Why Don't People Care About Taking Care of the Planet?

If your body was acting up and you knew that things weren't right, most of us would do something about it.  Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case when it comes to taking care of the thing that takes care of us-The Planet, Earth, The Blue Marble.

It seems that most people are living in denial that anything is wrong with the environment and/or that if there is something wrong that "they" (whoever "they" are) will take care of the problem.  Guess what, we are all "they".   We all need to pitch in.

While there are some really passionate groups, like 5 Gyres, Surfrider and Greenpeace, in the world trying very hard, there is relatively little being done to really solve the problems.  It's not for lack of effort, but rather lack of caring by the greater population.  Until we can change the mindset of the masses, and governments get serious about of pollution, over consumption, energy entitlement, and educating the public on the enormity of the situation, we will continue a downward spiral of destroying the very thing that gives us life.

Unfortunately we have set up our society to value money and possessions over happiness and the true prosperity of living in a beautiful, healthy world.  We can't take the money or belongings with us, but we can leave the world in a sustainable environment, so that the world can continue to prosper.  I often worry that in 200 years the world will look back on this time as the most destructive time in the history of the earth.  It is destruction in the name of greed.

As we continue putting more people on earth, we will be demanding more resources-but where will these resources come from?  The planet is only so big and we are taking the resources at alarming rates.

Quick Thought
Think about a 1500 sq. ft. house.
Now think about filling that home with oil.
Now think about the enormity of 14 million of those homes filled with oil.
That is how much oil the world is pulling from the earth each year.
We are creating a HUGE hole in the earth and it gets bigger every year.

How long can that possibly continue?

We need to change and we all need to be involved.

Making better, more informed purchases, being active in getting laws changed and empowering the world's citizens on how they can help is essential to sustaining the world's resources.

Read labels.  Know where your products are coming from and what is in them.

Buy local.  Products that don't need to travel far, save transportation resources.  You might be surprised what you can find at thrift shops and your local farmers market are great places to start.

Reduce.  Reduce your needs.  Think about every purchase.  Not only will you save money, but you will also be slowing down the need for the earth's resources.

Reuse.  So many things can be reused that we just throw away.  Don't use plastic grocery bags, bring your own.  It sickens me that we use these things for minutes, then send them off to the dump forever.

Before recycling my 8.5" x 11" paper, I turn it into scrap paper.  I fold it in quarters, tear it into 4 equal parts and use it to write notes on.

Recycle.  Hopefully you don't use plastic bottles, but if you do, please recycle.  There are also places to recycle just about everything else.  Check out a great app iRecycle, on the app store.  They make finding a place to recycle almost any item, a little easier.

Plastic.  It's hard to get away from, but there are some alternatives.  Bring a reusable water bottle with you, buy whole foods-not packaged, don't drink bottle soda, look for alternatives to plastic whenever possible.  Also you may want to check out My Plastic Free Life.

Driving.  Maybe you could walk or bike instead of drive.  It's good exercise and you will be saving the planet.  If you do drive, be conscience about combining trips and your driving habits can make a world of difference too.  Keep you vehicle in good shape and hopefully you are driving a vehicle with great gas mileage.

Spread the Word.  Let people you know what they can do to help.  Remember you are trying to educate, not judge people.  Many are conscious about the situation, but don't know where to turn, or think it will be so difficult.  By educating yourself, you will be able to help others and build this movement from a trend to a lifestyle of an entire planet.

The earth is sick and needs our help.  Are you willing to do your part?

Cool Green Cars

It is no secret that America loves cars!

I love my car too, but for the first time in my life, I find myself guilty of having car envy.  No, not the BMW's or Mercedes that are a dime a dozen on the LA freeways.  Not even the fabulous Ferrari or Lotus that you see here as well.

I have car envy for vehicles that are changing the future of cars as we speak.  You are seeing them more frequently across in California and across America too.

I'm talking about the Nissan Leaf, the Chevy Volt and the car I absolutely drool over, the Tesla S.

The least expensive is the Nissan Leaf so let's start there.  The Leaf is great for the budget minded eco geek, and don't we all have a little geek in us?

While its range is just 75 miles, Nissan states that the average American drives just 29 miles/day.  Sounds like it could work for a lot of us, most of the time, but we may still want to have another car in the family for any longer trips.

The Leaf has some great features too.  You have to check out the birdseye camera that let's you see all of your immediate surroundings to help with parking.  Parking is like playing a video game.  You can actually see how close you are to objects on all sides of the car.  Very cool and very functional.

The remote start allows you to start your vehicle from anywhere.  Think about it, you are having that big production meeting in the restaurant, it's 100° outside and your car is charging in the parking lot.  You start it up while you are having dessert, turn on the AC and cool that baby off before you even leave the restaurant.  If you are fully charged, you won't even lose any range either.

