Pirate's Cove

In all seriousness, his ideas, while rather basic, are not bad. I’ll be the first to admit that I liked his pre-climahystericy ideas on the environment. I liked John Kerry’s platform for the environment in 2004-except he had no way to pay for it. Just because someone is a political "enemy," doesn’t automatically mean they have no good ideas, and we cannot be in accord now and then.

You can become a part of the fight against global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore shares the five things you can buy now that will help solve the climate crisis — and save you a few bucks! Plus, more of his easy going green tips!

Five things you can buy

1. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs

These energy-efficient bulbs cost less than $4 and are produced by major corporations like GE. If every household in America switched five regular light bulbs for five fluorescent bulbs, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the highways for a full year.

2. Outdoor solar lighting

These yard or patio lights cost less than $20, and they don’t burn any electricity or produce any CO2.

3. Programmable thermostats

Though these thermostats cost from $50 to $100, they can actually cut your heating and cooling costs. Set the setting so it’s a little bit cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer when you’re not in the house. A difference of 2 degrees can reduce a home’s CO2 emissions by up to 9 percent over the course of a year.

4. Air filters

Changing the air filters in your heating and cooling systems regularly can knock 2 percent off of your CO2 output each year.

5. Electric water heater blanket

Water heaters use a lot of energy and generate a lot of CO2. A blanket costs less than $18 and can cut your home’s CO2 emissions by almost 4½ percent.

Ignoring the silly CO2 stuff, these are actually good ideas that will help save you money. Not sure how green they really are, as the definition of green is constantly in flux, now apparently including global warming. To me, green is more about the environment.

I do use CFL’s, and have a few solar lights outside. The thermostat is programable. I change my air filter quite a bit, as I am alergic to dust, and they clean it up, of course. The down side is that they go into the landfill. I do not have a water heater blanket, but, great idea, will pick one up.

After that, some more ideas

Instead of regular aluminum foil or plastic wrap, buy recycled aluminum foil. It uses just 1/20th of the energy needed to produce regular foil.

And, for all your mind control needs, recycled also reduces the impact on the environment!

Look for items without extensive packaging. Most food packaging material uses some petroleum-based plastic. There are several ways to cut down on the energy and waste this produces. Look for minimally or unpackaged items instead. Experiment with bringing your own packaging or buying in bulk. Purchase brands that use bio-based instead of petroleum-based plastic. Recycle or reuse packaging materials you end up having to buy.

Bring a cloth bag to the grocery store instead of using its plastic bags. An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. That’s 1 million bags used per minute.

And, according to the EPA, more than 380 billion of those are discarded in the United States. Less than 1 percent of those are actually recycled. Instead, these bags will clog landfills, create litter, choke streams and harm marine wildlife, like whales, seals and sea turtles.

Again, good stuff. But, we know no one, including The Goracle, is going to bring their own bags. So, do us a favor, and recycle them. And, just because it is the Goracle, don’t dismiss good ideas to help the environment, and save you money.

Just an FYI, I am not being sarcastic in this post.

Of course, it also helps when you do not have 80 world leaders flying around the globe, coming to the UN to discuss climahystericy that they themselves cause!