It's Almost Spring, Go Green!

If you missed Weather Matters this morning, here's a recap.

Everything will soon start to turn green and begin to bloom; Spring is right around the corner. In the spirit of spring, each week throughout March during Weather Matters, I'll talk about ways to go green, to live more environmentally friendly.

Today, why bother going green? A quick search of "Why go green?" into google produced over 48 million hits. We are literally bombarded by everything green; from lightbulbs to cars. Companies are also promoting a greener lifestyle. The CW is running a campaign called "Free 2 B Green". And General Electric has a new series called Ecomagination.

There are a few common misconceptions about going green. First, going green means you're a huge global warming activist. Not true. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world's current population is over 6.6 billion. That number is expected to expand to over 9 billion by 2050. That means that if all of the world's natural resources were evenly distributed, people in 2050 will only have 25% of the resources that people had in 1950. Bad news for your kids and grandchildren.

The second misconception is that going green costs a lot of money and is hard to do. Again, wrong. According to the Go Green Initiative, did you know...
- For every ton of paper that is recycled, the following is saved: 7,000 gallons of water; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.
- You can run a TV for six hours on the amount of electricity that is saved by recycling one aluminum can.
- By recycling just one glass bottle, you save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours.

Throughout the rest of March, I'll tell you simple ways to become green at home, at the store, and on the road. I hope you join us!