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    Downplay your disposal

    Use your kitchen disposal only occasionally; put waste in its proper place.

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    Rethink waste

    Everything we put into the cans headed to the landfill is a waste of earth's resources. Here's how to analyze your outflow, and channel it to higher uses.

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    Focus on the drain holes

    Most water-saving tips focus on the faucet. I'm encouraging you to focus as well on where the water goes, where it leaves your home.

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    Air Conditioning and Global Warming

    Are you old enough to remember when George H W Bush’s snarky response to global warming was that we should get more air conditioners? Nothing could be further from the truth. A recent Guardian article shows us how air conditioning…

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    How to make thermal drapes

    The heat wave this past week really got to me. We don’t have air conditioning in our home, and even if we did, it would be great to insulate our windows to reduce the load on the a/c units and…

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    Build your own solar cooker

    Amid a record-breaking heat wave, I’m making tonight’s dinner in my solar cooker. It saves energy (LADWP is sending out energy conservation warning emails).  And it avoids heating up my kitchen. We made these easy solar cookers years back as an…

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    6. Community-based investment

    The shift from a growth economy to economic contraction has turned our concepts of “profit” and “income” upside down. The idea of “investment” has similarly been radically altered. In the old paradigm, when we thought about “investments,” it meant turning…