Friday, 7 March 2014

10 Ways to Go Green and Save Green

  1. Save energy to save money.
    • Set your thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and a few degrees higher in the summer to save on heating and cooling costs.
    • Install compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) when your older incandescent bulbs burn out.
    • Unplug appliances when you're not using them. Or, use a "smart" power strip that senses when appliances are off and cuts "phantom" or "vampire" energy use.
    • Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible. As much as 85 percent of the energy used to machine-wash clothes goes to heating the water.
    • Use a drying rack or clothesline to save the energy otherwise used during machine drying
      .
  2. Save water to save money.
    • Take shorter showers to reduce water use. This will lower your water and heating bills too.
    • Install a low-flow showerhead. They don't cost much, and the water and energy savings can quickly pay back your investment.
    • Make sure you have a faucet aerator on each faucet. These inexpensive appliances conserve heat and water, while keeping water pressure high.
    • Plant drought-tolerant native plants in your garden. Many plants need minimal watering. Find out which occur naturally in your area.
  3. Less gas = more money (and better health!).

    • Walk or bike to work. This saves on gas and parking costs while improving your cardiovascular health and reducing your risk of obesity.
    • Consider telecommuting if you live far from your work. Or move closer. Even if this means paying more rent, it could save you money in the long term.
    • Lobby your local government to increase spending on sidewalks and bike lanes. With little cost, these improvements can pay huge dividends in bettering your health and reducing traffic.
  4. Eat smart.
  5. Skip the bottled water.

     
    • Use a water filter to purify tap water instead of buying bottled water. Not only is bottled water expensive, but itgenerates large amounts of container waste.
    • Bring a reusable water bottle, preferably aluminum rather than plastic, with you when traveling or at work.
    • Check out this short article for the latest on bottled water trends.
  6. Think before you buy.

     
    • Go online to find new or gently used secondhand products. Whether you've just moved or are looking to redecorate, consider a service like craigslist orFreeSharing to track down furniture, appliances, and other items cheaply or for free.
    • Check out garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops for clothing and other everyday items.
    • Watch a video about what happens when you buy things. Your purchases have a real impact, for better or worse.
  7. Borrow instead of buying.
    • Borrow from libraries instead of buying personal books and movies. This saves money, not to mention the ink and paper that goes into printing new books.
    • Share power tools and other appliances. Get to know your neighbors while cutting down on the number of things cluttering your closet or garage.
  8. Buy smart.

    • Buy in bulk. Purchasing food from bulk bins can save money and packaging.
    • Wear clothes that don't need to be dry-cleaned. This saves money and cuts down on toxic chemical use.
    • Invest in high-quality, long-lasting products. You might pay more now, but you'll be happy when you don't have to replace items as frequently (and this means less waste!).
  9. Keep electronics out of the trash.
    • Keep your cell phones, computers, and other electronics as long as possible.
    • Donate or recycle them responsibly when the time comes. E-waste contains mercury and other toxics and is a growing environmental problem.
    • Recycle your cell phone.
    • Ask your local government to set up an electronics recycling and hazardous waste collection event.
  10. Make your own cleaning supplies.
    • The big secret: you can make very effective, non-toxic cleaning products whenever you need them. All you need are a few simple ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, lemon, and soap.
    • Making your own cleaning products saves money, time, and packaging-not to mention your indoor air quality.
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News

Two passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were travelling on stolen passports, it has been confirmed, as authorities, including the FBI, investigate whether the disaster was the result of a terrorist act.

Whatever happened to the Boeing 777 high above the South China Sea, it was quick and gave the pilots no time to issue a mayday, although there were reports that another Malaysia Airlines pilot flying ahead of the missing flight had managed to contact the plane at the request of air traffic control authorities.

There were also suggestions from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency that the plane may have attempted to turn around, after it spotted oil slicks about 20 nautical miles south of the plane's last point of contact.

Click for more photos

Malaysia Airlines plane goes missing

Dato'Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Director General of DCA, briefs the media that Malaysia Airlines fight MH370 is still missing. Photo: Getty Images

Neither of the two Europeans whose passports had been stolen were on the aircraft. The Italian, Luigi Maraldi, was travelling in Thailand and the Austrian, Christian Kozel, aged 30, was located in his homeland.

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Both the men lost their passports in Phuket, the holiday island in Thailand.

The New York Times reported on Sunday the two passengers who used the fraudulently obtained passports bought one-way tickets issued last week at the same travel agency in a shopping mall in the Thailand beach resort of Pattaya, according to electronic booking records.

A woman who answered the phone at the travel agency said she was “too busy to talk.”

It is unclear how the men traveled south to Malaysia to board the flight on Saturday. In Beijing, each man was to continue on to separate European cities, according to the electronic records, The Times reported. As transit passengers, they would not have been required to obtain Chinese visas.

Security experts in Asia said the use of false travel documents is a persistent problem in the region, but differed on the significance of the two stolen passports to the investigation.

Xu Ke, a lecturer at the Zhejiang Police College in eastern China who studies aviation safety and hijackings and has advised the Chinese authorities, said the two men might have been illegal migrants.

But Steve Vickers, the chief executive of a Hong Kong-based security consulting company that specializes in risk mitigation and corporate intelligence in Asia, said the presence of at least two travelers with stolen passports aboard a single jet was rare and a potential clue.

