Also check out Detailed Image’s Earth Week Sale featuring Eco-Friendly detailing products and here is our very own Earth Week design.

In the spirit of Earth Week, also see my previous green posts. Happy Earth Week!

There are back to back snow storms on their way to the Northeast and that got me thinking about SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW which led me to pick an organization helping preserve the United State’s only Arctic state of Alaska’s wilderness. Let me introduce you to the Alaska Wilderness League preserving the vast wilderness in Alaska.

The League exists to lead the effort to preserve Alaska’s wilderness by engaging citizens, sharing resources, collaborating with other organizations, educating the public, and providing a courageous, constant and victorious voice for Alaska in the nation’s capital. – Alaska Wilderness League Mission http://www.alaskawild.org/about-us/

The Alaska Wilderness League works from the federal level in Washington D.C. to fight against industries depleting the resources of the Alaskan land. The Alaskan lands offer diverse wildlife habitats and ecosystems like no other and making it a priority is all the more important.

Learn how you can help preserve Alaska for future generations to enjoy at http://www.alaskawild.org/.

Now to my story of Obama’s visit. After watching President Obama speak I left for the gym when I was detoured to go past Albany International Airport and found myself stuck in traffic and to my surprise a glimpse of Air Force One. I didn’t make the connection until a little later but the traffic stoppage and detours were probably because President Obama was en route to the airport.  It took me 45 minutes to get to the my gym which is only about 5 minutes away. The times work out and I’m pretty sure when traffic was stopped near the airport that there was a good chance that the President himself  was arriving at Albany International. It was totally by coincident but I got to see Air Force One. This is one of the few times I really wanted to use my phone for a picture and it did not want to cooperate but I was able to get one good picture of Air Force One at Albany International Airport.

Great little video explaining the life cycle of electronics. It was produced by Free Range Studios a creative company making important social messages heard. They also produced other Story Of Stuff videos including the story of Bottled Water, Cap & Trade and Cosmetics. (Original story via Yahoo! Green)

Take plain old tap water which is better than the unregulated bottled water industry, fill your Bobble and let the built carbon filter remove all the organic contaminants. The Bobble meets or exceeds NSF International Standard 42 for chlorine, taste and odor reduction. Lasting up to 2 months or 40 gallons which roughly equals 300 bottles, it can make one hell of an impact on water bottle consumption. Think about the difference this smart bottle can make, one water bobble can go a long way with about 299 less water bottles consumed per Bobble.

Starting at $8.95 a bottle and available in an assortment of colors, it’s way more cost effective than bottled water. I wrote Ditch the Bottle Water a little while back in favor of a reusable water bottle. The Bobble is another smart alternative to bottled water. It’s reusable, recyclable, and it filters.

Learn more about the Bobble at waterbobble.com or buy now at http://store.waterbobble.com/store/items.

The City of Albany has received the honors for having the best tasting drinking water in New York State for 2010. The recent contest for the State’s best tasting drinking water by the State Department of Health was held at the New York State Fair in Syracuse where Albany beat out likes of New York City and the Clifton Park Water Authority of Saratoga County.  For more information and the top 10 results of the see New York’s Department of Health press release.

This brings me back to December ’09 when I posted about ditching bottled water. This is a reminder that we have highly regulated quality drinking water that doesn’t come in fancy bottles. A simple BPA free reusable water bottle can save you lots of money and reduce your carbon footprint.

Also at the front lines of the battle against bottled water in Albany is a grassroots campaign named Tap that I want to briefly mention. This grassroots campaign educates and promotes local water supplies for a healthy green lifestyle. For more information about Tap and to find out how you can help please visit tapalbany.org.

In the US we have clean flowing water available and we should all take advantage of it to save money and the environment. A refillable water bottle is the way to go.

Do you have Technotrash (obsolete computer accessories and electronic media)  that you don’t know how to get rid of responsibly? GreenDisk is the answer to your problems.

After doing some cleaning this year I found a bunch of VHS tapes that were utterly useless to me that I wanted to dispose of responsibly. I was hoping to find a local place to take care of it but without any luck. Then I found GreenDisk which took care of my VHS and CD trash for a very reasonable price. It sucks that you have to pay for it but I like to believe that these little things I do, do make a difference. I purchased the Technotrash Pack-IT where you can ship up to 20lbs of Technotrash to GreenDisk to dispose of responsibly.  See the full list of everything that GreenDisk can help you dispose of here.

Technotrash is an ever growing problem these day as more and more electronics become obsolete.  It is important to recycle and dispose of Technotrash responsibly to keep electronic waste out of our landfills. This is also important because some electronics contain hazardous waste that can be dangerous to our environment. On top of disposing electronic waste responsibly, GreenDisk also safely destroys your data on floppy disks, hard drives, CDs and etc. to keep your privacy.

Electronic waste is another problem that our world faces and it’s our responsibility to do what we can do to preserve our environment. If you can’t get rid of your Technotrash responsibly locally, check out GreenDisk.com for a complete list of products and services they offer.

Another Earth Hour is upon us and you can participate by simply turning off your lights from 8:30pm – 9:30pm local time tonight (March 27, 2010). Turn your lights off for just one hour and join the hundreds of millions of people around the world making a statement against climate change.

Climate change is no joke. Every year average temperatures around the world are increasing and polar ice caps start to diminish a little more. Earth Hour is one of the major movements against climate change and they have made their voice heard with nearly 1 billion people participating in the movement last year which included 4,100 cities in 87 countries on all 7 continents. Earth Hour 2009 was a success last year but there is still a lot be done on climate change. Sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund you can help fight climate change by making a donation or participating in Earth Hour 2010 tonight.

Personally I’ve been bringing a water bottle with tap water to work everyday instead of drinking bottled water. It makes even more sense to use a water bottle now since New York implemented the 5 cent deposit on bottled water. I did a little basic math to figure how much money I’m saving using a water bottle.

32 bottle case of Poland Springs from BJ’s Wholesale Club
$4.99 per case = $0.15 per bottle
$0.15 per bottle + $0.05 deposit = $0.20 final cost per bottle
Estimate consumption per week at work
5 bottles per week = 260 bottles per year
My Annual Cost of Bottled Water at Work
260 bottles X $0.20 = $52.00

Minus the cost of purchasing a water bottle, that roughly cost about $5.00, the grand total comes out to be around $47.00 per year. Not a huge number in savings, but that’s money in the bank for me. On top of that I think my estimated bottled water consumption would also be on the lower end of those who drink bottled water on the regular.

Ditching the bottled water not only saves you money and the environment, it’s probably safer too. Tap water is highly regulated from local, state, and federal levels for quality compared to bottled water which has no real governing body. There hasn’t been enough evidence yet but there have been concerns that the chemicals used in the plastic of bottled water could seep into the water itself. The simple answer is tap water which relieves all of those concerns. You may actually be drinking tap water – Bottled water isn’t always pure – It’s not clear where the plastic container ends and the drink begins – Our country’s high demand for oil isn’t just due to long commutes, learn The Truth About Bottled Water.

Other Sobering Facts

• Out of the 50 billion bottles of water being bought each year, 80% end up in a landfill, even though recycling programs exist.
• 17 million barrels of oil are used in producing bottled water each year.
• Bottled water costs 1,000 times more than tap water. Drinking 2 Litres of tap water a day only costs 50 cents per year.
• Plastic leaches toxins into the water, which have been linked to health problems such as reproductive issues and cancer.
• New York City tap water surpasses all federal and state health standards.

- via Treehugger via MSLK

If you think about it you’re buying expensive water that’s available from your tap at a higher quality. A simple easy change that saves you money and the environment, what more could you ask for.