Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why Not Make Even More Out Of Your Eco Friendly House And Garden This Year?

Rather than just living in your house as normal - why not consider a few of these ways to no only improve the eco friendly qualities of your home - but to make it work for you too.

I mean, why should a house just sit there doing nothing? Make it more useful than it already is by making some small changes or concessions….

Here are a few ideas for you to consider with regards to ’sharing’ your home with others for the benefit of others - as well as your bank balance in some cases!

Empty Rooms Are A Waste:
Even if you turn of all heating and seal up all windows - an empty room is a waste of resources!

It’s already in a home filled with energy and bodies - so why leave rooms empty when you could make them work for a living and keep the worlds ‘footprints’ smaller - after all, the more people living in the same house can save on so many levels!

If you aren’t into a full time tenant and live in a busy town or city, why not consider a Monday-to-Friday tenant instead. No huge commitment, less belongings and they are usually a reliable adult too!

Or the other end of the extreme - if your house is too big for you but you don’t want to downsize for whatever reason, then why not eco renovate and create a self contained unit in the basement or whatever and rent this out as as a permanent let or holiday home depending on your location.

Hotel Rooms Even More So:
Why not treat your home as a swap for a hotel room - either as a holiday for yourself or while you are away.

Firstly, you could take a holiday swap this year instead of booking a hotel. let a family move into your home while you go live in theirs! Not everyone is looking for an equal swap either - you might get a cute cottage for your family home, or a spacious farmhouse for your city flat!

Secondly, if you live near a local attraction or event (like Wimbledon or a show ground) then why not time your holidays to coincide with a huge demand for lettings! Signing up with an agency could bring you up to £2000 a week depending on your home and the event you are close to!

Parking Spot Or Tennis Court?
Same goes for the outside of your home - why not rent out unused space to others at virtually no cost to you or really any effort either!

If you have land that people could park on and you live in a busy location - why not let someone park there? You aren’t using it - and they probably waste time and petrol every morning looking for a spot!

And the same goes for your tennis court, trampoline, pool, piano, climbing frame or anything else you have sitting around that you aren’t using 24 hours a day. You might not want to charge your closest friends - but a few quid for a game of tennis for some young kids or keep-fit oldies won’t go amiss - basically paying for it’s own maintenance.

Your Skills Too:
It’s not just physical things that can help out others and bring in a few extra pounds - what about your own skills?

Music lessons, language lessons, discussion groups, Body Shop parties and product research groups. All could use your skills and your lounge, conservatory or kitchen - and of course - you!

Or if you are on a country walk or in a cute village, why not sell cakes and tea or garden veg and flowers in your front garden for passers-by!

House In The Country

Get Your Home On TV!
If you live in a city, your home has a great garden, great views or great architecture, or you have some great internal features - you could ‘model’ your home!

Let a photo or TV agency know about it and you could rent your house and garden out for magazines, TV or even movies!

You don’t even have to do anything, they set it all up and then take it all away again - pain free and you won’t be in any of the shots - unless you want to be!

Should you use normal plastic loads of times - or biodegradable plastic just the once?

There have been many recent developments in the plastic industry and the most controversial is the biodegradable versions that we had all waited so long for!

However, there are some unforeseen problems with these new versions - and it is a difficult eco friendly choice between them and ‘normal’ plastics.

See the 2 examples below of the 2 ways in which these plastic can be more eco friendly:

1) Buy a product in a normal plastic bottle and either re-use it forever or recycle it again and again, or;

2) Buy a product in a biodegradable plastic bottle (either HBP or OBP) that contains ingredients that will speed up its bio-degradation or turn it into compost when you dispose of it.

The 2 don’t mix!  It has to be 1 or the other!

What Does Biodegradable Mean?
If you first consider the word ‘biodegradable’ in its general meaning - it is any product (solid or liquid) that will break down naturally into environmentally safe and virtually natural products that can be used by living organisms in around 6 months.

However, there is no legal definition in terms of products in the stores - so anything claiming to be ‘biodegradable’ could be just that - or could be nothing of the sort; even if it has green pattern all over it and a picture of some wildlife on it!

