Letter from the Manager
New Uses for Milk Jugs
UN climate chief seeks Obama input in December talks
Arnold Schwarzenegger for Climate Czar
Toyota Prius goes Solar

Letter from the Manager

With the current economy crisis, the holiday shopping season has started earlier than ever this year. Keep us in mind for your holiday gift shopping needs. We provide gift items that are economical and promote a sustainable living lifestyle.

Our selection of Solar-powered Toys can provide a great gift for any children with a curiosity to learn. These toys allow the kids to assemble a model with parental supervision and to learn about the benefits of solar energy.

The Earthball inflatable globe should be hanging from the ceiling of or bouncing around in every kid’s room. It showcases the entire planet and makes for an alternate solution to a typical globe.

The 10-Minute Energy-Saving Secrets manual is a reference for every family to have as they attempt to lead a greener life and to cut costs.

The Green Saving Kits are an excellent choice for anyone who is interested in living a Green Lifestyle. This kit is a great choice of a gift for your friends & family.

Other gift items available from Conserv-A-Store include:
-Aluminum can crushers to help manage all the cans in your house.
-CFL bulbs in Red and Green for a colorful holiday season.
-Hemp and Organic cotton clothing
-Recycle bin carts are a great gift to help promote recycling.

Green Topics allows us to offer you reprints of articles pertinent to our cause that you might not see in your normal reading. An Archive of past Green Topics is available. Conserv-A-Store does not endorse the opinions mentioned in these articles but we do find the subject matter interesting for discussion.

Thanks for reading and for your continued support of
Conserv-A-Store,

Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!
Porter McNeil
General Manager

New Uses for Milk Jugs

Here are 6 easy ways to put those empty gallon containers to work in the garden.

By Beth Botts
Chicago Tribune

A plastic jug isn’t just something to stomp on and throw in the recycling bin. With a little ingenuity, you can put it to good use in the garden. Wash the jug and hang onto the cap. Any parts you don’t need still can be recycled. For many other ideas, search the Internet for “milk jugs in the garden.”

1. Bird Feeder  
   Leave the cap on a gallon jug. Trace a circle about 3 inches in diameter on the side and cut it out carefully with an art knife or a utility knife. Poke a hole in each side of the top of the jug and thread twine through all four holes to hold the feeder stable. Fill with birdseed and hang it where you can see the birds. Regularly wash it and change the seed.
2. Herbicide Spray Guard
   In extreme instances when hand pulling won’t beat a weed, such as poison ivy, you might want to spot-treat with a systematic herbicide such as giyphostate. But systemic herbicides kill any plant they touch. To safeguard nearby plants, try this tip from Rebecca Kolls, host of HGTV’s Rebecca’s Garden: Cut off the bottom of a gallon jug and remove the cap. Set the jug over the plant you want to kill and spray into the top. The jug will contain overspray.
3. Drip Waterer
   Poke a tiny hole at the bottom of a jug, and bury it up to the neck to a tomato or other plant that needs steady watering. Fill the jug in the morning and the water will seep out slowly into the root zone.
4. Mini-Greenhouse
   To protect seedlings or small plants when a frost is expected, try this: Cut off the bottom of a gallon jug. Poke holes down through the handle and run a straightened wire coat hanger through them. Use the wire to stake the jug over a tender seedling. Removing the lid will provide some ventilation, but on sunny days, swing the jug off entirely to avoid cooking the plant. Swing it back on at night. Remove the jug when the plant gets too big
5. Seed-Starting Tray
   Cut off the bottom 2 inches of a gallon jug and poke holes in the bottom. Fill this shallow container with seed-starting mix, and place it on a water-catching tray (try a boot tray or the lid of a plastic storage container).
6. Bids’ Nest Protection

Try this idea from workers at the St, Joseph, Mo., recycling center, where a pair of robins built their nest. Workers noticed the birds getting soaked each time it rained; so they cut a jug for protection. Then they took a black plastic plate and made the family a sun shade.

UN climate chief seeks Obama input in December talks

Courtesy of World Business Council for Sustainable Development

AFP, 5 November 2008 - The UN climate chief said Wednesday he was "very encouraged" by Barack Obama's stance on global warming, and said he hoped the US president-elect would join in key talks in December before taking office.

"It is impossible to advance on this important topic without the full engagement of the United States," Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told AFP by phone.

"I am very encouraged by the stated commitment of Senator Obama to the issue of climate change, and I really hope that he or his representatives can come to the climate change conference in Poznan (in western Poland) and speak to his vision of the way forward," he said.

Within months of taking office in 2001, George W. Bush walked out on the Kyoto Protocol, dealing a near-lethal blow to UN efforts to reach a follow-on agreement on how best to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama has vowed to jettison much of Bush's climate policy, a move that could help smooth the way for an expanded accord including commitments from giants such as China and India exempted from Kyoto, which runs out in 2012.

The world's nations have set a deadline of December 2009 for striking a new deal, and will gather in Poznan next month hammer out a draft agreement.

De Boer said that members of the Obama team told him before Tuesday's election that the Illinois senator was under "an awful lot of pressure with many priorities," and might not be able to attend himself.

"But they said what might be feasible is to have a bi-partisan delegation," he said.

"It would be interesting to hear from them as to whether they think this is still relevant."

