Tag Archives: Green New Deal

With The Democrats In Charge, It Is Time To Visit The World of Green!

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When we were stationed in Europe back in 2006, I noticed something. I noticed that most of my neighbors had beautiful gardens. I would often get a cup of coffee and stand with the window open, taking in the blissful aromas of strawberries from the farm across the street. It reminded me of home. My father farmed potatoes, greens, peas, watermelons, cabbage, and corn.

After we returned home, I noticed a lot of the beautiful trees that I used to walk through, were no longer standing. For whatever reason, someone had chopped them down, and replaced a lot of the open space with cows. Now that the Democrats are in charge, I think we will gravitate more towards a European way of living when it comes to efficiency. However, with that change comes a few obstacles due to the price that comes from upgrading.

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Upgrading will not be an easy transformation for many Americans. No matter how you cut it, energy efficiency requires money. We often hear people talk about solar panels as a means of controlling electric bills. While they look cool, and the idea rocks, solar panels are expensive. Solar panels will run you anywhere from 7500 to 9000 just for the solar panels, and maybe a generator. We are not even talking about the installation process or replacing a roof because it is not in compliance with the installation.

The entire installation can run as much as 24000 in some cases. Panels might not be an option for some residents if they live in areas with rules preventing the solar panels because of HOA’s. In some of your historical districts, solar panels are not allowed at all because they want to keep the areas authentic. Other things could hinder the installation of panels could be trees. Solar panels have to access direct contact with the sun. Cost isn’t the only issue with solar panels. Solar panels have been known to hurt habitats due to the destruction of trees and cause harm to farmland.

So, if panels seem a little too iffy, it might help to look at solar windows and screens. I have 23 windows in my house, and if I were to go solar, the cheapest replacement would cost me 2392.00 for all windows. Blinds are another story! For some reason, blinds are expensive. For all 23 windows in my house, it would cost us 2691.00 which, means we would have to pay at least 5k for upgrading our windows and blinds. I went with the cheapest windows and blinds, by the way.

If you are looking to learn about pricing. Try stores like Home Depot, shopsolarkits.com, Lowes and other stores that focus on home repair. It is a good idea to start looking now because the future is fast approaching.

The Truth About Finding Eco-Friendly Neighborhoods

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As we are nearing the last leg of our lease we have to answer some really tough questions in regards to how we want to move forward. For starters, I want to keep my daughter in her school because I do not want to rip her away from her friends. I’ve been searching our neighborhood for weeks now and I have come to a sad conclusion. I do not think the historical district allows solar panels. The historical district is lovely, but going green really is the end goal for us. It is our way of doing what we can to help minimize our impact on climate deterioration. It starts with us!

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So, it’s time to get real about the obstacles of installing solar panels. I love trees, but there are a lot of trees in the area, which in truth, would offer yet another challenge when it comes to installing solar panels. If we were to get a house and by some miracle get an okay for the panels, we would have to remove some of trees. By the looks of it, we would have to remove three or more. I know some people think that the solar panels will offset the removal of trees. However, it is still harming an ecosystem. So, it looks like we will have to look at houses near the medical district.

The area near the medical district is nice, and the houses are newer. We have seen houses with solar panels in at least one neighborhood in that direction. It would add about 10 minutes to my daughter’s school commute each morning and evening. Not to mention, the last time we checked the area out, I didn’t have to worry about creepy follower aggro. I just worry about the size of the backyard. I want to buy a small greenhouse and have room for my dogs. Another plus about that neighborhood is the fact that they are currently building homes.

So far, finding the right area for solar panels isn’t looking as easy as I thought it would be. A lot depends on the location, type of roof, health of the roof and landscaping surrounding the house.

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House Hunting With Climate Change Leading The Way

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We all have different opinions when it comes to science. If you are like me, there are certain areas of science I tend to focus on perhaps a little more than others. Over the past two weeks we have started looking for a new house. Our lease ends here around April and it’s safe to say our children seem to like this area. So, now we are actively looking to buy a home within the next couple months ” God Willing” give or take a month or two in this area. So we are focusing on space, sunlight, neighborhood, and the ability for our children to walk around without cars racing down the road.

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Buying a house is a big responsibility and it needs to fulfill all the needs of a family. Yet, at the same time, I want our house to be energy friendly. One of the things I really wanted was a swimming pool, but swimming pools can drain a lot of energy. They can be just as costly as heating if not more in some areas. So, we agreed that a hot tube would be a better bet. Saltwater hot tubs are good, and it turns out they will be friendly to my daughter’s eczema and a good pain relief for my husband’s back. They do not hold nearly as much water as a pool and take up less energy.

Speaking of energy, I love heat. Heating in the winter kills our electric bill. So, we are looking for houses that will be able to support solar panels. I am looking at getting no more than 15 and no less than 7. I am not trying to offset the entire bill, but if I can trim maybe 50 percent of it away, that would be awesome. Our bill was running well over 400 dollars monthly last winter which prompted me to start preparing for winter early. I went out and purchased curtains and other little things to warm up some of the rooms.

Lastly, we will add an eco-friendly irrigation drip system when we find the perfect area. I really suck at growing things, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. So, with all these things really banking on sun light, we will need to find a place with a nice amount of sun. Currently, I am noticing a lack of sidewalks. I never really noticed it before, but most of the areas we have visited lack sidewalks. Technically we are not in a rush, but if the perfect house comes our way, our 21-year-old will live in the house until our lease ends.

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That’s the skinny.

The Green New Deal Gets A Makeover.

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Apparently, there’s a revamp on the way for the Green New Deal as stated by an article in the Washington Examiner. I will post the link below. The problem with the Green New Deal was that it lacked a real explanation as to how anything could get accomplished. My husband and I both read it and we were totally confused because it read more like a fairy tale than a real way to get things done.

First of all, a lot of people are freaking out about us being in the 6th extinction. What does that mean?? Well it means the earth ended five times prior to now. Most of the species up until this last century took centuries to die off, but now we are seeing record amounts of species die off each year. So, the Green Deal wanted to pretty much replace everything with alternate energy and allow millions of people to stay home without having to work.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/senate-democrats-introduce-alternative-to-the-controversial-green-new-deal

The deal also lacked a sense of how this transition would take place. Lets say we want to go from our current form of electricity to solar. Some companies give you the option to go green, and we even tried it with TXU. I didn’t see a big difference, so we opted for free weekends. Here’s the issue, solar panels are very expensive. If the government wants to really dive into a greener planet, they need to tackle the price of alternative energy. One way to start would be to help people get solar panels.

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Now another thing we would need to see, would be a REAL reduction of large cars or the ability for more to use the e85 gas. If you drive a hybrid, that would be even better. After we take care of the solar, alternate auto gas, we could then move towards different geothermal energy for heating up houses. Where do we have geothermal energy? I’m glad you asked that!! We have a lot at Yellowstone National Park and NASA is planning on drilling in Yellowstone last I heard anyway, to cool down the supervolcano, we can do something with that energy. I mean that does not cut down on everything, but the problem with the Green New Deal was that it lacked a basic idea as to how to do the things that were mentioned. There are still things that need to be worked out, but again this is a start. Some of these things have already been pushed into place.

A little information about the Yellowstone geothermal energy can be found below, in case you like science like I do.

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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/08/news-yellowstone-supervolcano-geothermal-energy-debate-iceland-hawaii/

If we also stop building new communities out of every inch of land we see we can start helping to replenish the earth. For every community we build, we are killing a community that was home to an ecosystem which was home to a species that might die due to our greed.