So, what these biodegradable plastics are trying to do is to be better than existing plastics.  They claim that they will break down into less harmful and polluting particles relatively quickly compared to standard plastics, and so will have less of a detrimental effect on wildlife in the long term.

Don’t forget that existing plastics will also break down naturally (in the sense that if you leave a carrier bag part buried in your garden - it will eventually fall apart) but the plastic doesn’t actually disappear, it will just be in ever smaller parts.

Why Biodegradable Plastic Then?
Well, there has been an awful lot of bad press for plastic lately - what with sea turtles swallowing carrier bags and albatross feeding bits of plastic to their young - not to mention the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch that people were looking for a way to make plastic bottles, containers and other products get a lot smaller a lot quicker.

By making a plastic that breaks down as soon as possible means that whole bottles and bags won’t be found floating in the sea killing birds and turtles any more!

Washed Up Plastic Waste

You still need to be aware of the way the products break down though to be most effective - for example the 2 types of biodegradable plastic currently available as HBP (hydro-biodegradable plastic) and OBP (oxy-biodegradable plastic).

And as their name suggests; one needs water to break down quickly and the other needs air - so bury these in bin bags in land fill sites won’t really make either of them disappear any quicker than normal plastics - but imagine they were litter in the countryside or rubbish floating in the Atlantic.

It’s a whole different story then!  They would soon disappear making our wild areas cleaner and safer for living things!

What’s The Problem Then?
We have discussed that biodegradable plastics must be the best for the environment then - as they don’t stay in the environment for ever and ever as whole plastic products - they break down fast into less harmful particles!  Right?

Well, it’s not so clear cut as you can’t recycle them. 

Adding either HBP’s or OBP’s to recycled plastic can actually be more harmful than good - as these new plastics are designed to break down - so they can actually render a recycled plastic product virtually useless in just a few months!  And many councils are actually trying to get them banned as a result!

We all know that there is only a reason to make a product if it is financially viable - so reducing the need for plastic recycling could cause an end to recycled products!

And if the biodegradable products are meant to break down - then we are actually creating a market for more and more plastic to be created.  Rather than re-use your old toiletries bottles and food containers again and again - you would have to keep buying new ones instead!

So, is the new plastic actually any more eco friendly than the old?

Make some time to go to a show to get some top tips for your eco friendly house and garden!

The whole show doesn’t have to be uber green - just on the right theme, and then you can go and pick out the bits you like and put pressure on the companies that are not offering what you want!

Many tips and tricks for home redecorating or garden landscaping don’t have to be new-fangled and complicated - there are many things that we can do that are eco friendly without even trying!

Also at shows, you get to see products that aren’t found in supermarkets due to their ‘rules’ on listings, like biodegradable toiletries, organic foods and fair trade supplies.  You just won’t find these on the high street - so they bring them to the shows so you can get hands-on experience with them rather than blindly ordering things off the Internet!

1) The National Home Improvement Show - Earls Court, London
With over 18 exhibitors being from energy efficiency companies and talks and seminars from environmentally active lecturers and TV presenters - you know you could be on to a good thing here!

Take your pick from all the departments including renovations, kitchens, bathrooms and gardens as see if you can get some great advice on using the right resources, getting eco friendly appliances and other homewares as well as sustainable produced garden furniture and buildings.

2) The National Wedding Show - NEC, Birmingham
If you are even remotely thinking of getting married - then you must consider a trip to a wedding fair.  Weddings can cost at least £20,000 for a simple affair - so if you are after an eco friendly wedding, then you had better plan in advance to make sure that you get the best products and services booked up in advance - rather than have to settle for second best when you run out of time!

And, there are bound to be things involved with a wedding that you hadn’t really even considered looking in to like car hire and tablecloths!  At a show like this - they have already done all the thinking; just turn up with a notepad and pen and comfy shoes!

3) Mind, Body & Soul 2010 - Olympia, London
Take a day out to unwind from the stresses of life - and try out some of the great relaxation remedies, complementary therapies and practical sessions.

Find yourself surrounded by experts on stress, therapy, yoga and many other well known and well used techniques that could help you realise your potential and make some serious changes in your life, your work or your free time.

