Reducing your footprint

Dozens of people received advice Wednesday on how to improve their impact on the environment and save money while doing it.

In an event sponsored by the Marietta/Washington County League of Women Voters at the Washington Electric Cooperative, several speakers tried to convey ways that listeners can reduce their "carbon footprint."

The term refers to the amount of carbon emissions a person's everyday activities generate. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.

Seth Cressey, a junior biochemistry major at Marietta College, discussed transportation. He recommended people who decide to buy hybrid vehicles choose smaller ones like a Prius or a Passat, rather than a sport-utility vehicle hybrid.

"You want to get one that gets at least 50 miles per gallon if you really do want to reduce your carbon footprint," he said.

Batteries on the larger hybrid SUVs take a lot of energy to make and dispose of, but the environmental impact is offset with the fuel economy on the smaller hybrids, Cressey said.

Cressey explained that ethanol can be a more efficient fuel than gasoline, but only if it is made properly

"It's not popular to say this, but the United States does not make ethanol properly," he said.

Cressey said the U.S. makes corn ethanol, which has to be harvested and turned into sugar before it is processed. Brazil, he said, uses sugar cane ethanol, which is easier to cultivate, and is already sugar, so it takes less energy to produce.

Local environmentalist Marilyn Ortt spoke about the solar panels she had installed in her house.

"I just love getting those $8 electric bills from American Electric Power," she said.

Ortt cited a study which showed the cost of having solar panels installed would be made up in about 17 years if energy prices continued to rise. She also said there are government grants available which will pay about 25 percent of the total price, but those grants are a lot of work to obtain.

Jennifer Bennett from the cooperative talked about getting fluorescent bulbs, saying they can save about $3 a year on an electric bill. The bulbs also last longer than their incandescent counterparts, she said.

"I was glad to see the attendance was as high as it was," said Jim Grecni, 59, of Marietta. "I'm an environmentally conscious person and even I was enlightened."

Member Comments

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Genieman
11-21-08 7:18 AM »Report Abuse	I do my part for the green...like burning firewood to keep warm..cheaper, which saves me some green.& then the ash does a great job of making the green plants grow later
ladynoogs
11-20-08 5:08 PM »Report Abuse	I for one beleive global climate change is happening.. but NOT as fast as some (such as al gore) say its happening. I saw "and inconvienient truth" and well... i took it with a grain of salt much the same way i take Micheal moore's works.
ladynoogs
11-20-08 5:03 PM »Report Abuse	most older people i know have lived in thier houses for decades. I think being green is important even if you dont believe in global cimate change/warming. It cant hurt to do less harm to the environment. When my parents were looking into buying a new car they had me do the research on the hybrids. They failed to mention in this article that one battary that needs to be replaced every three years coast over 1000 dollars each. AND doesnt really get much better milage in the long run than the small ford they ended up buying. It wasnt economical for them to buy a hybrid. Ethonol does more damage to the environment in the long run as well. The deisel it takes just to harvest and process the stuff is worse than just leaving cars alone. AND its killing rainforests and raising the food price. The amount of corn needed to fill up one suv with ethonol could feed one person one year. Ethonal looks and sounds good, but not really. There have got to be better options.
Newbie
11-20-08 4:45 PM »Report Abuse	A $20,000 solar photovoltaic system would add $20,000 worth of equity to a residence and would be recouped if you sold the house in less than 17 years. Seems to me the monthly savings would then be pure profit.
REALLYDISTURBED
11-20-08 2:34 PM »Report Abuse	Local environmentalist Marilyn Ortt spoke about the solar panels she had installed in her house. "I just love getting those $8 electric bills from American Electric Power," she said. Although the loan to purchase and install the panels cost me $300 monthly for the next 35 years
Buckyes1
11-20-08 2:13 PM »Report Abuse	17 years? How many people stay in the same house for 17 years?
telefonica
11-20-08 1:38 PM »Report Abuse	I have a fuel-efficient car. It runs on Al Gore's tears. Turns out, they are highly combustible.
Harleyrider
11-20-08 10:41 AM »Report Abuse	I have no problem at all being friendly to the enviroment. It is a good thing. With that said I must state that global warming is nothing more than a media fueled myth. Since the release of AL Gores work of fiction, the earth has cooled .03 of a degree. The facts are far from in. If we rush to spend billions on a non-existant problem, we will end up being in the same state of affairs that the bailout has put us in.

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