This Old Hippie.com

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Living green doesn’t mean you have to wave goodbye to all the niceties and luxuries of modern life. In fact, once you start to investigate the advantages of living a greener life, you may well discover all sorts of extra pleasures. Your taste buds will certainly notice and it’s highly likely your wallet will as well.
There are plenty of things you can do which will help you to live green without total sacrifice. Here are seven tips that are quick and easy for you to implement. Most of them will barely change the way you operate but will help save the environment, especially if you can gradually persuade your friends to do the same things.
1. Re-use the bags you get every time you shop are good for more than one trip. Re-use them or, better yet, buy a “bag for life” and use that. Collectively, we use millions of plastic bags on a daily basis. Saving a couple bags here and there may not seem to make a difference, but as more and more people do this, the savings will mount up.
2. Re-cycle as much as you can. You probably already have a recycling collection service. If not, look out for recycling places local to you and drop off your newspapers, bottles, cans, etc next time you are passing. Don’t make a special trip though. For larger items, if they’re still usable then look up Freecycle for your local area. They offer a great way to give unwanted items a new, welcoming home.
3. Eat local produce. Especially if it’s bought fresh from a Farmer’s Market. You’ll notice the difference in taste. And if you buy just what you need (rather than the supersize pack your grocery store normally sells) it probably won’t cost much more. Plus you’ll save all those miles that the often tasteless food your grocery store stocks has been forced to travel.
4. Turn off unused appliances at the socket. Standby mode still uses lots of energy. Cut your fuel bills by turning off televisions and other items when they’re not in use. That includes your computer’s monitor as well. Screensavers only stop the screen from getting burned in images. Energy saving mode cuts power usage but nowhere near as much as the on/off switch does.
5. Wash your clothes at a lower temperature. Modern detergents work fine at lower temperatures. Or throw away the detergent in favor of Eco washing balls, saving on the fossil fuels that are used for most modern detergents as well as cutting your washing costs without compromising wash quality.
6. Turn down your thermostat in the winter (and turn it up in the summer if you use air-conditioning). One or two degrees difference is barely noticeable, except when the fuel bill arrives. When you get used to the new, lower temperature, turn it down another degree or two!
7. Compost waste if you have a garden, saving on fertilizer cost and giving your plants a treatment they’ll love.

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In this article I want to take a look at two possible worlds. One, a world where everyone has embraced the living green way of life and the other where living green never quite caught on. I just want to say up front that these two worlds aren’t based on any research by experts. These are merely forecasts as I see them based on my observations.

First lets look at a future world that is a result of everybody embracing the living green way of life. In this world everybody is happier and healthier. Because of usage of alternative fuels and energies there’s cleaner air due to the lack of carbon and other harmful emissions. With cleaner air and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables people started feeling better and exercising more, which made them healthier.

With the reduction of toxic emissions along with the reduction of trees being killed and more being planted the ozone was able to repair itself, which averted the green house effect and also helped us rid ourselves of deceases caused by exposure to harmful sun rays.

Because of using cleaner energy sources we were able to stop water pollution, which gave us more fish as a food resource, which also makes you healthier. As you know when you’re healthy and happy you’re friendlier, which reduced violence.

Is this future world possible? Maybe not in the near future, but if we all adopted living green as a why of life our future generation could live in this world.

Now let’s see what a future world might be where living green didn’t catch on. The population has been greatly reduced because of illness, violent crime and war. The ozone is greatly damaged. That and the polluted air cause people to spend most of their time inside. Wars are fought to control the depleting energy resources and only the ultra rich can afford to buy gas.

Pollution of our water and land for toxic chemicals being dumped from industrial factories has greatly reduced our food supplies causing rationing and an increase in violent crime in order to have something to eat. Brown outs and even black outs are commonplace in order to stretch our energy reserves. Global warming has melted the polar caps causing a sever change in our climate. The prognosis for this world is very bleak.

Both of these future worlds may or may not be an exaggeration of what could be, but how close are they? What do you think a future world would be like if living green is embraced or if it is rejected?

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Living green is becoming a way of life more and more everyday for more and more people. People are more aware of the danger this world is in from global warming and the green house effect. I have noticed that big companies are even adopting the living green way of doing things. Car companies are making and pushing hybrid and electric cars. Energy companies are looking in to using alternate energy sources such as wind and solar energy. TV stations are promoting green activities. Politicians are even starting to put saving the environment on their agenda. If you just look around you can see that living green is really catching on.

For most people saving the environment is enough for them to start living green. But there are still others that might just need a little more of a nudge. Well, money is always a great motivator for people to do anything so here are some ways you can save and make money by living green.

Save Money On Your Energy Bill

Save Money On Gas

Make Money Living Green

I’m going to leave it there. This gives you a taste of how living green and saving as well as making money can go hand in hand. So if you’re one of those that needed an extra nudge to start living green I hoped this pushed you over that edge.