Raised Garden

4) Grand Designs Live - NEC, Birmingham
Covering everything from food to flowers, lofts to landscaping and from sash windows to sustainable sheds!

Seriously, it’s not just about buying a plot of land or derilict church and building a massive monstrosity on it like the earlier Grand Design TV Shows - its all about making things better, more eco friendly and long lasting - and not just for 1 home - but for whole communities.  

5) The Baby Show - Earls Court, London
Come here and find out about everything you will need for your little one before they arrive - and for your growing ones who need some new inspiration and equipment - or for yourself to help cope with the new lifestyle that is shaping your every day life.

Not only will your get the chance to try out all the existing products that are new to you - there will also be innovative products and companies out there with something new to the whole world!  Whether it’s a new eco friendly material, new biodegradable toiletries or organic baby foods - you can bet that it is all here!

So, what are you waiting for - make some space in your diary….

Brilliant ideas to purify your lifestyle and feel good about it - she says….

Basically this book tries to cover all the organic and natural ways you can overcome the ‘evil’ or modern products and all the chemicals they contain.

And to prove it, she divides her advice up into 48 categories of ‘nasties’ including make-up and nappies. She explains in each case why we need to swap to more natural alternatives - by using scientific and medical arguments against each - and then offers organic, (man-made) chemical-free and more ‘natural’ products or ingredients that you could use instead.

The Book Itself:
I loved the layout of this book, and it was so easy to read that you find yourself reading chapter after chapter.  Each chapter is a 4-6 page debate as to the pro’s and con’s of each mini subject including for example, Make-Up, chocolate and toothpaste.

Hughes-Cooper helps to explain some of the main down-sides to the products we use today and offers alternatives.  There isn’t a full explanation of each due to the ’short’ nature of each chapter, and some of her answers or arguments are a bit vague or non-proven - but she certainly makes you think about all these issues while you are reading. 

She regularly uses phrases like ’this is totally natural’ - but remember that this is what they used to say about Arsenic, Lead and radio-active products that ‘glow in the dark’. It’s also important to remember that anything that can be found in plants, animals or in the earth is technically ‘natural’ in origin, but I doubt you will be in a hurry to use toadstools, uranium or snake venom in your kitchen or bathroom!

Due to the way in which you can read through this book relatively quickly, I found that I would stop for a moment after reading a particular fact and think ‘Oh my goodness, I should stop using that’ but then read on through to another section and do the same again. It seemed like page after page of doom and gloom, and worries about my health, but then I just carried on reading.  Almost like I wanted to find out how awful I was being to my own body, but then actually did nothing about it.

As with most of the ‘best things’ in this life, whether it’s growing your own veg, not flying, using only organic make-up, growing sprouted mung bens and seeking out the parabens free version of everything, the thought of it all just seems to overwhelm the normal working person.  I myself would love to consider doing most of the things Hughes-Cooper recommends in her book, but the time it would take and the possible financial costs just seem a bit prohibitive.  And it left me feeling like a bit of a failure!

Yes, there are some easy ones to achieve, like growing my own herbs in the window box and buying organic milk (as I do them already), but others I hadn’t really thought of doing, like buying hemp products instead of 100% cotton and un-bleached feminine products - which should both be quite easy to start doing. 

However, something else caught my attention as I read this book: Organic doesn’t automatically mean eco friendly - you might need a trade-off.  For example making your own smoothies, fruit juices, pies and vegetable noodles, all involve buying a new piece of electrical equipment - and creates a lot more washing up!  Neither of these are eco friendly.

Should you buy organic wines from Australia or non-organic British wines?  Think of the weight of the glass bottles coming from the other side of the world!  And there are constant references to using ‘natural’ cleaning products like white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - but can you imagine what would happen if we all used these instead of all the shop-brought cleaners?  Vinegar is from grapes - so excessive amounts of water-hungry fruits will need to be grown to keep up with demand; and the soda is mined from the ground - so imaging habitats being destroyed to ‘naturally’ clean all the kitchens in the UK and US! 

I totally agree, however, that our actions can make us humans healthier and at the same time have less of a ‘chemical’ impact on the environment.  And sometimes the choice you have is so very simple.  However, there is still so much that you need to work quite hard to achieve, and I just don’t think that everything in this book can be achieved by a working family.

