Good Economic/Ecological Practices for Consumers

In general, I'm in favor of vaccines. They are one of humankind's biggest health accomplishments of all time (along with soap, dixie cups/drinking fountains, toothbrushes, and antibiotics). Every intervention, really every action we take, has consequences. If we breathe air, we generate by products (carbon dioxide, etc) that can catch up with us. If we pave roads, we reduce the capacity of our earth to purify water. On the whole vaccines have been hugely beneficial with very few adverse effects. Since vaccines are a bit mysterious and somewhat invisible, it is easy to blame them for some mysterious maladies -- like autism. While it is possible, it is quite doubtful. Thankfully a recent book defends vaccines against this rampant urban legend. For more, please read http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13auti.html .

I'm always looking for simple systems that work well. Passive houses seem like a great innovation: they are so efficient that they do not need furnaces and are heated by the occupants and other equipment in the house itself. A special heat exchanger allows a steady exchange of air with the outside to keep the house ventilated yet warm. Unfortunately they are still too cutting edge in the US to make them practical but they are doing well in Germany. Read more in the Dec 27, 2008 NY Times article: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’

After I created the relatively healthy but still tasty Canola-meal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I wanted to find out how it compared to other cookies -- ideally by creating a nutrition label for it like those found on packaged foods in the United States. I started doing this calculation myself by reading labels and assembling all the information in my own spreadsheet. This was very tedious. In looking around the web for nutrition information about vanilla extract, I stumbled on http://www.nutritiondata.com/ and discovered that I could put my own recipe into it and have it calculate the nutritional results for me. Wonderful! Having found this source, I looked diligently for others and found http://www.nutrientfacts.com/ and a few others. But these others were not nearly as good as http://www.nutritiondata.com/ . http://www.nutritiondata.com/ was by far the best, most thorough, and most accurate. Plus it allowed me to enter my own ingredients, assemble recipes, display the nutriti...

Ingredients 7/8 cup - Canola Oil (instead of butter) 1 tbsp -Water (instead of butter) 1 1/2 cups - Brown Sugar 2 tsp - Vanilla extract 2 - Large Eggs 1 1/2 cups - Whole Wheat Flour 2 cups - Whole or Quick Oats 1 tsp - Baking Powder, Double-acting, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate 1 tsp - Spices, cinnamon, ground [Cassia] 1/2 tsp - Salt 12 ounce package - Chocolate Chips, Semi-Sweet Instructions Preheat oven to 350°F. A stand or other electric mixer works best. Otherwise this is very good exercise for your arm. In a large bowl mix oil, water, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs and mix. Add flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt. Mix until well blended. Add chocolate chips and mix until chips are evenly distributed. Drop tablespoons of cookie dough 1.5 inches apart onto baking sheets (greased if necessary). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will be soft but should firm up some as they cool. Let stand on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transfering to ...

Most know this, especially in California, but it bears repeating as many worldwide still smoke and/or tolerate it: Smoking is a huge waste -- addictive, expensive, smelly, dirty, bad for the environment, bad for everyone's health. It's amazing yet tragic that tobacco companies have made huge profits from killing others. And yet so many still giving them money to kill themselves. Save money, save lives, stop smoking. Read more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20081015/hl_hsn/smokingmakesyouoldbeforeyourtime

The article 'Which hybrids save you money?" in the October 2008 Consumer Reports compared hybrids with similar all-gas models to see how the each car's 5 year total owner cost compared. The Toyota Prius was a clear winner with the lowest total 5 year owner cost ($28,250) whereas the Lexus G5 450h Hybrid had the highest (70,250). So just picking a hybrid does not necessarily save money or the environment, but taking the total vehicle into account, can do both. The Prius is a very nice family sedan with lots of features so it was great to confirm my earlier post that it is very economical as well (just as we would expect) -- useful features at a low total cost.

Here is a quick and inexpensive moving and reuse tip: if you cannot find free moving boxes on your local freecycling list (like those listed at http://overcycle.org ), look for local businesses that will sell you sturdy boxes and buy them back from you when you are done. The buy back price may not be much but it is something and it puts the boxes in a place where they will be used again. A good moving box can be reused dozens of times. Plus, standard sized moving boxes will hold your stuff better, are easier to move, and stack compactly in a truck whether you do it yourself or hire someone else. The locally owned and run JDM Packing Supplies store (408-739-2500) at 1328 South Mary, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 is one such business ( http://www.jdmpackingsupplies.com/ ). JDM is also a great place to recycle styrofoam packing peanuts (you can drop them off in a box or a plastic bag). Finally, it is very well stocked with everything you are ever likely to need when boxing and/or shipping somethin...