Author: Lori Bongiorno

Looking for a sunscreen that effectively protects your skin
from the sun and doesn’t contain harmful chemicals? It’s not easy to find one,
according to Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) newly released 2010 sunscreen guide.

The research and advocacy group recommends only 39 (eight
percent) of the 500 beach and sport sunscreens it assessed. Why? EWG says many
sunscreens do not adequately protect your skin from both UVA (which causes
premature aging, skin cancer, and other skin damage) and UVB (which causes
sunburn) rays. Plus, several products contain questionable chemicals.

Unfortunately, some of the healthiest sunscreens on the
store shelves can be expensive so it’s worth it to shop around for deals. Below
are the most affordable products that earned the EWG stamp
of approval (calculated based on price per ounce):

• Purple
  Prairie Botanicals, SunStuff, SPF 30 or SPF 15
• All Terrain,
  Aquasport Performance Sunscreen, SPF 30
• All
  Terrain, KidSport Performance Sunscreen, SPF 30
• All
  Terrain, TerraSport Performance Sunscreen, SPF 30
• Carribean
  Solutions, Kid Kare, SPF 25, Caribbean
  Solutions, Biodegradable Sunscreen, SPF 25
• Desert Essence, Age
  Reversal Mineral Sunscreen, SPF 30
• Episencial, Sunny
  Sunscreen, SPF 35
• Estion, Sunscreen
  with Zinc, SPF 38
• Jason Natural
  Cosmetics, Earth’s Best: Sunblock Mineral Based, SPF 30+
• Jason
  Natural Cosmetics, Sunbrellas: Chemical-Free Sunblock, SPF 30+
• Jason Natural
  Cosmetics, Sunbrellas: Mineral-Based Physical Sunblock, SPF 30+
• Vanicream,
  Sunscreen Sport, SPF 35

The easiest way to find sunscreens that are safe and
effective is to use EWG’s
database, which has ratings on over 1,400 products from lotions and sprays
to lip balms, moisturizers, and makeup with sun protection.

Here are some shopping tips for those who prefer to do their
own homework:

• Higher SPF (sun protection factor) products are not
  necessarily best. In fact, the FDA says these
  numbers can be misleading. It is important to remember that the SPF is based solely
  on UVB protection so that indicates protection against sunburn-causing rays,
  but has nothing to do with skin-damaging (UVA) rays. There’s concern that high
  SPF products may give people a false sense of security and encourage people
  to stay out in the sun for too long without reapplying sunscreen. EWG recommends sticking to SPF 15 to
  50-plus.
• Look for sunscreens with zinc, titanium dioxide,
  avobenzene, or Mexoryl SX for the best UVA protection available in the U.S.
• EWG recommends avoiding oxybenzone
  and vitamin
  A (retinyl palmitate) because of potential health concerns.
• Choose lotions over sprays and powders, which fill the
  air with tiny chemicals that may not be safe to breathe in.
• Avoid sunscreens that have added insect repellants.
  You’re supposed to apply sunscreen liberally and often because chemicals wash
  off and break down in the sun. In fact, many people do not use enough
  sunscreen to get adequate protection. Use one
  ounce (enough to fill a shot glass) and reapply at least every two hours.
  Insect repellants, on the other hand, should be used sparingly.

Do not rely solely on sunscreen for sun protection. EWG
points out that there is “no
consensus that sunscreen use alone prevents skin cancer.” It should be used
as one part of your strategy.

What else should you do? Limit your time outside in the
middle of the day when the sun’s rays are most intense and spend as much time
in the shade as you can. Cover up with tightly woven clothing (you can even buy
sun-protective
apparel), a hat, and sunglasses.

It’s also important to remember that getting some sun has
health benefits. Sunshine is your body’s main source of vitamin D, an
essential nutrient that many of us don’t get enough of. Sunscreen can
inhibit your body’s ability to produce vitamin D. Talk to your doctor about testing your levels and about how
to get more if you need it.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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Many water experts say that tap water in the U.S. is
perfectly safe to drink. Bottled
water, they point out, is not necessarily any safer, and sometimes it’s
just tap water with a much higher price tag.

 

Yet those statements can be hard to believe if the water
that flows from your tap smells funny, tastes bad, or is discolored. It can
also be difficult to ignore reports of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and other
unwanted substances in water.

 

What do the experts say when you dig a little deeper? “The
fact that it might have an off taste or odor may not appeal to the consumer,
but it doesn’t mean the water is unsafe,” says Philip C. Singer, Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Of course there are exceptions to this. For example, if your
water tastes metallic it could be contaminated with lead from corroded pipes so
it’s worth checking out, says Joan B. Rose, Homer
Nowlin Chair in Water Research, Michigan State University. (In fact, she
recommends reporting any funny smell or taste to your local water utility just
to make sure there isn’t a problem with the pipes.) Iron, which is not
harmful, can also be the cause of a metal-like taste.  

 

If you have hydrogen sulfide in your water, it can smell
like rotten eggs.  Rose says it is
generally not harmful, but it can cause diarrhea for a short amount of time
while you get used to it. Some other common, but harmless tastes and smells: Minerals
might make your water taste a little salty. Algae can give water a musty taste
or smell. Some people are put off by the smell or taste of the chlorine used to
kill any pathogens in water.

 

Particles in water can make it cloudy (know as turbidity) and
water can appear rusty when pipes in your local distribution system are being
maintained or repaired, according to Kellogg J. Schwab, Director,
Johns Hopkins Center for Water and Health. He recommends
flushing the pipes by running your water until it’s clear.

 

Pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants are more
complicated. They are showing up in very low levels in streams, rivers, and
lakes, but we don’t find them as often in treated tap water, according to Rose.
“They haven’t been regulated yet because where they are found they are found at
very low levels and at levels where they are presumed not to be harmful to
public health,” says Singer. That doesn’t mean that the Environmental
Protection Agency couldn’t be looking harder for emerging contaminants,
especially when you take into account the precautionary
principle.

 

Schwab, Rose, and Singer all say they drink tap water in the
U.S. without worrying about it. “The bottom line is that here in the United
States you can go to any city and take a long drink at the water fountain and
be reasonable assured you’re not going to die,” says Schwab. “We have a pretty
high quality water system. Does that mean it’s risk free? No.” Outbreaks do happen,
but they are rare. In order to keep them rare, experts say we need to invest in
our aging infrastructure.   

