"Green" House

Facets of a healthy house:

"The biggest moral issue of our century"

That's what climate change has been called. In addition to hurting our pocketbooks, the build-up of carbon/carbon dioxide is a moral issue. As ice melts and the level of seawater rises, those who contributed the least to global warming are and will be suffering the most. Climate change in the form of prolonged drought in southern Sudan caused the migration of many peoples northward for survival, where more troubles awaited them.
 

It is already estimated that Climate Change is harming (to the point of displacement) several hundred thousand people a year. We see effects of climate change, such as warmer winters, less rain, migration of tropical disease north (Nile Virus, Texas Longhorn Tick), melting of the glaciers, loss of animal habitat, etc.
 

In Pennsylvania, within our lifetimes, we expect to see the end of trout fishing (because trout are cold-water fish) and the end of maple trees and local maple syrup production, because maple trees need colder climates. The number one hazard for us from climate change right now is flooding.

91% of greenhouse gases come from fossil fuels. The US produces 350,000,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually, more than 106 developing countries combined. Pennsylvania is #3 among states in production of greenhouse gases.

The top 6 greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane (from natural gas consumption, livestock, rice), nitrous oxide (from fertilizer), HCFCs (refrigerants), perfluorocarbons (PFCs, from aluminum production - hence the benefit of recycling aluminum cans), and sulfur hexafluorides (electricity transport and distribution systems).

"Sicko," Michael Moore's must-see movie on the health care system in this country, has a short clip of a European person saying that Americans need to learn to think in terms of "us," instead of "me."

When will we begin to pull together, realizing that we are all temporary inhabitants of our only planetary home? When will we begin to learn from the Iroquois of hundreds of years ago, who made decisions in light of the effects those decisions would have on the seventh generation after them?

This section on "Green House" will be an ever-growing chapter, presenting ideas for truly energy efficient, least toxic, less moldy, and sustainable homes. How does your home stack up? And what steps can you take to reduce the effects of past mistakes?

Welcome to this challenge that we all face - for only a relative handful of Americans live in a home that is healthy for both themselves and the planet... when, had we but headed the Iroquois' warning, we all could have been living in healthy houses.

We could have been breathing good air, enjoying good water quality, having minimal energy bills, and saving Mother Earth as well. Instead, we have to work on correcting decisions that, in hindsight, were short-sighted and ill-informed, that treated the earth and its precious resources as if they would go on forever, with no adverse consequences to our health. Now, we have ever-rising rates of cancer, asthma, autism, etc., and our Mother Earth, too, is suffering and is no longer the sustainable and friendly planet to human she was not so long ago.

It's time, it's past time, for action. Let us do what we can, starting with our homes. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," - Lao Tzu.

We need a people's movement, because most of the politicians just don't get it yet...but they will, as snowballing climate change consequences become more and more evident.

One of my clients, a scientist from a Maryland University, stated before the 2004 election: "Forget the politicians. We need a scientist in the White House."

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