While it's range is a bit limited, the Leaf does have some really great features.

The Nissan Leaf starts at $21,300 or lease for as little as $199/mo.


When I first heard about the Chevy Volt, I didn't like the concept. An electric engine that gets you about 35 miles, then a combustion engine takes over, not only propelling the car, but recharging the electric engine as well.

At the moment electric cars are limited, due in part because it takes so long to charge, and the mileage is limited.  That's why the Volt is a terrific segway vehicle for Chevy to get into the Electric Car market.

It's a practical solution for those of us with range anxiety.  Let's face it, you might not get 35 miles of actual range in LA traffic, heat and hills.  So what do you do when you get low on charge?  Just let the combustion engine take over.   It will recharge the electric motor and still get 37 MPG.  In fact you can drive from LA to NY and still get great mileage while having no range anxiety.

It's stylish inside and a fun car to drive too.  I'm loving this car.

The ChevyVolt starts at $34,185 (minus your $7500 tax credit), making it $26,685 or lease for as little as $299/mo.


The Tesla S is the car I just drool over.  Every time I see one on the road, I go into this crazy trance.  They aren't cheap, for good reason.  Not only is it a beautiful vehicle, it has amazing performance and according to independent testing, it is incredibly safe too.

I find the lines of the Tesla S to be absolutely amazing.  They flow from one end to the other, reminding me of the beauty of ocean waves.  Then you crawl inside this luxurious beauty and see the gigantic 17" touchscreen display that shows you everything about the car you need ever want to know and even let's you surf the web (but not while you are driving please).  It's a beautiful vehicle inside and out.

The Tesla S gets up to 265 miles on a single charge, so you don't have any range anxiety there.  Presently you can find charging stations that allow you to charge your Tesla S up to 50% in just 30 min.  The real excitement here though is Tesla's plan for battery swapping stations.  They are working on battery changing stations that would allow you to change your battery out, faster than you can get gas.  That will be something to see.

Let's face it none of us want to get hurt out there on the road and the Tesla S has a 5 star safety rating.  The battery pack is located directly underneath the car, giving it a low center of gravity, making it difficult to rollover.  Even if it did, the roof can apparently hold 4 G's, the equivalent of stacking 4 Tesla S's on roof, without the roof collapsing.  To date they have not seen a battery catch fire in testing or in any on street crashes.  It doesn't mean it won't happen, but they seem to be doing something right.

Tesla S starts at $69,900. Use that $7500 tax credit and it makes it $62,400 effectively.


I do like my Honda Insight.  At 42 mpg (my actual mileage) it works out very well in the stop and go LA traffic, that's the freeways I'm talking about.  When it is time to get a new car, you know where I'll be looking for my car of the future.

Remember, the grass can always be greener.  When it's your time for you to trade in and trade up, you now know where to start looking for that new eco car!  Cleaner cars are better for America, as all of these reduce emissions and save money on fuel.  These 3 cars and their successors will have a great impact on cleaning up our environment, and are pretty cool cars in their own right too.

America love's cars, why not get one that will love America back?

Why Be Green? Oil Supplies

Welcome to Why Be Green.  I hope to shed some light on the importance of being green, also known as being eco friendly.

Let's start with oil.

Since discovering oil, the world has gone into a frenzy.  We currently use approx 93.25 million barrels of oil each and everyday (that is approx 4 Billion US Gallons).  That is 1.5 Trillion gallons/year.  You could fill up approx 15,000,000 US homes (1500 sq. ft.) with the amount of oil we are pulling out of the ground each year.  Can you imagine 15 million homes filled with oil?  That's a lot of oil.

So let's face it, oil is finite.  It takes millions of years to create the oil-at least the natural way, yet we are consuming it at an incredible rate and nobody in the know is willing to tell us just how much is left.  In fact some countries may be hiding the true numbers of reserves.  Time magazine (Feb. 2011) reported that Saudi Arabia may have overstated by 40% how much oil they actually have left in the ground.

Why do you think we are now producing oil from the tar sands in Canada and building the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to Texas through the Ogallala Water Aquifer (largest aquifer in the US)?  Because it is easy?  Guess again.  It is some of the most difficult and expensive oil to produce, yet we are doing it anyway.  Perhaps it is because it is all that's left out there to quench our incredible thirst.

We have created a society based on oil.  Whether it is watching TV, going to the movies, buying  food, clothing, shelter etc.  Everything is based on oil, yet we will run out of oil at some point in time.  It is inevitable.  What then?

It's a scary thought that nobody wants to address, but we need to and we need to address it now.

Please join me in my journey to educate society on not just Why Be Green, but also how to be green.