I mean I thought I was putting a reasonable effort in to the whole eco friendly/organic movement, but have only seemed to have achieved about a third of the things mentioned in the book. with maybe alf a dozen or so more in the pipeline now after reading it.  So, I hope that everyone who reads it (just like me) manages to get a few new ideas from it, because all those small things will soon add up!

Result: 3/5
If you were just reading this book the one time, then it might not really be of any use to you, other than making you think about how many toxins you and your children have absorbed over your lifetime, but if you were to use this as a reference book then things could be very different - and my Result would rise to 4/5 for it.

It certainly has it’s uses as a starting point for the layman, and has highlighted a few new things for me, but the thought of searching endlessly on the Internet for the right products, or reading label after label when I only have 10 minutes free time before having to collect the kids from school - or worse still, I have the kids in tow, then these things become unreasonable to achieve.

This book is part of the  ‘52 Briliant Ideas’ series, so I will be looking out for other relevant books to give me some more inspiration!

ISBN: 978-1-905940-57-8

When you visit you local stores - you aren’t just saving petrol these days!

There are many, many reasons to shop in your local stores, but supporting small businesses rather than national and international ‘brands’ is also a key factor in keeping your community intact and offering a wide variety of choice and prices to suit all budgets and households!

Take a look at the following list to get some idea of the difference you can make as an individual.

You Help Keep Money In The Local Economy:
The first and most important thing you do is to make sure that your lovely stores are re-investing their money in local services and your community.  Shop-keepers have a huge amount of ’sway’ in the high street and your local community, with committees funding new ideas and urban improvements.

You Help Generate New Money:
By making your stores and your community a ‘place for shopping and eating’ as well as clean and organised, you will be attracting people from outside in to your environment who will bring money with them - fuelling further improvements.

You Help Improve Public Services And Transport:
By attracting all these people in to your community, you make sure that the services they - and you - need are there.  These include better public transport, clean toilets, public seating, better parking, cleaner streets and more events and activities being organised. 

Compare travelling through London on the Tube with a shop on every corner to arriving at a village train station in Norfolk with no buses, toilets or even a restaurant that takes credit cards! (and I only went there a couple of months ago!).

Creating Local Jobs & Keeping Local People:
By creating a healthy employment market in your town, you are attracting families to move in therefore keeping the housing market (and house prices) at a steady rate - as well as promoting healthy competition between schools with the influx of children - thus making education a priority.

This also includes making sure that elderly residents don’t have to travel some distance to get their shopping.  If you make sure that a variety of shops remain on the high street, then this gived those less mobile the opportunity to visit individual stores for their goods - rather than having to travel to out-of-town superstores all the time.

Support New Ideas And Entrepreneurs:
People who want to try something new can’t always get their foot in the door of larger companies, so want to start out alone - and your high street is the perfect place for them.  By visiting them and buying just one little thing can be the difference between them surviving the next few months!

You must remember the high streets a few months ago after we lost some big name shops - we need to help fill the gaps back up and see some new stores popping up.  They won’t move in unless they know you will support them.

Be Unique:
Unique things are what we love - think of the Brighton Lanes or London’s Covent Garden - we wouldn’t be without them.  Their individuality allows our homes to be unique too!  With a thousand different scarves to choose from - you can be just you!  Imagine if everyone had the same curtains, same ornament over the fireplace or 1 of only 3 types of fruit bowl in the world!

So grab your purse and your cotton bag - and head into town!

Have you tried acupuncture to help cure ongoing illnesses?

There are many people who have not even considered alternative remedies to help with their problems like headaches, stress, addictions and asthma - yet it could be the best decision they ever made.

So what is acupuncture all about, what does it actually do and how often do you need to get treatment?  Here, I will try to answer these questions, giving you the information that could help you make a decision to try something new.

What Is Acupuncture?
There is a history of the use of acupuncture for over 3000 across the world, as a non-invasive natural healing process for a whole range of conditions.

Patients often report that not only is the original condition improved or ‘cured’ completely, but that they notice other improvements and generally feel ‘better’ in themselves.

