I want to call readers’ attention to this story published a few days ago in the New York Times regarding a method of enticing homeowners to install solar panels.

From Europe’s Way of Encouraging Solar Arrives in the U.S.:

Put simply, the idea is to pay homeowners and businesses top dollar for producing green energy. In Germany, for example, a homeowner with a rooftop solar system may be paid four times more to produce electricity than the rate paid to a coal-fired power plant.

This month Gainesville, Fla., became the first city in the United States to introduce higher payments for solar power, which is otherwise too expensive for many families or businesses to install. City leaders, who control their electric utility, unanimously approved the policy after studying Germany’s solar-power expansion.

Now, let’s get political

I’m sure many will rail against this type of, “socialism,” because they feel (I no longer consider it to be rational thinking, but rather a “feeling”) that the, “free market,” if allowed to work, will provide us with such necessities.

The, “free market,” hasn’t brought us widespread green energy use.

Likewise, the, “free market,” didn’t bring us:

• The current, now-antiquated, once state-of-the-art energy grid
• The current, now-antiquated, once state-of-the-art railway system
• The U.S. Interstate Highway system

We've indexed ten great ways to be greener without spending much of your hard-earned green!

You may be watching as the economy threatens to turn its, “recession,” moniker into, “depression,” all while reports about the dire circumstances our environment is in continue to mount.

Need a couple of examples?  Try here and here.  Below, you can find ten great ways to green your life on the cheap and save money while you do it!

While the economy plummets, you may be asking yourself, “can I really afford to be, ‘green,’ during these economic times?”

I’m here to tell you, “Absolutely you can!”

Here I have compiled a list of ten articles from Earthascope that outline different ways to improve your envirohuman impact while saving money.  You don’t have to stop your efforts to pollute less just because of bad economic times!

Think of it as turning the recession into your own, “green session”!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Two||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to begin reading a green blog!

This week's Green Life Project action item is to begin reading and following an environmentally-focused blog!

I know definitively that you read blogs or news sites on occasion that have a, “green,” or, “environmental,” theme to it, because you are reading one right now!  But in order to move forward with this transformation in your life, I recommend beginning to follow some websites, and I’ll list a few here with some explanation for why I think they are important.

For you to become immersed in this essential movement toward sustainable living, you’re going to need one of the most crucial ingredient to your success: information!  So pick a site, and start following it!!!

Keeping well-informed of simple little actions you can take to improve

In my endless browsing of the internet, tonight I came across one of the coolest things I’ve seen in quite a while. It comes to us from our friends(?) at General Electric. You’ve probably seen their ads on TV over the past year or so pushing the Ecomagination campaign, which are pretty slick.

Now I’ll leave the debate open for another future post on whether or not GE really is pushing forward with greener energy options, but in the meantime check out Plug Into the Smart Grid, where you can use your webcam to create an incredibly cool holographic image on the screen. I just hope GE is putting as much energy into greening themselves as they are making cool internet tricks!

For a quick preview, check out the YouTube clip below! By the way, I tried it and it really does work just like the video!

Did your latest tomato purchase support slave labor?

Imagine biting into a juicy slice of tomato. Think about the seeds, the flesh, the slippery skin — and that unmistakable flavor! Yum!

I had tomatoes in my salad tonight and they were central to tying together the mix of greens, avocado, onion, and spices. But when I ate them, I had not a thought that a slave may have picked the tomatoes I enjoyed.

Here on Earthascope, we talk mostly about the environment, but I want to focus your attention on this issue not only because the manner in which we consume food is a large part of our envirohuman impact, but also because we care about social justice.

Tomatoes Picked By Slaves

I clicked over for what I thought would be a quick trip to thenation.com (The Nation’s website), but I found myself intrigued by

Corn husk or food wrapper?

Tomales!

Why are tomales a green food?  Well, the ones I enjoyed at lunch today had green peppers inside, but that’s beside the point.

It’s the wrapping! Check out the steamed corn husk being used to wrap tomales!  While munching on my tomales today at work (yum!), I found myself admiring the continued use of corn husks to wrap food.

It seems as if this is an age-old practice that has been passed down over time (and has somehow been preserved as common practice) and, well, why not?  The husks are otherwise going to be tossed and this way they get another use before making their way back into nature — with their fully biodegradeable goodness!

We had a whole bag of tomales brought in at work, and while the bag was not biodegradeable (it was plastic) imagine any other fast food — or food from the store — coming in a bag and most likely, it would be wrapped in paper, plastic, foil, or styrofoam — all of which are not nearly

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week One||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to go out and purchase a reusable metal water bottle.

Using a metal water bottle is Green Life Project's first action item.

Yes, I know many of you probably have already done this, so I hope this is not too ho-hum for you…  Hear me out!

I also know many have not taken this easy step, and it is one of the simplest, so it makes a great first step!  It also saves money and helps toward improving one’s envirohuman impact immediately!

Reusable water bottles save a lot of energy because the water you drink from the tap is much more efficient to use than having bottles of water shipped from across the country (or, in some cases, the world).  Just think, if one were drinking an average of two bottles per day, that equals 730 bottles each year for just one person!  That’s about thirty 24-pack cases of water, which is about a pallet load of water — just for you!

And that’s a lot of money, too!  Think how much one case of water costs and how much lugging them around isn’t all that fun, either.  Storing them in the closet or pantry.  Keeping the fridge stocked.  A $10-$20 water bottle will pay for itself qui