“It is fairly unusual to have more than one person flying on a flight with a stolen passport,” said Mr. Vickers, who publicly warned a month ago that stolen airport passes and other identity documents in Asia merited a crackdown.

“The future of this investigation lies in who really checked in and what they looked like,” he added.

Mr. Azharuddin, the Malaysian civil aviation chief, said investigators were reviewing video footage of the passengers, including their check-in bags.

Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Sunday investigators were checking the entire passenger list and that counter-terrorism units and the FBI have been informed.

At one stage on Sunday Malaysian authorities said there were four passengers travelling on suspicious documents, but they later revised it back to two.

Asked whether this was a security lapse, Mr Hishammuddin said "Let us not jump to conclusions and make wild speculation."

However, terrorism expert Greg Barton, of Monash University's School of Political and Social Inquiry, said modern aircraft did not just vanish from the sky and when they did, a bomb was almost always the first suspect.

''Things will become clearer once wreckage or debris is found,'' he said.

''Beijing’s reticence at linking the disappearance with terrorists is noticeable, but if debris or a black box indicates a midair explosion, expect the Uighurs [a Muslim people from the restive far western Chinese region of Xinjiang] to come into contention.''

According to the New Straits Times newspaper, contact was briefly made with the aircraft before it vanished. It was being flown by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a highly experienced pilot, and first officer Fariq ab Hamid.

''We managed to establish contact with MH370 just after 1.30am and asked them if they have transferred into Vietnamese airspace,'' a pilot on another Malaysian Airline flight told the New Straits Times.

''The voice on the other side could have been either Captain Zaharie or Fariq, but I was sure it was the co-pilot.

''There were a lot of interference ... static ... but I heard mumbling from the other end. That was the last time we heard from them, as we lost the connection,’’ he said.

Across the world, the mysterious disappearance of the Boeing 777 is playing on most travellers’ fear of flying.

Vietnamese air force planes spotted two large oil slicks close to where the plane was presumed to have gone down in pitch darkness early on Saturday.

The slicks were the first possible indication that the aircraft, bound for Beijing and carrying 239 people, had crashed.

Passengers and crew came from at least 14 countries and included six Australians – Robert and Catherine Lawton, Rodney and Mary Burrows and Gu Naijun and Li Yuan. There were 154 Chinese nationals, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, five Indians, four French and three Americans.Malaysia, China, the Philippines, US and Singapore have deployed ships and planes to the search area, which had been widened after radar signals indicated the plane may have turned back.

Malaysian Air Force General Rodzali Daud said this theory was based on military radar. ‘‘We looked back at the records – there was an indication the plane may have turned back,’’ he said.

The Malaysian maritime agency’s director-general Amdan Kurish, who joined in the search, said his team spotted ‘‘two or three’’ patches of yellowish oil slick about 16 kilometres long.

''A ship has been dispatched to the location of the slick to take samples so we could test whether the oil is from a plane,’’ Mr Amdan said.

Even so, no trace of the aircraft has yet been found, and this failure has prompted speculation about what caused the disappearance. Apart from terrorism, other possibilities include airframe failure, bad weather, pilot disorientation, engine failure, hijacking, pilot suicide and being shot down.

David Learmount, operations and safety editor at Flightglobal media, said modern aircraft were ‘‘incredibly reliable and you do not get some sudden structural failure in flight – it just doesn’t happen’’.

Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, as does the Boeing 777. Boeing has manufactured 1030 of the aircraft and they had not had a fatal crash in their 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed in San Francisco last year, killing three passengers.

However, the missing Malaysia Airlines 777 is reportedly the same aircraft that crashed into the tail of another plane while taxiing at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport in August 2012.

An independent accident-tracking website, Aviation Safety Network, listed the accident and claimed damaged suffered by the Boeing 777 was ‘‘substantial ... the tip of the wing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was broken off and hung on the tail of the China Eastern Airbus 340-600, according to pictures posted by passengers on the internet’’.

At a news conference in Beijing on Sunday, Ignatius Ong, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly airlines, said the plane was last inspected 10 days ago and was "in proper condition".

Prime Minister Tony Abbott would not speculate whether terrorism was involved in the crash.

He has offered Malaysia two Australian aircraft to assist with the search.

"This afternoon I spoke to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to convey Australia's condolences on the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and offer our assistance with the search for the missing aircraft," he said in a statement.

"On behalf of Australia, I offered two RAAF P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft to help with the search for the missing aircraft."

"The P-3C Orion is a long-range maritime surveillance aircraft ideally suited to this task."

Prime Minister Najib accepted the offer and the first aircraft was due to depart from Darwin on Sunday night.

The disappearance of Flight MH370 paralleled the loss of Air France Flight 447, an Airbus 300, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, in June 2009. It fell into the Atlantic, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew.

A report the following year found a combination of technical faults and human error led to the crash.

Heavy turbulence caused air-speed sensors to malfunction while the captain was taking a rest break and the plane began to stall.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the families of Australians listed on the flight had been contacted: ‘‘Australian consular officials are in urgent and ongoing contact with local authorities and with Malaysia Airlines including on efforts to locate the missing flight.’