canada were the result of contaminated wheat and rice glutens from China.

There is, however, another side to China's environmental picture. China is trying to clean up their act and their environment. For a developing country with a population of 1.3 billion people, China has set some very ambitious goals. The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that China has adopted goals of reducing their CO₂ emissions to GDP ratio by 20% by 2010 and 80% by 2050. This is a far more aggressive reduction in CO₂ emissions as a ratio to GDP than has been adopted by President Bush, which is only 18% by 2010 and 20% by 2020.

Part of the way China plans to reduce CO₂ emissions is to shut down 50 gigawatts of their least efficient coal fired power plants and to increase their production of energy from renewable resources to 16% of their total energy needs by 2020.

Now, some might argue that it is so much easier to for China to reduce CO₂ pollution because they are such bad polluters to begin with and the U.S. has very strict environmental controls already in place. The simple fact of the matter that is that the United States is the single biggest emitter of CO₂ in the world producing 6 billion tons of CO₂ pollution per year. This works out to around 20 tons of CO₂ pollution per year for every man, woman, and child in the United States. As a comparison, China currently produces less than 4.6 tons of CO₂ per person per year (6 billion tons of CO₂ per year divided by 1.3 billion people).

EnvironmentalChemistry.com has in the past and will again very soon publish articles that show how China's poor environmental practices cause toxins to make it into the world's food supplies. Today, however, I will give credit where credit is due and applaud China's ambitious goals to reduce CO₂. I just hope they meet their objectives.

Just think of how much CO₂ emissions could be reduced if the United States followed China's environmental lead on this issue and actually took real measures to reduce CO₂ emissions. Personally, it appalls me to think that as an American I am part of the most CO₂ polluting and resource consuming nation on Earth. In coming weeks and months I will write about measures I have taken as an individual to reduce my personal carbon footprint and we will publish articles on environmentally sustainable technologies.

By Kenneth Barbalace

Today we published the third article in our four part series on prairie dogs. This article, which covers various control measures that are fatal to prairie dogs is the second half of our look at various types of prairie dog control measures. The forth article in this series will be published in May and will look at the issue of prairie dogs being a keystone species and if prairie dog over population is a sign of poor range management practices.

To read more, see: Prairie Dog Control Part II: Lethal Techniques

By Kenneth Barbalace

Today, Earth Day, like Saint Patrick's Day is when everyone is "green" for a day. Being green for a day might be just fine on Saint Patrick's Day for those of us who are not Irish, but being environmentally "green" only on Earth Day is shallow and shortsighted. If for no other reason than one's own economic self-interest, one should at least be "light green" every day of the year. There are many things one can do that are better for the environment, save money and don't negatively impact on one's quality of life.

Here are some resolutions you should make for around your home that will reduce your impact on our planet, and save you money at the same time:

Save Electricity

Switch out your most used incandescent lights with compact florescent lights: I wrote about this in my article "Compact Florescent Lights (CFL): Are They Worth the Switch?" In short, this may be the single best money-saving thing you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. Yes, the up front cost of CFLs seem to be more expensive than incandescent lights, but the fact of the matter is that the replacement costs of incandescent bulbs actually cost more than CFLs due to CFLs very long lives. In addition, depending upon how many hours per day a light runs and your electric rates, the CFL may pay for itself in just a few months. If you want to test the CFL waters, my advice would be to start with the most used lights in your home as these lights will have the biggest reduction in your electric bill. To see how much money you might save and how much you might reduce your CO₂ footprint by replacing your lights with CFLs, we have created a calculator on our CFL article.

Turn off unneeded lights: If you are not in a room, why waste money on electricity to light the room. I don't know about you, but there are much better things I could spend my money on than lighting an unused room. Now I realize that it might be next to impossible keeping unneeded lights turned off if you have kids, but one solution to this might be to replace some light switches with motion sensors. These are perfect for hallways, stairs and bathrooms. If you have pets you might need to make sure the sensors do not "see" motion near the floor.