The Bush administration's chief climate change negotiator, Paula Dobriansky, had said before the presidential vote that she "will be liaising very closely with the team of the incoming president," de Boer added.

Obama has set a goal of reducing US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050, using a cap-and-trade system and a 10-year programme worth 150 billion dollars in renewable energy research and deployment.

He has said he would not wait for China and India to act, but insist they must not be far behind making their own binding commitments.

Arnold Schwarzenegger for Climate Czar
Why (and How) Obama Should Lead from the Center
November 9, 2008 at 8:19AM by Jim DiPeso

First, a hearty congratulations to President-elect Obama. With a compelling life story, a strong message, and a superb ground game, he seized a moment in history. And, he gave us Republicans a thorough pasting. In many ways, we deserved it.

Already, the fight for the party's soul is on. The hard right has already begun plotting a campaign to push the party further to the margins of the spectrum. Those of us on the center-right had better fight back.

Because, as Margaret Thatcher once said, politics is like an airplane. The right and left wings may provide lift, but the middle is where the brains are. Alas, if only she were a bit younger and born in the USA. Maggie in 2012!

Now, to add my bit to the trillions of bytes of gratuitous advice that our president-elect is receiving. Already, the fault lines in the Democratic Party are showing. Henry Waxman is making a play to take the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee away from John Dingell.

Energy and Commerce is among the most powerful committees in the House. Energy and Commerce is where next year's climate bill will live or die.

Waxman means to give the committee a hard leftward push. Old man Dingell, who will not go down without a fight, will keep the committee tacking down the center.

While it's not for any mere president to say how a committee of Congress should organize itself, Obama ought to signal that he means to govern from the center. Especially on an issue so fraught with potential conflict and so critical to the future of the world as climate change.

The climate bill must be structured to secure a broad buy-in. A party-line bill that pleases one set of interests but alienates others will not succeed. It must succeed.
Here's how President-elect Obama can send that signal: Make Arnold Schwarzenegger his energy and climate czar. One gets the sense that Arnold would fancy the title of czar. All kidding aside, he has a proven track record of pulling competing interests, Democrats and Republicans, towards the center and getting their agreement on climate legislation.

One more thing, Mr. President-elect. Ring up John McCain and see about getting his help on pushing the climate bill through. He asked the citizenry for one more mission. Give him one.

With Schwarzenegger heading up climate policy and McCain lending his political capital, the odds of Obama delivering a good climate bill will go up tremendously.

Toyota Prius goes Solar
Courtesy of AboutMyPlanet.Com
By: Saikat

The 'Prius' is Latin for '(to go...) before'. Quite fittingly it heralds a new era of hip cars which have moved away from Henry Ford's vision. Today, they are petrol powered environmental ogres. Necessary 'evils', for cars have been the harbingers of human advancement by taking the wheel much forward. They may be Hollywood's latest fad...Leonardo DiCaprio owns one, but they also are truly one of the most practical environmentally cars on the roads today. The 2008 Prius was tagged as the best fuel efficient car in The United States by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The Prius is what is called an electric hybrid. More technically looked at as a SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle). It is powered by an internal combustion engine (1.5L) as all gasoline driven cars are. In synergy with this engine are various other technologies based around an electric motor running on NiMH batteries. The computer program used in the Prius monitors and controls fuel consumption by using the engine, electric motor, or both to power the car and recharge the battery. The working together of two disparate units leads to greater fuel efficiency. The 2008 Prius gives 48 miles per US gallon in city driving, 45 miles per US gallon on highways. With over one million units sold by mid 2008, Toyota says that the Prius owners have stopped 4.5 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. That’s 535,500,000 gallons of fuel or at current prices $2.01 Billion Dollars saved. Even without Leo's endorsement, the Prius should be on every green minded guy's Christmas list.

The latest models of Prius can now go even greener. The grapevine has it that Toyota is looking at the option of solar panels on the roof of the car. Reports state that the panels could be an option on the high end versions of the car. And no they won't add a third dimension to the electric-hybrid combo but mainly would serve to cool the car when it is parked and idle. The panels are to be outfitted by Kyocera, a Japanese company known for its ceramics manufacture. We can expect to see the specially fitted out cars by the spring of 2009. There are no details currently on the website regarding this development. As officially Toyota does not elaborate on future product plans, details are vague on the exact picture of the modifications. Industry watchers though say that though adding solar cells would add 'just a tinge' of 'green' to the car, the cost of solar cells could jack up the price. The benefits could be little as some independent experiments have shown that the power output of the solar cells alone is close to just 160 - 250 watts. Not enough to power the AC but can add something economy of operation. Will the perceived utility warrant the cost on option?

But the great thing is the innovation itself. Toyota's forward vision resulted in the Prius making an electric hybrid uber cool and with the solar panels it will be another first for the Japanese car giant. By 2009, the car enjoying an upsurge in popularity is expected to go through a substantial makeover. Solar panels are just one part of it.

Meanwhile, a company called SEV - Solar Electric Vehicles has already experimented with a solar rooftop on the Prius. The website quotes -

With the SEV solar system, the Toyota Prius can operate up to 20 miles per day in electric mode thus improving fuel economy by up to 29% (depending on driving habits and conditions).

There system available as a kit sets back the user by $2000 - $4000, but expectedly the amount can be recovered in 2-3 years through fuel savings.