 

Here are some steps you can take to make sure you’re
drinking the healthiest tap water possible:

 

• Find out what’s in your water. Read your Consumer
  Confidence Report (each year it should arrive in your mailbox by July 1) to
  learn where your water is from and what’s in it. Or find it online on the EPA’s website. You
  can also call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline, 800-426-4791, with
  questions.

 

• If you have your own well, follow the EPA’s guidelines
  on monitoring your water.

 

• Water filters can improve taste and smell and
  remove some contaminants. Do your homework to make sure you’re buying a filter
  that will address your specific needs. Look for one that’s been certified by
  the NSF International to address the
  issues you are concerned with. The Environmental Working Group has an extensive guide to choosing
  water filters. One thing to remember: You must change your filters
  regularly or there’s no point in filtering your water.

 

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question

or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

Shopping and Amazon.com.

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out Yahoo! Green on Twitter
and Facebook.

It’s definitely unnerving to see a line of ants marching
across the kitchen floor. But you don’t need to hire an expensive professional
exterminator or spray toxic chemicals to banish nuisance ants from your home.

Pesticides can harm your family’s health as well as your
pets’. Plus, they don’t
get to the root of the problem.

Instead, try these tips for preventing ants from entering
your home in the first place and banishing them once they get there. (Carpenter ants are a
more serious problem, so make sure that those aren’t what you’re seeing in inside.)

 

Keep the ants from coming in

Seal cracks or holes where outdoor ants are entering the house. This will require less than an hour of your time and an inexpensive tube
of caulk.
It’s also a good idea to trim the branches of trees or shrubs that touch your home
so that ants can’t crawl in through windows and doors.

Sprinkling cinnamon, cayenne pepper, or cloves where ants enter or gravitate to can deter them from moving in. Bay leaves, fresh mint, or
peppermint tea bags also work well.

 

Starve the ants

You’ll need to be a fastidious housekeeper while you’re
trying to get rid of ants because they feast on the tiniest crumbs or drops
of water. If ants can’t find anything to eat or drink, they will leave.

Keep food in containers with tight-fitting lids. Wash and
dry dishes immediately. If you need to leave dishes in the sink, submerge them in
soapy water. Wipe down your counters thoroughly. Sweep or vacuum up crumbs
often. Take your garbage outside regularly.

Don’t leave pet food and water dishes out overnight. If you
need to, then place bowls in pans of soapy water.  

Fix dripping faucets, leaks, and eliminate any standing water.

 

Banish ants from your house

Mix a teaspoon of liquid soap and water in a quart-size
spray bottle and spray areas where the ants are active. This will drown the
ants and destroy the chemical
trails left by worker ants so it will prevent more ants from invading your
home. Vinegar and water should also do the trick.

The Natural Resource Defense Council recommends making
your own ant traps from a mixture of borax, sugar, and water. Be careful
with these if you have young children or pets because it’s not safe to ingest. Ants
can’t digest cornmeal properly so that’s another way to get rid of them — sprinkle it around holes or ant trails.

If all else fails and you decide to go for pesticides, use
baits in closed cases instead of sprays.

You can also try to locate the nest and destroy the colony.
Place honey or syrup on cardboard
along ant trails and follow the thick trail of syrup to the nest. If the nest is
outside, pour one or more pots of boiling water over it.

Indoor nests can be
vacuumed up with a HEPA filter. Add a little cornstarch to the bag to suffocate
ants, and dispose of the bag outside of your home. 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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Earth Day is turning 40 this year. To celebrate, many
businesses are offering consumers free stuff, chances to win valuable prizes, and
some good deals.

Here’s a sampling of Earth Day freebies:

• Gain free admission into all 392 U.S. national parks now through Sunday, April 25.
• Trade in six plastic bottles or soda cans for a free
  hat made from recycled bottles at the Disney
  Store on April 22.
• Babies R Us will give you a free reusable
  tote bag if you bring a
  valid coupon (PDF) into its stores through April 22. Plus, you’ll get a 25
  percent discount off all the clothing and shoes you can fit into the bag.
• Evos is
  giving away free organic milkshakes served in biodegradable cups on Earth Day.
  The healthy fast-food chain has locations in California, Florida, Georgia, and
  North Carolina.
• Origins
  is offering a trade-in program on Earth Day only. Bring one of your current
  skin-care product bottles — empty or full, from any brand — to an Origins counter and
  receive a free full-size cleanser. Choose from Checks
  and Balances Frothy face wash or Perfect
  World antioxidant cleanser with white tea.
• Get a chance to win a $20,000 green home makeover by registering on the Purex website by April 30.
• Enter a sweepstakes
  to win 1 of 10 smart fortwo vehicles by making a pledge to help protect the
  environment on Safeway‘s website through April 27.
• Sign up for the Drive
  Home Green sweepstakes on Target‘s website through the end of the month.
  The grand prize is a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. You could also win bicycles, electric
  scooters, a national park trip, and other prizes.
• Add a green pledge to the Sierra Club’s Earth Day
  map for a chance to win a trip for two to Hawaii.

 

There are also plenty of opportunities for Earth Day
discounts. Here are few:

• Travelocity is offering up
  to 40 percent off prices at 40 green hotels across the globe.
• Travelzoo is giving discounts on U.S.-based, LEED-certified
  hotels.
• Walgreens will refill
  your printer cartridge for $1 instead of its usual $12 on April 22 only.
  It’s also offering a 22 percent
  discount on its green products through April 30.
• Amazon is
  offering up to 34 percent off some of its Earth Day reads.
• Drugstore.com
  is offering up to 40 percent off products from its “green and natural” store
  through April 23.
• Numi
  Organic Teas is giving a 20% discount on April 22 — just enter Eday40 at checkout.

 

Search for more Earth
Day discounts, freebies,
and deals. Have you heard of other great Earth Day offers? If so, please share them in the comments below.

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If you’re like most Americans, you probably have a stockpile
of old cell phones, laptops, or other electronics taking up valuable space in
your home. It’s hard to know what to do with working gadgets you no longer need.

Luckily there are more options than ever for those who don’t
want to fill landfills with stuff that others can use. In fact, it’s possible
to earn a few extra bucks in the process.

How? A growing number of websites allow you to easily sell
your old electronics for cash. They all work in the same basic way, although
there are differences in details such as which products they buy, and, of
course, in how much they’re willing to shell out.