Holistic treatments like this can often give these results, as the person seeking alternative remedies is more likely to make other lifestyle changes to get the most out of the treatment.

Acupuncture is believed to assist the body with it’s natural healing process - which is noticeable all the time; like healing wounds, creating blisters and pus and fighting off colds and ‘flu’.

Practitioners believe that if the body has something wrong with it - you are ‘unbalanced’ and this will show on the surface with certain symptoms like asthma, high blood pressure and heartburn.

How Does It Work?
The system uses tiny short sterile needles which enter the body at certain points related to an ancient internal system that is believed to keep the ‘inner self’ in balance.

The needles are more like ‘markers’ than actual western needles used in vaccinations and other treatments, so they are not hollow, huge or long and are not attached to anything.  Just like large pins if you like.

By re-balancing the inside of the person, it is believed that the external effects of this will become reduced and eventually disappear.  Some people report an instant result, others can take longer to ‘feel better’.

What Can You Expect At An Appointment?
As this type of medical treatment works with the whole body rather than just the noticeable problem, your first appointment may be longer than expected and involve a lot of questions that might not seem relevant to you.

Typically the first appointment can be an hour or more, and may well be the first of 2 or 3 initial appointments.  Don’t assume that they are making you come back several times to ‘get more money’, they need to see how your body reacts to the initial treatment and go from there.

You may be asked about your sleep patterns, other illnesses, how often you drink alcohol and even how much food you eat!  It’s all relevant and can determine how your treatment progresses.

As can a general health check.  By checking blood pressure, skin condition and temperature amongst other things, the practitioner can find out if there is anything serious underlying the issue which would need a medical doctor before proceeding with this alternative treatment.

Is Treatment Ongoing?
After the initial set of appointments, many patients return for regular weekly or fortnightly check ups or further appointments.

Generally this depends on the length of time they have had the condition and how serious the condition is.  And of course how well the body reacts to the treatment in the first place - which depends on whether you gave honest answers to the initial health questions!

Some people continue to visit the acupuncture centre every 3 months or so even after the problem has gone - just to make sure that it doesn’t return!

However, the choice is yours!

Trying alternative remedies to cure a medical problem can be better for you - and the environment!

If you regularly get pain, either as headaches, leg pain or whatever else, you can find that you need to constantly keep a supply of painkillers in your home and sometimes even carry them with you all the time - just in case!

Well, it is possible that an alternative remedy could get rid of your dependency on traditional tablets, caplets and dis-solvable potions - and save all those chemicals from being made, transported, packaged and disposed of.

Why Alternative?
Not everyone believes that alternative remedies such as acupuncture, hypnotherapy and homoeopathy will help them with their issues - but they never really give them a chance.

Mainly, people assume that these alternative treatment will be too expensive  - but many do not really compare this one-off cost with the amount they spend on tablets over a period of months and how much time they lose from work or play while being in pain in the first place!

There are also those people who listen to their friends without getting all the best information or not thinking properly. 

For example, person A may well be able to get rid of headaches with just paracetamol, where as their friend, person B, needs something stronger.  So if person B gets a headache and person A gives them a paracetamol - it ‘won’t work’.

Then when person C gets a headache and wants to buy paracetamol - their friend - person B - will tell them not to buy them as they ‘don’t work’ and the ‘myth’ moves on through the population.

It’s the same with alternative remedies.  One person didn’t get the result they wanted, or didn’t follow the practitioners advice and so pass on the opinion that it ‘doesn’t work’ - possibly preventing them and their friends and colleagues from ending their own  pain or discomfort naturally, and so leaving them dependant on medication.

Other Benefits:
Not only could it leave you pain free and a lot happier, curing illnesses with alternative remedies has many other benefits to the person involved and the environment too!

Firstly, this type of treatment usually involves a holistic approach, which means that everything about the patient is treated rather than just the actual pain.  This means that other lifestyle and dietary issues are addressed to get to the cause of the pain.

Imagine if your headaches were caused by too much cheese but you didn’t know this.  And the directions on a packet of Anadin certainly won’t consider the cause of the headache, so you will just keep taking tablets.

