Read 'n' Seed 5: Fourth and Final Review of Do One Green Thing

For the fourth and final quarter I read the last section or part of the book.  This time the primary topic of discussion was regarding ‘Transportation.’  This section included chapter 13 which expanded from page 215 to 225.

The overall main topic, as I mentioned, was about transportation the each chapter was focused on discussing walking, biking, and ride sharing.

After reading the fourth section of the book I would have to say there was 2 main pieces of information I found to be most significant and surprising.  


1. The book gave a list of online stores were you may donate any old, wearable shoes to those who really need them, such as orphans to AIDS victims in Africa.  on is http://www.hoperuns.org/.

2.  One way to 'cut back' on gas is by making sure your tires are properly inflated.  If everyone in the U.S. did this gas consumption would reduce by 3.3 percent (or $24 million a day).  Another interesting fact is that when it comes to driving try to reduce the amount of things you transport.  For every extra 100 pounds your car has to transport a 2 percent lose of gas mileage occurs.

What we can really take away from this is that knowing in the U.S. most people travel by driving a vehicle so these were a few precautions we can do if you have no other option but to drive.

New Terminology:

1. Polycyclics aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs):  potent atmospheric pollutants

I really enjoyed reading this book.  What I appreciated about it was that the book let you know of how you may become more eco-friendly in a number of different areas in your life.  The book explained how adapting these behaviors would benefit the earth as well as yourself and those around you AND it actually gave you names of products to choose over others, which has been super helpful.  The book is also not formatted like most books, so it has been very simple and fun to read.  This means a lot to me because I know I can easily access and look-up the information in the future whether I want to show others about the topic or simply remind myself of how I can be eco-friendly.  This book is very important since I would really like to be more cautious when it comes to taking care of myself and the environment.  This book has been such a useful tool that has really encouraged me to adapt new behaviors and consider making different life choices, which I know will help out everyone and everything in the end.  I would most definitely recommend this book to others and I actually have been encouraging my roommates to read the book!  As I mentioned before this book has broken down the facts about why and how it's important to take care of the earth.  It is also very simple and easy to read so I know the book won't be confusing or hard for them to follow.  I found this book to be very helpful and these are the three most significant things I have learned from it:

1. When it comes to washing dishes and wanting to save more energy and water, would you think hand-washing or dishwashing would be more eco-friendly?  I guessed hand-washing and I was incorrect in my assumption.  On average, using a dishwasher uses only half the electricity and one-sixth of the water than hand-washing does.
2. If every American stopped purchasing water in disposable bottles then we would save a lot of water.  I'm sure this seems like a given point, however, I was not aware that it takes twice as much water to make the disposable bottle.  So you could say that every bottle of water actually represents three bottles of water.  This poses a problem not only because over 80% of disposable bottles end up in landfills, but this also uses up even more water than necessary.  What we can do to help diminish this issue is to purchase reusable bottles, such as steel or aluminum, and fill the bottles with tap water.
3. Most of us are now aware that drinking wine, in moderation, is good for you.  Though people with asthma and allergies have something even more to look forward to.  Studies have shown that people with asthma and/or allergies often prefer white wines over red due to the lower quantities of sulfite, a common allergen, found in the wine.  USDA organic wine forbids any additions of sulfites in the wine.  So organic wine is beneficial for people with these health conditions since enables them to drink without the issue of breathing problems occurring.