Mars Hill, God is Green

I’m am going to apologize ahead of time for the disjointed nature of this post. It’s from a million different pieces and I put it together in between working on things at work. . . Also, I would love to hear from anyone reading this about their thoughts or good ideas to be green, so please leave me a comment if you have one!

So while I'm at work I listen to sermons and Bible readings and music. Lately I have been listening to a series by Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church called God is Green. The last sermon was on practical ways we can make changes to our lives to begin living green. As always, this is a journey. . . But here's my notes from listening to the talk:

Energy
- an estimated 25% energy bill comes from phantom power which is any electronic that has a light on (TV) or a time clock (VCR) when the device is not active etc. The power it takes to keep a tiny light on even if you're not using the item is called Phantom Power (solution: power strip, turn off and on)
- if everyone used energy star appliances in their homes and offices it would be the energy equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the road
- if every house switched one incandescent bulb to a eco friendly bulb it would be the energy equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the road
- Using aluminum that has been recycled takes 95% less energy to produce a can (solution: recycle your cans!)
- 1 ton recycled paper saves 17 trees; making one single sheet of copy paper can use 13 oz of water (more than a soda can); the US pulp and paper industry is the second largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry; production of 1 ton of copy paper uses enough energy used by an average household for 10 months (solution: recycle your paper!! use a program like http://www.printgreener.com/ to reduce waste of paper, use recycled paper, print double sided and use soy based inks)
-A single mature tree can release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support 2 human beings. Each person in the U.S. generates approximately 2.3 tons of CO2 each year. -If every American family planted just one tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion lbs annually. This is almost 5% of the amount that human activity pumps into the atmosphere each year. - According to the USDA Forest Service, a tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water, and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion, over a 50-year life span. (Plant a tree - grow it from an acorn, pull saplings and replant them, those are all free ways to plant trees!)

Food
- localharvest.com can tell you where to buy locally
- The Average meal travels 1200 miles from pastures to plate (that's a lot of CO2 produced to get you that food!) buy locally!
- Even my BEER is local (Live Oak people!)
- 1 acre of land produces 250 lbs of beef which isn't very much! It's a good idea for both health reasons and environmental reasons to reduce the amount of beef that you eat!
- another example of how wasteful meat can be: it takes 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 lb meat and only 25 gallons of water to produce 1 lb wheat

Transportation
- If everyone keep their tires properly inflated it would save 4 million gallons of gas a day
- drive less: bike, run, walk, scooter, whatever - not only is this good for the environment, it's good for your health!
- drive slower: you get an average of 5 mpg better fuel economy just by going slower
- be aware of new fuel sources and what you may be sacrificing to use them, for example: corn can be used to make ethanol gas = corn is a staple food for the poor (1 tank of corn ethanol to last a week in an SUV = enough calories to feed a person for a year), corn contributes to soil erosion and pollution (nitrogen runoff = dead zone in ocean); to make corn into ethanol requires coal burning so it doesn't actually save on emissions- gas = heat for homes, alternative heat: wood burning stove, wood pellet stove (from saw dust),
- Habitat for Humanity Re-Store: http://www.habitat.org/env/restores.aspx - If you have paints that you need to get rid of - they will take them and use them = much better than throwing the paint aware to pollute our landfills
- Recycling creates 6 times more jobs than caring for landfills = good for our economy!

Websites:
Resources for your offices: http://www.thegreenoffice.com/ or http://www.rateitgreen.com/
General Green information: http://www.treehugger.com/
Don't know what to do with something and don't want to throw it away? http://www.lime.com/
Earth Friendly Cleaning supplies: http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm
Earth friendly diapers (that are not cloth - you can flush them, throw them away or compost them!): http://www.gdiapers.com/

Theology of Ecology: by Matthew Sleeth: http://www.marshill.org/pdf/theologyOfEcology.pdf

Once recognized, this becomes a sanctity of life issue; what if followers of Jesus lead the way instead of being reactive; what if they were the ones who understood how deeply God cares for the earth, living simple lives with less consumption, and more in tune rhythms of nature?. . .

Seat beat Analogy: This all changed in less than a generation: It went from no one does it, to some people do it (even though the seatbelt is uncomfortable), to everyone does it, to finally the point where you feel naked when you don't wear it and it's illegal to not wear it: click it or ticket. Seatbelts were a life or death issue and deaths have been reduced in less than one generation. The way that we are treating the earth is causing death all over making this a life or death issue as well. I think we should change it in less than a generation . . . it can be done. . .

And hey, let's face it! Once our energy bills are down, we can give more money to people in need!