Here’s how it generally works:

• Search for the product you want to unload.
• Answer a few simple questions about its overall
  condition and which additional accessories you have.
• Company will calculate an offer for you.
• If you decide to sell, you can print out a
  pre-paid shipping label. Some will send a box for you to ship in.
• Payment options vary, but most allow you to
  choose between receiving a check in the mail or a credit to your PayPal
  account. In some cases, you can choose to donate the payment to charity.

 

Some tips before you get started:

• Shop around to find the best prices. For an
  iPhone 3G, 8GB, in good condition bids ranged from $119 to $186, so it’s
  definitely worth the extra time it takes to visit a few websites.
• Be sure to check what the terms are if the item
  you send isn’t in the expected condition. Some websites will offer you the
  chance to change your mind and have the product sent back to you. Others will send products with no value to be responsibly recycled.
• Don’t wait too long to sell your old gadgets
  because the prices decrease as they get older.
• Remove your personal data before shipping out
  your product.

Below is a sampling of websites that will pay cash for your
castaways.

Gazelle buys a large
assortment of products — everything from cell phones, PDAs, and MP3 players to
laptops, digital cameras, gaming systems, and more. You can even sell old
movies, games, and camera lenses.

Choose between a check, credit to your PayPal account, an
Amazon gift card (pays an extra 5%), or a donation to a charity (you choose
from a list of organizations). If a gadget has no value, they’ll recycle it for
you. Gazelle says it removes all personal data from every item it receives (you
may still choose to erase data before you drop it in the mail). The company
also has a program with Costco where
you can receive a Costco cash card in exchange for old devices.  

You Renew buys or
recycles cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, calculators, laptops,
gaming devices, external drives, and tablet eReaders. If your device has no
value, you can still ship it for free to YouRenew for safe recycling. As an
added bonus, the company will either plant a tree or give a donation towards a domestic
renewable energy product.

NextWorth
purchases iPods, iPhones, cell phones, cameras, e-Readers, laptops, video
games, game console, GPS, DVD, and movies. Your choices for payment include:  PayPal,
check in the mail, Target gift card, or donation to the Red Cross for Haiti relief. The site tells you exactly how to remove all the data from your iPhone, which is
a nice touch.

Flipswap offers a set
price for cell phones only. No questions are asked, but the company says phones need to be in “working condition.” If they don’t meet conditions,
Flipswap will either pay you a portion of the money promised or they’ll recycle
it.

Payment choices include: Check or donations to Susan G.
Komen for the Cure, Sierra Club, or ASPCA. Several cell phones are listed as
“no value,” in which case the company pays your postage to send it back for
recycling. It plants a tree for every phone that’s recycled.

Cell for Cash, as
its name suggests, only buys old cell phones. They offer a set price without
asking questions, but expect the phones to be in good condition. It wasn’t
entirely clear in the terms and conditions how the company handles phones that
don’t meet its expectations, so it’s worth checking out before you commit. Cell
for Cash will send you a check in the mail.

 

Just interested in recycling your old electronics?

• Search for local
  recycling events or visit Earth911.

• Major manufacturers will often take back their
  products, and some will even offer you a discount on buying a new product.
  Apple, for example, will give you a 10 percent discount on a
  new iPod when you bring in your old one to be recycled.

• Several retailers
  will allow you to bring in your gadgets for free recycling. And some, such as Radio Shack,
  allow you to trade in old devices for store credit.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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Looking to make some greener choices in your daily life, but
don’t know where to start or how to take the next step? You’re not alone. It
can be hard to know what will really make a difference.

 

Besides the prospect of having to completely revamp your
lifestyle or spend a lot of cash on “going green” can seem daunting. Luckily,
such drastic steps are completely unnecessary.

 

There are plenty of simple steps you can make that will have
a positive impact on the planet (and in most cases are better for your health
and your pocketbook). Focus your time and money on things
that will really make a difference instead of sweating the small stuff or
feeling like there’s no point in making any change unless you take a huge leap.

Here are things you DON’T
have to do:

 

 

Always buy organic.
Instead focus on buying what’s in season and local for produce that tastes
better, is more nutritious, and doesn’t have to travel thousands of miles to
reach your table. Find out what’s
in season where you live right now. Search for local
farmers markets or visit LocalHarvest. 

 

If you can afford to buy organic,
then spend your money on the fruits and veggies that tend to have the
most pesticide residues such as peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, and
nectarines. You can skip organic versions of onion, avocado, sweet corn,
pineapple, mango, and
others since they’re typically light on pesticide residues.   

 

One thing we all could do (whether we care about creating a
more sustainable lifestyle or not) is to try
not to waste food. If every American were to reduce
their food waste by 25%, it would have a big impact on greenhouse gas
emissions (not to mention your budget), according to a recent Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) report. 

 

Go vegetarian. Instead
focus on consuming
less meat and dairy products. How? Smaller portions. Stop eating meat one day a week. Don’t eat meat at
every meal. Anything goes. The kind of meat you choose is also important. Red
meat is
harder on the planet than poultry and pork. The NRDC says that swapping
red meat for poultry and skipping dairy twice a week are two relatively
painless ways to make a big difference. It’s also healthier and easier on your
wallet.

 

Buy green products.
Instead focus on buying less stuff. It’s tempting to think that purchasing a
bunch of “eco-friendly” products is the best way to be supportive of the
environment. But resources are used to make, package, ship, and ultimately
dispose of all products, green or not. When you do have to buy new, then of
course it’s best to choose products with sustainable attributes such as those
that are energy efficient, are made of recycled or recyclable materials, or
have minimal packaging if you can. But first try prolonging
the life of what you already own, borrowing or renting
something you’ll use infrequently, swap
what you no longer need, or buy a used product.   

 

Buy a hybrid. Instead
take good care of the car you already own and don’t idle. We know you’ve heard
it before, but if everyone made these simple steps it would have a measurable
impact on global warming emissions. Better yet, figure out a way to carpool
two times a week or telecommute
one day a week if you can. When it’s time to buy a car, choose the
most fuel-efficient car in the class of car you need. Some smaller cars not
only rival hybrids
when it comes to fuel efficiency, but also have lower price tags. 

 

Invest in solar
panels. Instead buy green power
from your local utility. An increasing number of consumers have the option to
buy electricity from renewable sources, such as wind or hydro, from their
electricity supplier or another utility. Ask your utility if they offer a
green pricing program or click
this map to see if it’s available in your state. You’ll have to pay a small
premium each month for the company to use renewable energy or develop sources
of it, but it’s a lot cheaper than slapping solar panels on your roof.