But, cut out the cheese and cut out the pain completely!  No tablets needed!

And, if the tablets aren’t needed, then you won’t be needing all their packaging either.  So not need to throw away the plastic, and recycle the cardboard everytime.  And if you don’t need them then the store needs to order less and all the way back to the raw ingredients there will be less - total impact reduction!

And one more And - if people are less reliant on curing common ailments with tablets, maybe pharmaceutical companies can start spending their research money on more important illness and diseases rather than just tablets for headaches and cream for itchy skin!

Planning to lose weight and give up smoking - 2 perfect eco friendly resolutions!

Every New Year there are thousands of people vowing to give up smoking and lose weight for the new year - so why not do it for real this time rather than just putting in a little bit of effort in front of the friends!

We know the reason we manage to eat a bit healthier in January is because we have eaten so much junk over the winter that we would rather not face another strawberry trifle or fried leftovers! 

And the symbolic start of the new year makes us decide that it’s a good time to be a bit healthier - but when you go back to work and the month end bills start to come through after the longest month of the year - it virtually always has 5 Fridays - you are stressed enough to just keep on smoking!

So why not make these 2 count seriously towards your new eco friendly lifestyle for 2010.

Losing Weight:
This has 2 sides to it’s eco benefit; eating less and exercising more, so lets look at these in detail.

Eating Less - we all know that we buy, cook and eat much more food than we need - and much of the food isn’t nutritious enough to make a difference.  So by restricting your meal size and number of meals, you can reduce the pressure on farmers and local stores to grow so much in the first place.

The food has to be grown and transported to the stores too which uses valuable energy and petrol or gas as well.  In a larger scale example the advantages become clear: if the average person buys 20 sprouts from the store, and a lorry from the farm can only fit in 1000 sprouts in it’s hopper - that means one journey feeds 50 families. 

But what if each of your 3 dinner guests only really eats 5 sprouts each and you throw the leftover 5 away?  That means that that lorry carried 250 sprouts for nothing.  And if people only brought what they actually ate - that original lorry could have fed nearly 67 families (17 more than before).

And who says we should be eating until we are stuffed anyway?  Buy less, eat less, waste less.

Exercising More- Clearly, if you are exercising more then you may well be walking or cycling a lot more than before - both of which have massive eco benefits.

By spending more time out of your car, you are saving on fuel and emissions - but you are also making your local area richer.  If you visit local parks and other amenities you are making them worth keeping and maintaining - and you could become involved in local projects.

And by taking a bit longer to get somewhere or exploring somewhere in closer detail you could become a bit more knowledgeable of local species and habitats - and even see places, buildings or wildlife that you haven’t seen before (as you fly at 50 mph down the link road!).

Also, more exercise will make you a healthier person, delaying the signs of aging and reducing your need for routine medications and treatments - all saving you and the community money and energy.  Which leads us on to the other resolution….

Stop Smoking:
Not only is smoking bad for your health on it’s own, it is also bad for your health in terms of the reduction in exercise your may well be having due to being so out of breath.  It has been scientifically proved that smoking causes lung damage - and your lungs are what helps you to be active and exercise more.

However, buying you cigarettes is a never-ending job.  Unless you are a very light smoker or stretch out your roll-ups beyond the meanest student - you will be having to visit a store several times a week.  Smokers never seem to buy them in bulk, they go back and forth all the time, just buying another 20. and I bet the don’t always walk there?

The packaging, the transport, the ingredients - all bad for the environment and your body.  So make an appointment with a hypnotist and get over it!

There are many other ways to help improve your eco friendly lifestyle - so maybe instead of New Year resolutions - have New Month resolutions where you can improve your lifestyle throughout the year!

Bathrooms are sometimes overlooked in a property - but they could make a huge difference!

Today’s families are not only looking for energy efficient additions to a home - they are looking for the eco basics as well - I mean, who would want a ginormous sunken bath or a thick carpet in the bathroom these days?

People want to feel warm and - lets be honest - a little spoilt in their bathrooms. We might want underfloor heating to keep it warm, a shower enclosure to reduce moisture or spills or even low-flow taps to reduce waste. But we still want the mod cons in there.