Put electronics on switches: When it comes to electronics like TVs, VCRs, computers, etc. "off" does not mean off. Even when these devices are "turned off" they are still drawing electricity. In fact, over their lifetime some of these electronic devices actually draw more electricity while being "turned off" and not in use than when they are turned on and being actively used. The only way to really make sure these devices are turned off and not drawing electricity is to put them on switched outlets, power strips, etc. and then turn them off via these switches. Now I realize that power strips are often on the floor and inconvenient to get to, and our solution to this has been to use remote switch cords. These are basically an extension cord with a double headed plug on one end and a switch on the other end. The electronic device is plugged into the female side of the cord's plug and then the cord's plug is plugged into the outlet. This will allow you to place the switch in a more convenient place. Unfortunately, in my local stores I have only found two pronged remote switch cords, which is great for TVs, VCRs, etc. but not computers, which typically have three pronged cords.

Save Water/Hot Water

Wash your clothes in cold water: Many brands of detergent now have a version formulated for cold water. Washing your clothes in cold water will save considerable energy that would otherwise be necessary to heat water for washing clothes.

Use a dishwasher: Ironically enough, a modern dishwasher actually uses less energy and less water than is typically used when washing dishes by hand; just don't run the dishwasher unless it is full. Also allow the dishes to cool dry.

Don't let water to just run: When brushing your teeth, don't just let the water run. If you just let water run during the two minutes you are supposed to brush your teeth, eight gallons of water could go down your drain and the odds are it is hot water. Don't turn on the water until you are ready to rinse your mouth and toothbrush.

Take shorter showers or share a shower: Save hot water by simply taking shorter showers. If you have a significant other, you can further reduce you water usage and have a little extra fun (provided you don't get too distracted) by sharing your showers with them.

Plant climate appropriate plants in your yard: Planting climate appropriate plants can significantly reduce you need to water plants.

Water lawns at night: Watering your lawn at night can significantly reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation.

Save Fuel

Keep your tires properly inflated: Keeping your tires properly inflated not only improves your fuel economy, but also makes your vehicle safer and reduces tire wear.

Plan your driving to reduce trips: If you plan your driving appropriately, you can reduce the total amount of driving you need to do. This will save time, fuel and reduce wear on your vehicle.

Don't be an aggressive/impulsive driver: The single biggest determination to the fuel economy of a vehicle is the driver. Increasing your following distance allows for more predictive driving thereby reducing the need to alternate between the break peddle and the gas peddle. Every time you touch the brakes, you are wasting the energy you expended to get up to speed. Using predictive driving, you can let off the gas peddle earlier before needing to stop or slow down. This reduces your use of fuel and reduces wear on your brakes. Simply changing driving habits can improve fuel economy by 4-5 mpg and make you a safer driver.

Buy more fuel efficient vehicles: The next time it comes time to replace your vehicle, make the fuel economy of your new vehicle a priority.

This time around, don't be green for just a day, make an Earth Day resolution to reduce your consumption of energy—at the very least your wallet will thank you.

By Kenneth Barbalace

Never to be ones that let any "holiday" pass without special programing, TV networks are piling on the special programing for Earth Day on Sunday April 22nd. Some notable mentions are (verify with your local listings):

PBS (Public TV)

NOVA: Saved by the Sun Tuesday April 24th at 8 p.m. ET/PT
This program provides an introduction into solar energy investigating the efficiency and practicality of solar power for the individual home owner.

Showtime

An Inconvenient Truth Friday April 20th at 6:10 p.m. ET/PT
Al Gore's documentary on Global Warming. It is the first and probably only "Powerpoint" presentation to win an Oscar.

ABC

20/20: Planet Earth 2007: Seven Ways to Help Save the World Friday April 20th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT
ABC correspondents report on environmental concerns from around the world with experts discussing some of the most effective solutions.

By Kenneth Barbalace

To celebrate Earth Day and kick off their new "ECO Options" program, Home Depot has announced that they will be giving away 1,000,000 free n:vision compact florescent lights (CFLs) while supplies last at all of their Home Depot locations in the contiguous 48 states on Sunday April 22, 2007. For more details, please see Home Depot's "ECO Options" webpage.

What better way to see how much you can actually save with CFLs than getting to try one for free? Just make sure to get to your local Home Depot bright and early before they run out.