 

Better yet, take steps to use
less energy around your house. Some ideas of small
changes that can add up to big savings: Replace six incandescent bulbs with
CFLs, use a programmable
thermostat, set computer
to hibernate mode, switch
off unused lights, seal leaks, insulate your attic, wash you clothes in
cold water.

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question
or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!
Shopping and Amazon.com.

 

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Melting glaciers have become a well-known symbol of climate change.

Why? “It’s one of the simplest indicators of climate change,” says Eric Rignot, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and a professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Glaciers melt when temperatures are increasing. It’s just basic physics.”

We also have access to numerous images of disappearing glaciers. Yet sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what the pictures are showing.

Below are some of the best photos that glaciologists say illustrate what they are seeing — a worldwide retreat in glaciers due to warming temperatures. The photos represent what is happening both in an individual glacier and in the various regions around the world. 

“You don’t need to be a scientist to appreciate the magnitude of change of these glaciers,” says Rignot. “There shouldn’t be any doubt about these images.”

 

(Photo: NASA)
Jakobshavn Isbrae, Greenland

Glaciologists agree that Jakobshavn is a good example of what’s happening with glaciers because it has a longer record than most glaciers. There is data going back as far as 1850. Jakobshavn was retreating slowly for a long time, but then in 2000 the glacier started retreating much more rapidly.

What’s more, three of the biggest glaciers in Greenland changed dramatically in the same time period, according to Leigh Stearns, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas. “These glaciers are really dynamic and they are changing much faster than we thought ice sheet glaciers could change,” she says.

 

Left: 1938. Right: 2005. (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)
Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park, Montana

These photos accurately reflect what is happening at Grinnell Glacier, which has been reduced by nearly 90 percent over the past century, and elsewhere in Glacier National Park, according to glaciologists. “When Glacier National Park was formed back in 1912 there were 100 glaciers in the park,” says Lonnie Thompson, a professor at the Ohio State University. “This year there are 26 glaciers, and those are expected to disappear within the next 30 years.”

 

August 1941. (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)

August 2004. (Photo: US Geological Survey)
Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Some of the largest glacial losses are happening in Alaska. Glaciologists say the above photos reflect real change that is taking place. “Alaskan glaciers are really shrinking a lot,” according to Marco Tedesco, an assistant professor at the City College of New York. “There is no debate about Muir Glacier. It’s a dramatic change to liquid water.”

 

Left: Summer 1917. Right: Summer 2005. (Photo: The Glacier Photograph Collection, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.)
Pedersen Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Pedersen Glacier is another example of the massive glacial retreat taking place in Alaska. Glaciologists like the above photos because they are taken from the same spot and the perspective is the same.

 

Left: July 1978. Right: July 2004. (Photo: Glacier Photograph Collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.)
Qori Kalis Glacier, Peru

Professor Lonnie Thompson has been mapping the retreat of Qori Kalis Glacier up the valley since 1978. In fact, he took the photo on the right. “In our first 15 years of observation it was retreating at a rate of 6 meters per year and in the last 15 years it’s been averaging 60 meters per year,” says Thompson. “It is the world’s largest tropical ice cap and it has lost about 25 percent of its area since we started observing it.”

 

Related links

• Researching global warming basics
• Saving energy at home
• Saving gas

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The only difference between a brown and white egg is the
color of the shell. Despite what you may have heard, one isn’t healthier, more “natural,” or more eco-friendly
than the other. And there aren’t any
differences in nutritional
quality, flavor, or cooking characteristics.

The color of the shell is merely a reflection of the breed
of the hen. In general, but not always, hens with white feathers and earlobes lay
white eggs and those with dark feathers and red earlobes lay brown eggs.

It may be surprising to learn that not all eggs are brown or
white. For example, some rare chicken breeds, such as the Araucana and
Ameraucana, lay blue and blue-green eggs.

There’s one difference between brown and white eggs that you may notice at the grocery store. Chicken breeds that produce brown eggs, such as the Rhode Island Red, are larger
and cost more to feed than hens that produce white eggs. So brown eggs may be a
little more expensive than white, according to the Egg Nutrition Center.

You can get a better idea
of how
nutritious and fresh an egg is after you crack it open. You’ll see more white ropey strands (called
chalazae) in fresher eggs, which will also have well-formed round yolks surrounded by thick
whites. The color of the yolk
depends on the hen’s diet, according to the Egg Nutrition Center. If feed
contains wheat or barley, yolks will be lighter colored. Yellow corn or alfalfa
produces medium yellow yolks.

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question

or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

Shopping and Amazon.com.

 

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

Nearly 1 billion people
around the world don’t have access to clean drinking water. Most Americans, on
the other hand, have safe water flowing out of their kitchen taps 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.

Yet we buy billions of bottles of water each year at a significantly
higher price than we pay for tap. Why?  

Annie Leonard, the creator of The Story of Stuff,
tackles this mystifying question with humor and insight in her latest short
film. The Story of Bottled Water delves
into the reasons why Americans are willing to spend thousands of times more on
bottled water even though it isn’t necessarily any cleaner or tastier than tap.
 

Leonard attributes this to bottled water companies
successfully “manufacturing demand” for their products by scaring consumers
into thinking that it’s safer and more desirable than public water. She also adeptly
explains the environmental impact of bottled water from extraction and
production through disposal without hitting you over the head with too much
info.

Leonard’s solution? Stop buying bottled water unless your
water is truly unhealthy. For those who want to do more, she suggests several
ways to get active from lobbying your city officials to bring back drinking
fountains to working to ban bottled water by your school, company, or city.

She ultimately makes an excellent point: Our money is better spent on
improving our water systems or preventing pollution than on dealing with the
mountains of plastic bottles we throw out.

 

Cecilia Cassini is definitely not your average 10-year-old
child. The fifth grader recently founded
her own fashion line and is making a profit from selling her unique
handmade clothing for kids and teens at Los Angeles boutiques. She’s also been
filling special orders that are coming in from around the world, according to
her mother Michelle Cassini.

Cassini has been dubbed “America’s youngest fashion
designer,” but that’s only part of her story. She’s a kid with a huge social
conscience and a desire to give back. Many of her dresses, for example, are
made from old repurposed clothing that she scores from the closets of her older
sister, mom, and friends instead of buying new fabrics.

