Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EFLtrainer]

This thread is a way to start making, or continue things you're already doing and share them, changes to reduce your carbon footprint - a.k.a help reduce global warming. Add your own. Number them, please!

1. If you've heard of SETI at Home, you'll know what this is. If not, the program uses your computer to help crunch numbers for climate modeling. We could set up an EFL teacher's team... take a gander.

Use your computer to save the world.


2. A guide from Time magazine on ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
51 Ways to Reduce

3. Solar ovens. Make yourself a solar oven. I made one back when I was still in California. It cooked the best-tasting food... Incredible. I cooked meats, vegetables, even bread....

Solar Cooking Info --> Make your own oven


Wood Box solar cooker

http://www.cookwiththesun.com/wood-box.html

http://www.cookwiththesun.com/

Here's how I made mine:

Materials:

Two cardboard boxes. One should be 1.5 to 2 inches smaller than the other on all dimensions, i.e., fit inside the larger.

Weather stripping: strips or gel. Be careful about toxins.

A pane of glass, preferably tempered, a little larger than the smaller box.

Insulation. Anything that won't combust at up to 350 degrees F. I used old winter underwear.

Tin foil.

Glue.

Black paint. Non-toxic.

Pots or jars for cooking. Canning jars or other strong jars work great.

1. Cut the top flaps off the two boxes.

2. Using a spacer of some sort on the bottom of the larger, place insulating material in the bottom.

3. Place the second box inside so the top edges are level with each other.

4. Fill the sides with insulating material.

5. Using the flaps from the smaller box, cover the gap between the two boxes.

6. Either A. paint the interior of the small box black or B. coat it with tin foil, reflective side out, of course. (Use research to choose. I went with black.)

7. Place the weather stripping along the outer top edge of the inner box. If using gel, coat the glass part of the glass - cut to size - that will rest on the stripping with oil or some such and place it down on the gel to create a custom mold for the glass to fit into. Use a bead that will extend beyond the glass to leave an edge for a snugger fit and to prevent slippage of the glass. Let it dry.

8. Using the box tops, cover them with tin foil. You can either arrange them into one parabola or mount them separately. I made one foldable parabola. You can choose to mount this on the box or have it be removable. You're looking for about a 45 degree angle from the plane of the top of the oven. Adjustable parabolas are good.

9. when cooking, you'll need to be able to point the box at the sun. There are two ways:

A. Use larger boxes and cut them at a 45 degree angle from front to back to begin with or B. build a rack to hold the oven so that it is angled to the sun. I. e., the top of the cooker should be pointing at the sun, if possible.

10. The cooker will need to be turned about every 20 to 30 minutes. Or, you can build your own simple solar powered Lazy Susan. Used to be one available on-line...

There ya go!

[gang ah jee]

[EFLtrainer]

Info only, please.

[The_Conservative]

[gang ah jee]

[The_Conservative]

[mindmetoo]

I use handkerchiefs in place of kleenex.

[gang ah jee]

[SPINOZA]

The country with the lowest emissions is Chad. We should look to the lifestyle of the ordinary people of Chad and try to emulate that.

[mindmetoo]

I don't think Gore argues gutting your life style. I think he just argues making some changes to obvious alternatives. If we can't get people to switch out their incandescent for fluorescent bulbs, it's little point asking for more changes.

[EFLtrainer]

I think you're all idiots. (Except the handkerchiefer.)

This could be a useful thread. Shut up and post something useful.

[mindmetoo]

- Keep your own reusable stir stick for use at Starbucks. No oil is used to make it or no carbon absorbing tree dies to make it.

I remember at my student newspaper back in the late '80s, they introduced the "lug a mug" program. Instead of getting your coffee in a styrofoam cup, buy a plastic mug from the campus environmental club and buy your coffee in that. A rather novel concept in 1988. Alright. Whatever. Now our student newspaper had an op-ed page where students (not necessarily staff writers) could write longer opinion pieces. Very few students ever really bothered to write an op-ed piece, so it was mostly staff writers who filled that bit of news hole.

Anyway, one day a student came up and gave us his "anti lug-a-mug" op ed to run. Okay, fine. We ran it. Next week we got another anti lug-a-mug op ed piece from another student. Great. We ran that. Third week, we got a pro lug-a-mug piece. And then the week after we had a THIRD anti lug-a-mug piece. This was a huge mystery. I mean, 1988 was a turbulent era. We had free trade with the USA being negotiated, Reagan was talking about winning a nuclear war, there was apartheid in South Africa. There were lots of major social issues going down. But never a peep on them by the student body at large. Something about the lug-a-mug campaign just lit a fire under the butts of people.

After the third anti lug-a-mug article, the head of the campus environmental group came up to our offices. She was nearly in tears. She wanted to know just what the student paper had against them and the lug-a-mug. Why were we running this smear campaign?

The editor-in-chief explained we didn't have anything against them. He pointed out one of their lug-a-mugs sat on nearly every desk in our office. It's just that the op-ed piece was for student opinions and if we got one, and if it wasn't racist/sexist/homophobic, we pretty much ran it. Why people were all fired up about this issue was a mystery never solved.

[enns]

...

[OiGirl]

1. Handkerchiefs, ditto.
2. Reuseable tea mig, ditto.
3. Copy on both sides of all pieces of paper. (Recycle the leftovers of everyone else in the office.)

[mindmetoo]