For more about the cost effectiveness of CFLs and to calculate what you could save by switching out your incandescent lights for CFLs, see our article " Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs): Are They Worth the Switch?"

By Kenneth Barbalace

At first glance, compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) seem like they might be too expensive to justify their energy savings, and bad fluorescent lights in offices and schools have turned many of us off to them. Just over a month ago, however, I thought I'd give them a try when I needed to replace the 150 watt bulb in my primary floor lamp.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance of CFLs and was even happier when I got my next electric bill. I was so happy in fact that I decided to write an article on CFLs and provide a table and Javascript calculator to help readers calculate their potential savings by making the switch to CFLs.

Read More and calculate your potential savings, see Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs): Are They Worth the Switch?

By Kenneth Barbalace

As part of the expansion of our partnership with CareerBuilder, we have added India to our list of countries that we provide career listings for. The list of countries we currently provide job listings for includes: Canada, India, United Kingdom, and of course United States.

If you are looking for a career that doesn't fall into one of our predefined listings, you can use our careers search box to create your own careers listing. Once you have found or created a career listing you want to monitor, you can subscribe to the RSS feed we provide for your desired listing via your favorite RSS reader or customized home page (e.g. "My Yahoo").

Happy job hunting.

By Kenneth Barbalace

Over the past few weeks I have been working with some freelance writers to formulate my publishing schedule for EnvironmentalChemistry.com over the next few months. If things go as planned (like that ever happens) we are hoping to publish articles more frequently than we have in the past.

This week we will be publishing the third article in our four series on prairie dogs. This article is in its final stages now and should be copy edited in the next day or so. Unless it is superseded by another article we have in the works, next week I expect to publish an article I have been writing on my experience with switching out incandescent lights with compact florescent lights. This article will also include a JavaScript calculator that will help readers predict how much money they might save by making the switch to CFLs.

In May we will be publishing the fourth and final part of our series on prairie dogs and are hoping for a food safety article comparing and contrasting the United States with the European Union. This article will be written by one of our really talented writers who is uniquely qualified to write on this subject as they have worked intimately with these issues both here in the United States and in Europe.

Also this summer I am hoping to publish two series of articles on two issues of concern to all of us. The first series will be on environmentally sustainable technologies. The second series will be on radon in the home, which is a much bigger concern than most of us realize. Both series of articles will not only try to formulate their respective issue in clearly understandable ways, but will provide solutions that the individual consumer can reasonably implement.

With so much coming in the near future this is a good time for you to subscribe to our RSS feed for EnvironmentalChemistry.com or our RSS feed for our "Editors' Blog", to make sure you don't miss any of the great articles that we will be publishing.

By Kenneth Barbalace

It was a tough battle, but in the end, resistance was futile and this blog was fully assimilated into our main site. I even moved the blog from the domain name EnvironmentalChemistry.blogspot.com to blog.EnvironmentalChemistry.com to further strengthen the tie between the this blog and our main site. Figuring out how to code a template using the new Blogger template tools did prove to be a serious challenge, but the final results made it all worthwhile.

Now that the blog assimilation has been completed we can move forward with more on topic and more interesting blog posts.

By Kenneth Barbalace

It has taken several days of work, but I have just about completed updating the layout of my blog and am now down to final details, like fixing the RSS feed. Once these last details are taken care of, I will update the top menu to link the main site and this blog together as well as begin to link all of the articles to their relevant blog post.

By Kenneth Barbalace

After over a year of toying with this blog, but not really doing anything with it, I've decided it is time to bring it up to the standards of my main site starting with implementing my main site's template here. I'm sure there will be a few bugs and glitches for a few days while I work out the kinks, but once this has been completed, I will be able to fully integrate this blog into the rest of EnvironmentalChemistry.com so that they actually look like they belong together.

By Kenneth Barbalace

This week I published the second article in our series on prairie dogs. Originally we were planning to cover lethal and non-lethal control techniques in one article but as the article was being researched and written it became obvious that prairie dog control techniques was too big of a topic to cover in one article. As such the decision was made to break it into two parts with non-lethal (and thus preferable) control techniques being discussed first.

Read entire article: Prairie Dog Control: Non-Lethal Techniques