This not only saves her
money on materials, but also is better for the planet. Her mother thinks that
her dresses are popular in places like Germany, Italy, and France because they
are made from recycled materials.

The young fashion maven regularly designs and donates
dresses to raise money for charities such as Susan
G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and Clothes Off Our Backs. She also gives
her dresses to homeless girls. “I want to give back to the people who don’t
have what I have,” she says. “Every little girl should have a dress so I wanted
to donate dresses.”

Cassini, who lives in Encino, California, travels to classrooms
at other schools to inspire her peers to pursue their dreams and do what they
are passionate about. Her message: You don’t have to be an adult to do
worthwhile things.

According to her
mom, Cassini’s passion has always been clothing. From the time Cassini could point, she was putting together her own outfits, and
she regularly came home from preschool with designs painted or glued onto
her clothing.

But it wasn’t until Cassini secretly “redesigned” her older
sister’s brand-new dress at the ripe old age of five that her family fully understood just
how interested she was in designing clothing.

She received a sewing machine for her sixth birthday from her
grandmother and went immediately to work. “From the moment she got that machine,
she has not stopped sewing,” says her mom, who didn’t expect Cassini’s interest
to last for so long or turn into a business.

In fact, Michelle Cassini was worried that no one was going
to show up at her daughter’s first trunk show at Tough Cookies Children’s Boutique in
Sherman Oaks, California, on November 14, 2009. It turns out her worries were
unfounded.

People lined up outside the store before it opened, thanks to some
good publicity, including a CBS segment
and a front-page story in the Los Angeles Daily News.
Her trunk show was sold out and she’s been busy filling orders ever since.

Cassini seems to be taking
her early success in stride and finds time to sew dozens of dresses a week,
maintain good grades, play tennis, and hang out with her friends. How does she do it? She gets most of
her homework done at recess so she can come home and sew.

Besides, she doesn’t
view it as work. The whole process is pure fun, according to Cassini, from the
cutting up of old dresses to sewing them into fabulous new “masterpieces” to
selling the finished products.

 

 

 

 

All photos courtesy of Michelle Cassini.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question

or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

Shopping and Amazon.com.

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Taking good care of your electronics batteries can pay off. The
financial rewards of longer lasting batteries are obvious: You won’t be forced
to render a perfectly good gadget obsolete before its time or have to shell out
money for a replacement battery.

It’s also better for the planet since disposing of electronic
waste is a growing problem.  

Experts say there are plenty of easy things you can do to
prolong the life of electronics batteries. They also dispel some common myths. 

Here is general advice from Dell,
Nokia, and Apple that can be applied to other brands:

• Avoid
  extreme heat. It’s the single-most important thing you can do to protect
  your battery. For example, don’t leave your laptop in the car on a really hot day, says a
  Dell spokesperson. If you must leave electronics in the car, then don’t leave them on the
  dashboard. Also don’t close them up in the trunk or glove compartment — the coolest place is probably under a seat. Apple recommends that you remove your iPod or iPhone from any extra case if
  it gets hot while you charge it.

 

• Take
  precautions in cold weather. Bring your battery up to room temperature
  before turning it on if it’s been exposed to very cold temperatures,
  recommends a Dell spokesperson.

 

• You don’t
  need to totally discharge your battery periodically to make it last longer. That
  was true of older batteries, but not for today’s lithium-based models. In some
  systems, it does help with how accurately the battery reports how much energy it
  has left, says a Dell spokesperson. Apple suggests that you go through at least
  one charge cycle per month for laptops, iPhones, and iPods. (It’s also no
  longer necessary to charge your battery for an extra long time for the first
  charge, says Petri Vouri of Nokia.)

 

• Unplug
  your cell phone from the charger when the battery is fully charged. This
  saves energy and protects the battery, according to Vouri. Don’t forget to unplug
  the charger from the wall. There’s absolutely no difference between car and
  wall chargers, according to Vouri. The only potential problem with car charging
  is if you leave your cell phone in the car on a hot day (as noted above).

 

• Leave
  your battery in your laptop. Some websites recommend taking your battery
  out of your laptop when you’re using it as a desktop computer so that your battery
  doesn’t get worn out. That’s not such a good idea, according to a Dell
  spokesperson, because your battery is more likely to be damaged if you take it
  out. Besides, he says, it’s not necessary since the microprocessor inside the
  battery stops it from charging when it’s fully charged.

 

Looking for ways to extend the life of your battery between
charges? Change your settings, turn off anything you don’t use, switch your
cell phone off when you’re in low coverage areas, update your software, and
follow the specific tips from Dell,
Nokia,
and Apple.

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question

or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

Shopping and Amazon.com.

 

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

 

The tomatoes, cantaloupes, and asparagus you see on grocery
store shelves right now may look good, but chances are they don’t taste all
that great. That’s because they’re not is season right now and probably had to
be shipped from far away or grown in a hothouse.  

Choosing fruits and vegetables that are at the peak of
freshness instead brings many benefits. They taste better, are more nutritious, are
better for the planet, and are often less expensive than produce that’s
travelled thousands of miles to reach your table.

We asked chefs across the country to pick one fruit or
veggie they just won’t eat right now and why. Here are their answers:

• Tomatoes.
  “Tomatoes should be picked off the
  vine where they have grown at the natural pace in the summer — outside in the
  sun. Those are the only ones worth eating. I’m convinced that people who think
  they don’t like tomatoes have eaten them at the wrong time of year.” Kevin
  Gillespie, executive chef, Woodfire
  Grill, Atlanta.

• Asparagus.
  “The
  peak of its season is in spring, but people are able to grow it during the
  winter further south in places like Mexico because of the weather. By the time
  this asparagus gets to us in Seattle during the winter, it’s probably three
  weeks old and hardly at its best,” Mark Fuller, chef/owner, Spring Hill, Seattle.

• Corn.
  “I grew up picking corn in the summer and know the flavor of perfectly ripe
  corn. You just can’t beat it,” David Myers, chef/owner, Sona, Los Angeles.

