Greening our Kitchens

October 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Among all the areas of our homes, our kitchens have the most number of appliances. We have the refrigerator, electric stove, water dispenser, oven toaster, microwave oven, and coffee maker. Many people today who are going green in their kitchens by buying green appliances. Green appliances are simply those appliances that meet the minimum energy conservation requirements set by the government. You’ll know they are green appliances when they have stickers on them with the words “energy-saving” or “eco-friendly”.

Why do people buy green appliances for their kitchen?

A. Because green appliances have more modern look than their old appliances
B. Because it saves money.
C. Because it saves the environment.
D. All of the above

Answer: Letter C. Many people today buy green appliances primarily because they are environment-friendly and they don’t use up a lot of energy. Also, green appliances look sleeker for modern homes than the old appliances.

How do save money with green appliances?

A. You don’t get to use them often because they are expensive.
B. They save you in electrical bills.
C. Green appliances are made from plants.

Answer: Letter B. Even if green appliances cost higher than ordinary appliances, in the long run, you’ll save more using them because using them will lower your electric bills. In the US, using green appliances already saved $14 billion in electricity bills since the first green appliances hit the market.

What is the most cost-efficient type of green refrigerator?

A. Green refrigerator with freezer on top
B. Green refrigerator with side-by-side door
C. Green refrigerator with ice dispenser

Answer: Letter A. Green refrigerators with freezer on top save 10% less energy than those with side-by-side door. Green refrigerators with ice dispensers also need more energy. Using ice cube containers and manually getting the ice from the freezer is more energy-efficient than using the automatic ice dispenser.

How do you save energy if you can’t afford to buy green appliances?

A. You can’t. Buy green appliances now.
B. By modifying how you use your kitchen appliances
C. By using gas powered appliances instead.

Answer: Letter B. Using gas stove instead of ordinary electric stoves are also not good for the environment because they use non-renewable source of energy. If you can’t afford to change all of your kitchen appliances to green appliances now, you can still save energy by changing the way you use your ordinary kitchen appliances. Simple things like not opening the door of your refrigerator too often and unplugging all your electrical kitchen appliances when you are not using them can save you a lot in energy bills.

Filed Under: Green Homes Tagged With:

Jeepneys and the air we breathe in Manila

October 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment

You’ll know you’re on the Philippine soil when you see them on the streets–the colorful and noisy jeepneys. Jeepneys are the most popular mode of transportation in the country. They are testament to the ingenuity of the Filipinos. They are actually converted WWI jeeps left by the Americans. Philippine jeepnes have solved 2 transportation in the Philippine—how to provide cheap public transportation to ordinary Filipinos and how to make cheap fare profitable enough for the drivers.

Jeepneys have been plying the streets of Manila for decades now. It can take you anywhere you want to go in Manila. They pick up passengers wherever they see them and they unload passenger wherever the passenger want to alight the jeep. They and the public buses are blamed for the very bad traffic condition in the Philippines. They just load and unload passengers wherever they want.

Jeepneys are also blamed as one of the major pollutants in the Philippines. You can see them emitting really large and black gas into the air. All you have to do is get out during the rush hour and stay in the side street. It will not take a minute before you see a jeepney blowing fumes that you wonder how people nearby can still breathe easily. And we are not talking of only a few jeepneys here. Every day there are thousands of jeepneys out on Manila street.

Many Filipino environmentalists propose to scrap all jeepneys because they predict that in a few years Manila will be too polluted that Filipinos would have to buy bottled air like they buy bottled water now. Indeed, this is not a ridiculous idea. The idea of bottled water seemed ridiculous 10 years ago, but now we see bottled water is a necessity with the Philippine because the tap water here is too polluted for drinking. It may not be far from now when we see bottled air in the Philippines.

But cannot just take them out like the plague. First, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos rely on jeepneys as their mode of transportation everyday. Second, the jeepney drivers will instantly lose job. Is there any other solution?

There is a glimmer of light though. In Makati, the financial district of Manila, there are already a number of jeepneys that are running on electricity. The vision is to slowly convert the gas-powered jeepneys to electric-powered ones. They are called e-jeeps. They are they city’s answer to the worsening air pollution. There are only a handful of them today but let’s hope that the Philippine government follows the step of New Delhi wherein all public utility vehicles are now running on electricity.

Filed Under: Pollution, Transportation Tagged With: ,

Milk for Worse Health

October 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

How do you know that the milk you’re putting in your cereals or coffee is not harmful to you? This may sound like a stupid question because milk is supposed to be good for our health giving us our daily calcium and protein requirement and many other nutrients. When we were young, our parents tell us to drink our milk. Our commercials today bombard us with the messages that adults should not stop drinking milk to avoid osteoporosis. How can milk be bad for us?

Recently, two news stories helped in ruining my cereal breakfast routine: the melamine scare and the discovery of growth hormone injection in cows. Melamine is a toxic chemical that is used in making plastics. It has recently been discovered that many milk manufacturers in China add melamine to milk to increase the milk’s protein content. Thousands of babies who consumed melamine-tainted milk died due to kidney malfunction.

Officials have also cautioned the public in consuming milk that are from cows injected with bovine growth hormone (BGH). Milking cows are injected with BGH to increase the production of milk. Scientists are concerned of this because they believe that consuming milk from a cow that was injected with growth hormone can cause hormone-related cancer to humans.

How can milk be bad for us? It can be bad for us if things that are not supposed to be in our milk are added to our milk suck as melamine and BGH. What is supposed to be healthy can now be the source of illness and even death. Blame both of these with too much desire for big profits. We may notice the increase of the number of milk products in our groceries’ store these last few years but this may not be good news for our health. What the solution to this problem? Go green. Buy organic milk.

More about organic milk in my next blog.

Filed Under: Uncategorized