Everyone visits your bathroom at least twice a day - so why ignore it for it’s eco potential - and for it’s ability to sell your home when you need to move on.

The Eco Benefits:
I’m not suggesting that you start renovating your bathroom now for no reason other than for ‘a change’ as this really would be a waste of resources - but if you have been staring at the same old tiles for years now, or need to make a change for financial or growing family reasons - then why not start considering your options.

For example, if you have many people living under your roof, you might now realise the simplicity (and water-saving ability) of a shower. With 3 or 4 people needing to wash in the morning, a bath each just isn’t an option - and neither is sharing your bath with your grown-up children!

Toilet flushing for a large family can also be a particular drain on water (and your expenses) - so installing a smaller flush facility might well be something you would be considering in the near future.

Personal Change:
Younger children on the way or already in the home might make you think of a smaller bath tub. Well, they certainly don’t need the whole length of it filled with heated water - being only a few feet long themselves.  However, reducing a few feet of your bath could leave room in the corner for that lovely shower you have been waiting for (and save litres and litres of water every week!).

Older people may well also be considering a change around in the bathroom for safety and mobility issues - both being great opportunities to swap old fixtures and fittings for more eco friendly options.

Selling Your Home:
If you are thinking of changing your bathroom for a house sale - then it could well be worth it.

Making sure that this particular room is clean, fresh and full of eco friendly money-saving features could well swing the sale - and people just love to ‘move right in’ without the added worry and cost of having to redecorate.

Also, some people don’t want to work too hard to save energy, so by opting for modern fixtures that do it all for you could have real selling appeal!

And even if they don’t even notice it’s all eco friendly - it will still look great!

With all this talk of climate change and preserving the rainforests - it’s time to get to grips with the facts!

And, to help you understand all the issues surrounding deforestation, climate change, CO2 emissions and what you can do to lessen the impact - the Princes Rainforests Project has produced a small, free, easy to read guide for everyone who is interested in learning more.

HRH The Prince of Wales heads up this booklet and it is supported by a host of other celebrities and ordinary people like you and me.

Why Care?
The Rainforests are a lifeline for our planet, not just for CO2 - although this can make a huge difference to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

The forests absorb and emit moisture that can help cause rainfall in other parts of the Americas - including the plains of North America and the grasses of South America - which in turn feed the world and it’s animals.

The animals and plants that have evolved to live in these areas are also dependant on the forests for their very lives.  Medicinal plants are key to our search for cures and treatments and we could be losing them before we even find them!  And key wildlife can support all the other creatures that live in these delicate ecosystems.

Also, people depend on these areas for their livelihoods and survival.  Generations of native indian tribes have survived in harmony with the rainforests and their way of life is being destroyed by our way of life.

Why Are We Destroying It?
Unfortunately cutting down trees is no longer just about the trees, it’s about what makes more money for the person using the land.

If, for example, a field of trees are worth nothing to anyone apart from the odd free fruit you can eat.  Cutting the trees down to sell for wood could make a decent profit - but using that land for growing simple crops for yourself could make even more money. 

Selling that cleared land for cattle ranching though could make you a hefty sum, and selling it to large scale farmers for soya beans could make a small fortune.

And can we blame them for doing it?  No, if that was your land - and you needed to feed your family - what wouldn’t you do the same?  Everyone needs money - and why not get the most money you can for the same thing - after all, it’s just a field.

Is There A Solution?
There are many ways we can slow or stop this destruction, but it’s not going to be easy.

People are going to have to make an effort to change things and that includes you as an individual checking a few things when you shop, or maybe even being pro-active. A few ideas found in the booklet are as below:

1) Pay to keep trees standing by supporting a charity - and your support doesn’t have to be with money - your time can be just as important.

2) Stop the demand for rainforest products - check your sources for wood, paper and toiletries.

3) Pay to visit that field of trees - if people pay to visit these rainforests while they are standing, they could be worth more than if they were farmed, remember it’s all about what makes the most money forthe people who live there!

4) Help get your voice heard by contacting the government to share your concerns, whether you do this alone or you associate yourself with a larger charity or organisation.

So, go to Rainforest SOS to get your guide and more information about getting your voice heard!