• Nightshades.
  “We stay
  away from about all fresh nightshades, meaning tomatoes, eggplant, peppers.
  They’re not local, they’re shipped across the globe, you can drop ’em out a third
  floor window and they remain intact, plus they taste lousy,” Eric Tucker, executive chef, Millennium
  Restaurant, San Francisco

• Peaches.
  “Some people think of peaches
  the way that Gertrude Stein talked about a rose — but a peach is not a peach is
  not a peach, especially if you consider when and where you’re eating it. In
  August, there’s no more beautiful or more delicious expression of the season.
  But in March, it’s a disaster.” Dan Barber, executive chef and
  co-owner, Blue Hill, New York City.

• Melons.
  “Down here in the south, there’s no way you’re going to find a good quality
  melon right now. The taste, smell,
  and texture are all bad in the wintertime. There’s also the mental association
  to summer. You think of 90-degree days when you think of melons,” James Boyce, chef/owner, Cotton Row,
  Huntsville, Alabama.

• Berries.
  “They’re really expensive. They taste like cardboard. Most of them are coming
  from South America, and I’m afraid of some of the chemicals used in the growing
  process,” Rob Endelman, founder, Cook With Class, New York
  City.

What are chefs most excited to start cooking with in the
spring? English peas, asparagus, artichokes, morels, and fava beans.

Depending
upon where you live, you’ll see these vegetables pop up at farmers’ markets anytime from late
March through April. And late spring is also when we’ll start to see ripe
strawberries and rhubarb. Anyone who’s eaten local strawberries knows they are definitely worth the wait! 

Here’s a
guide to peak times for popular produce. Or find out what’s in season where you live
right now. Search for
local farmers markets or visit LocalHarvest.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question

or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!

Shopping and Amazon.com.

 

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

Packaged salads are not nearly as clean as their
“pre-washed” and “triple-washed” labels suggest.

Recent Consumer
Reports’ tests found bacteria that are “common indicators of poor
sanitation and fecal contamination” in many
of the packaged salad greens it tested.

The nonprofit group tested 208
containers of salad greens and found that 39 percent of the samples exceeded acceptable
levels for coliforms
and 23 percent had unsafe levels of enterococcus.

On a positive note, these tests didn’t find disease-causing bacteria such as E.coli O157:H7, listeria, or salmonella in any of the
samples.

“It’s never a good idea to have fecal bacteria in your food
or water because it means that untreated waste has gotten into them somehow,” says
food
safety expert Marion Nestle. “But only toxic bacteria make you sick, and the
good news in this otherwise queasy-making study is that they didn’t find any.”

No one is suggesting that you stop eating salad. Just take some
of the precautions below to make sure you’re eating the safest greens possible:

• Always
  wash salad greens, even if the bag says “prewashed” or “triple-washed.” Rinsing won’t remove all the bacteria, according to Consumer Reports, but it may remove residual soil. Washing with plain water works as well as
  anything else, says Nestle. There’s no need to use detergent,
  vinegar, or special produce washes.
• Buy
  packaged greens as far from their expiration date as possible. In the
  tests, Consumer Reports found that
  many packages with higher bacteria levels were one to five days before their
  use-by date.

  Packages of salad that were six to eight days away from expiration
  date fared better, according to Consumer
  Reports. (It’s also
  interesting to note that many of the packages with the highest amounts of
  bacteria contained spinach.)

• Choose fresh greens over
  packaged when you can. Bagging changes the environment in ways that might
  promote bacterial proliferation, says Nestle. A fresh, whole head of lettuce is usually less expensive than a
  bag of lettuce too.

  Buying local may offer extra
  protection since greens tend to be fresher so their bacteria haven’t had as
  long an opportunity to multiply, Nestle notes, and this ought to reduce the risks of
  centralized contamination. However, in the Consumer Reports tests, it didn’t make a difference if greens were organic or if
  the greens were packaged in plastic clamshells or bags.

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips
and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question
or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book,
Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a
Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo!
Shopping and Amazon.com.

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

You already know if newspapers, tin cans, or plastic bottles
get picked up on your curb for recycling, but what about similar items?

Chances
are phone books, aluminum foil, and other hard-to-know-what-to-do-with items
can be mixed in with your curbside recycling.

Every town has different rules so you’ll need to check with
your local waste or sanitation department to find out the specifics for your
area.

In most cases, it’s easier to recycle these five unexpected items than you
might think.

1. Phone books. If your city takes mixed paper, then phonebooks can
   generally be recycled, according to Jennifer Berry at Earth911. Be sure to
   remove magnetic inserts or any other non-paper elements before you toss. Has
   the Internet rendered the yellow pages obsolete in your home? You can choose
   not to have directories delivered in the first place or limit how many you
   receive. Here are 17
   creative things to do with phone books for those who prefer to reuse or can’t
   easily recycle.
2. Aluminum foil. It’s just as recyclable as aluminum cans, but not accepted by all
   municipal programs. Check with your local waste department before you throw
   foil in with your metals. Make sure it’s clean first. Many people wash foil off
   with soap and water and reuse it for storing food. Or try crumpling
   up old foil and throwing it in the clothes dryer to reduce static cling.
3. Aerosol cans. You can include EMPTY
   aerosol cans with other metals. If it has any product in it don’t toss it
   in your bin. Ask your local recycling center if they’ll accept partially filled
   cans or bring them to your local hazardous waste facility.
4. Labels. Labels aren’t a problem on bottles and cans, says Berry, because recycling
   facilities are already set up to handle them so no extra steps are needed. It’s
   also okay to throw slightly
   dirty glass, plastic, and metal containers into your bin. So don’t let that
   lime wedge or last bit of peanut butter stop you from tossing a container into
   your recycling bin.
5. Metal clothes hangers. Some communities, such as
   New York City, Phoenix, Houston, and Portland, OR, accept metal clothes
   hangers in curbside bins. In most cities there are plenty of recycling
   centers where you can drop them off. Better yet, bring them back to your local dry cleaner so hangers can be reused.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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Even the most ardent bacon lovers will admit that that
dealing with leftover bacon grease is no fun.   

What should you do with it? Let’s start with what you should
NEVER do: Pour it down the drain.

Even the tiniest amounts of bacon grease or cooking oil can
clog up your pipes and ultimately back up sewer systems. 

Rinsing with a lot of hot water as you
pour it down the drain won’t help. Once that grease cools down, it solidifies
and sticks to pipes.

Luckily Earth 911
has plenty of suggestions for how to responsibly dispose, reuse, and even
recycle your leftover cooking oil.

• Absorb small amounts of grease with shredded paper, used kitty
  litter, or other absorbent materials and then throw it in the
  trash.
• Pour oil in a metal container (coffee cans are a
  popular option). You can throw it out once it solidifies.
• Some people save
  bacon grease or used cooking oil to reuse for cooking. If you choose to do
  that, you might want to strain
  it first and store it in the fridge. Again, a coffee can comes in handy.
• A growing number of communities are offering
  residents the ability to recycle their cooking oil. Search Earth 911 for local options.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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It’s common knowledge that appliances continue to draw a
small amount of power when they’re switched off but still plugged in.

One solution is to unplug electronics and
chargers when you aren’t using them. Or you can plug cords into a power strip and switch
it off whenever you want to cut off all power to appliances.

But many consumers wonder if it’s worth the hassle to unplug
electronics they aren’t using. The answer, of course, depends on your
objectives.

While it’s true that an “informed and aggressive approach
can reduce standby use by about 30 percent,” according to scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
“There are more productive ways to save energy with an investment of an hour.”

The upshot? If it’s easy for you to unplug chargers and
other electronics when you aren’t using them, then go for it. And no-one says
you have to unplug everything. You might want to choose
the biggest energy hogs or items that are easily unplugged. 

But don’t fret if you find the job too tedious or hard to
remember. The following actions are all easy and, in some cases, save you more
money with much less effort than stamping out energy vampires.

Pick and choose what works best for you from this list, or try everything for an estimated annual savings of $275.  

 

• Activating the
  power-save function on your computer is a super-easy way to shave up to $90
  a year off your utility bills. Exactly how much you save depends on whether you
  use a laptop or a CPU and a monitor and how long you currently leave your
  computer on for.

  Low power mode also helps
  equipment run cooler so it lasts longer. Get into
  the habit of turning off your monitor when you walk away for 20 minutes and
  your computer when you leave your desk for more than two hours, and you’ll rack
  up even more savings.

 

• Reduce the brightness setting of your
  television. Select the “home” mode because the “retail”
  or “vivid” mode (the default setting for most TVs) uses up to 25 percent more power, according to
  the Natural Resources Defense Council.

  While you’re at it, activate the energy-
  and power-saving modes on your TV and other appliances and save
  around $43.04 a year.

 

• Video game consoles, such as the Sony PlayStation
  3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, use nearly the same amount of power when they are
  turned on and left idle as they do when you are actively playing a game or
  watching a movie.

  Save
  more than $100 a year by remembering to turn off your gaming system whenever
  you’re not using it.

 

• Switching off unneeded lights will save you
  $21.04 a year. Does it make
  sense to turn off the light when you leave a room for a few minutes? Yes
  for incandescent bulbs. Fifteen minutes is a good rule of thumb for compact
  fluorescent light bulbs.

  Speaking of CFLs, Consumer Reports’ tests found that each
  CFL will save you around $5 a year in electricity costs over a regular
  bulb.

 

• Wash your clothes in cold water. You’ll reduce
  your bill by around $18.58
  a year and it’s better for your clothes.

  Even just switching your
  temperature setting from hot to warm water can cut a load’s energy use by half,
  according to the Department of
  Energy.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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The State Energy
Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, also known as “Cash
for Refrigerators,” has officially started, but whether you can get a rebate
yet depends on where you live.

The program is being funded with $300 million in federal
stimulus money, but each state is operating its own program and has different
start dates, budgets, and rules.

In general, buyers can earn rebates of $50 to
$250 for replacing older, inefficient appliances with Energy Star qualified
products.

If it’s as popular as “Cash for Clunkers,” money could run
out fast. So if you want to participate, start now by finding out
what the deal is in your state. 

Programs in Connecticut,
Delaware,
Illinois,
Kansas,
New Jersey,
Oregon,
Vermont,
and Wisconsin
are already in progress.

All the rest begin over the next couple of
months, according to a Department
of Energy (DOE)-sponsored website. Look for these start dates:

• February:
  Georgia,
  Idaho,
  Indiana,
  Maine,
  Michigan,
  New York,
  Rhode
  Island, Puerto
  Rico, U.S.
  Virgin Islands

• March:
  Alaska,
  Arizona,
  Arkansas,
  Colorado,
  Iowa, Maryland,
  Massachusetts,
  Minnesota, New Hampshire,
  Ohio, Oklahoma,
  South Carolina,
  South
  Dakota, Utah,
  Wyoming,
  American
  Samoa, Northern
  Marianas Islands

• April:
  Alabama,
  California,
  District
  of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky,
  Louisiana,
  Mississippi,
  Missouri,
  Montana,
  Nebraska,
  Nevada,
  New Mexico,
  North
  Carolina, North Dakota,
  Pennsylvania,
  Tennessee,
  Texas,
  Virginia,
  Washington,
  West
  Virginia, Guam

Check the links above for your state’s info before you head to
the store. Each state has different rules, such as which appliances are
eligible, whether you have to recycle your old appliance or prove that it was
hauled away, and how long the program lasts. 

Some states require that you buy
from a participating retailer. Most programs have  mail-in rebates, but some
require you to apply in person for a rebate voucher or allow you to reserve
your rebate online before the program starts.

For more info, check out EcoRebates, which links to local
retailers and tracks the latest rebate news.

An Energy Star stamp of approval doesn’t guarantee that you
are buying the most energy-efficient product in a category — some appliances go beyond Energy Star criteria. Since Cash for
Refrigerators offers an opportunity to cut down on monthly electric bills, it’s
worth it to do some research to find the most energy-efficient appliances that
work for you. In fact, some states base rebate amounts on how efficient your
particular product is, so you’ll save more up front and over the life of the
appliance.

Ultimately, how much you save on operating costs by
switching to a more efficient appliance depends on which new appliance you buy
and the appliance you are replacing. Some examples from the DOE: Save up to
$135 a year by replacing a clothes washer that was made before 2000 with a new
Energy Star model. Replacing a
refrigerator made before 1993 with a new Energy Star model can save you up to
$65 a year.

Consumer Reports offers tips for finding appliances that perform well and save money on energy.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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Looking for ways to cut back on spending without sacrificing
your quality of life? Tom Hsieh’s family has figured out how to do just that.

The technology executive,
his wife, and young daughter live on less than $40,000 a year in Pomona in Los Angeles county,
California, even though Hsieh’s annual salary exceeds $200,000. In some years, the family has lived on $38,000.

The family donates the rest of Hsieh’s salary (after paying
taxes) to various charities. Hsieh and his wife are committed to
giving back and have challenged themselves to live below the national median
household income, which is currently $50,740. A challenge they have
exceeded year in and year out.

How do they do it? They rent a modestly sized apartment in what
Hsieh calls a poor neighborhood that he has lived in for the past 15 years.
That’s a huge cost savings right there, says Hsieh, even if it’s not the
“American dream.” He drives a used 1998 Nissan Sentra that he paid $2,200 for.
And the family doesn’t buy much stuff.

The best part is that Hsieh and his family are happy and
don’t feel as if they are making any sacrifices. Which corners to cut is a
personal decision, but here are some more suggestions of how to live well
without spending a fortune.

 

Eat lower on the food
chain

You don’t have to give up meat entirely to save money on
your food bills. Simply cutting back on portion sizes or limiting the number of
times a week or day you eat meat will benefit your wallet and your health.

Preparing more meals from scratch, not
wasting food, and cutting back on packaged foods and meals at restaurants
will also save money. Here are some other tips for stretching
your food budget.

Want to do more? Consider starting a kitchen garden and
growing your own herbs, lettuce, and veggies. 

 

Cut back on or cancel
cable TV service

Watch TV shows for free on Hulu or rent
movies on the cheap. While you’re at it, consider getting rid of your home
phone if you don’t use it much. Use your cell phone or Skype for keeping in
touch.

 

Avoid the airport

Skip an expensive plane ride and take a road
trip instead. If you have to travel to a far-flung location, then check out
these
tips for cutting your travel costs this year. Some favorites: Sign up for a
Twitter account so you can take advantage of exclusive deals that travel
companies are promoting or find the cheapest
dates to fly.

 

Buy only what you can
afford

Why get into debt to accumulate more stuff you probably
don’t need? Most of us have unused things piled up in closets, basements, and
attics. In fact, you can earn a little extra money by cleaning out your closets
and selling your castaways. When you do need something, consider buying used,
shopping at thrift stores, going to swap parties, renting,
or seeing if you can get
it for free.

 

Alternative
transportation

Save money on gas by walking, biking, and taking public
transportation when you can. Ask your boss if you can telecommute once a week.
If you don’t use your car very much, consider selling it and using a car
sharing service such as Zipcar so you’ll
have easy access to a vehicle when you need one, but you won’t need to pay for
insurance or maintenance.

 

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

Enjoy watching
movies in the comfort of your home? You now have more options than ever for
renting films and popular television shows.

Whether you decide to stick with DVDs, catch the latest flicks
on your computer, or prefer streaming video, everyone can find an affordable and
convenient option.

It’s just a
matter of choosing what works best for you. Some things to consider: where you want to watch movies (computer or TV), how you want them delivered to you, how often you rent movies, and how long it takes you to watch them.  

Below are just some of the many choices available. Regardless of what you choose, renting movies is always better for you wallet and the planet than
buying new DVDs. And you don’t have to find a place to store DVDs or figure out what to do with them when you’re done with them. 

• Amazon Video on Demand: Streams
  movies directly to your TV over the Internet. You’ll need a compatible TV,
  Blue-Ray player, set-top box, TiVo, or an Xbox 360. You may be able to connect your
  PC directly to your TV. Over 50,000 movies to choose from, prices range from
  $.99 to $3.99 for a 24-hour rental.  

• Blockbuster: Offers a rent-by-mail option that
  is similar to Netflix’s except that you have the option to exchange movies in
  stores. Unlimited plans range from $8.99 to $19.99 a month. You can also rent
  digital movies to view on your TV, Blu-ray player, TiVo DVR, cell phone, or
  computer. On
  Demand rentals start at $2.99 for a 24-hour period.   

• Hulu: Watch popular movies and TV shows for
  free online. You’re limited to whatever is offered so you you’ll have less
  choice than if you pay to rent. Still, if you’re watching on your computer
  anyway, it might be worth checking to see if a title is available on Hulu
  before renting.

• iTunes: Rent movies for $3.99 for 24 hours. You’ll have to watch on
  your computer, iPhone, or iTouch unless you have an Apple TV. 

• Netflix: Plans for renting DVDs by mail
  range from $8.99 a month through $13.99 a month. You can also watch movies
  instantly right on your TV if you have a Play Station 3 or Xbox. Wii
  owners will be able to take advantage of streaming video starting this
  spring. One recent development — Netflix is delaying sending
  out Warner Bros.’ newly released DVDs for 28 days.   

• Redbox: You do have to
  make a trip to the store to take advantage of rock-bottom prices, but it may be
  worth it since you can rent DVDs for $1 a day plus tax. Choose your movie
  online. Find a nearby Redbox that has your selection available and reserve it.
  Scan your credit card when you pick up your DVD and return movies to any
  location you want.  You’ll also
  have access to all new releases immediately.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

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The Milwaukee
Public Museum’s titan arum flowered on January 15, 2010 after a month-long
wait. Most of us will never get to see a blooming titan arum
in person because they are endangered in the wild and are not all that common
in cultivation. It takes several years for the plant to bloom and then the
flower (one of the world’s largest) only lasts for a short time.   

“The titan arum
is one of the wonders of the plant world because of its sheer size and rapid rate
of growth,” says Neil Luebke, curator of botany at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Indeed, the museum’s titan arum, which stands at 7 feet 8 ½ inches tall, grew
several inches a day since the shoot emerged from the soil in mid-December. The
plant expends so much energy growing so quickly that it can’t sustain itself
for long and usually only stays open for two days, according to Luebke. 

Known as the
world’s tallest flower, the titan arum is technically the world’s largest
unbranched cluster of flowers. (The largest single flower is rafflesia arnoldii, which
can grow up to 3 feet wide.) In the wild titan arums can grow to be over ten
feet tall, but in cultivation the world
record is 9.55 feet. A spokeswoman at the museum dubbed the exotic plant:
the “Godzilla of the plant world.” 

A blooming titan
arum usually draws large crowds because it’s so rare, but also because of the
foul odor it emits. It smells like rotting flesh or decaying meat, which is why
it’s also known as the “corpse plant.” The smell is so intense that the human nose can
detect it from over a half mile away.

The horrid smell
attracts pollinators from afar. In nature the corpse plant only grows in the
rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. They are threatened because of rain forest
destruction. The International Union of Conservation lists them as vulnerable.

 

(Photo: Milwaukee Public Museum)

 

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