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The energy business has one of the longest timelines of any industry. Decisions are being made today for oil or natural gas fields that will only begin to flow fifteen years from now. A power plant approved tomorrow may be operating for half a century. And, increasingly, many of the big decisions will be measured not in the hundreds of millions, but billions, of dollars. Investors, in the meantime, have to decide where to put their bets on technologies that will take years to come to fruition.

Inevitably, much will change over those time frames. Unexpected geopolitical clashes will roil markets. Economic performance will surprise. Technology will bring in new energy sources and change the competitive playing field. Governments will undoubtedly change their minds on the balance between markets, on the one hand, and regulation and state ownership, on the other-and more than once.

Today, the outlook for regulation of carbon emissions creates another layer of uncertainty. There could be strong pressure to change the fuel choices in the face of tighter carbon regulations. Or the international community may fail to agree on effective carbon controls, and regulations could be limited or not effectively enforced. There will certainly be much debate as to whether to rely on markets or on regulation to meet climate change goals.

How to make decisions in the face of such uncertainty? “Scenarios” can play a very useful role. A disciplined process of scenario development provides a framework for the uncertainties. These are not forecasts or extrapolations. Rather, they are logical “stories” about alternative futures that force one to think about the “what-ifs,” the surprises and the range of uncertainties. Think of them as thought experiments, but grounded in wide-ranging research and analysis. Our energy scenarios combine structured narratives of how the larger world could evolve in the future with detailed energy market modeling. Yes, they are thought experiments, but the objective is to help people to think systematically about trends and the potential for changes, ruptures and discontinuities. Scenarios, of course, can be used for any industry or for public policy.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) recently completed study, Dawn of a New Age: The Energy Future to 2030, presents three long-term energy scenarios. The objective is to clarify the risks and choices ahead. Each of the scenarios examines an important strategic question about how the world may unfold over the next 25 years and what this means for energy markets (see CERA’s Dawn of a New Age Scenarios in Brief).

What happens if China, India and other countries in Asia continue to grow at their current breakneck speed? Our Asian Phoenix scenario examines the implications for energy markets of such a world. In this scenario, Asia reaches 54 percent of world GDP in 2030 and grows from its current 29 percent of world energy consumption to 42 percent. Continued strong economic growth in Asia pushes oil consumption to new highs. Tight markets keep prices are well above the last 25 year average of $25 per barrel.

One result is that the rivalry for access to oil and gas resources not only grows but involves new players. “Eastern oil companies” emerge to compete with the traditional Western companies, especially in new regions of supply such as Central Asia and Africa. Another result, perhaps surprising to some, is that coal consumption will grow substantially, particularly in China and India. Coal powers these nations to new global standing but it also will become, if without mitigation, an increasing source of geopolitical tension as climate concerns mount.

What happens if oil prices move well above the $78 per barrel experienced last year? Could oil lose its current almost totally dominant position in the transportation sector? These are the questions that the Break Point scenario explores, a world in which oil breaks through the $100 per barrel barrier for a sustained period. In this scenario, it is not shortage of resources below ground that pushes prices up, but rather geopolitical events. The scenario demonstrates how ultra-high oil prices and energy insecurity could unleash a mix of policy and price responses and technological innovation that would push the world to break from usual energy patterns.

In this scenario, one result of government and industry action, and new entrants in the energy business, is that by 2020, oil no longer has a monopoly grip on the transportation sector. Other liquid fuels derived from biofuels, oil/tar sands, coal-to-liquids and gas-to-liquids jostle for market share. Plug-in hybrids begin to win a share of the market.

Another outcome of high prices explored in Break Point is progress toward reducing carbon emissions. National security concerns associated with high oil prices work hand-in-hand with concern over climate change (see “Aspen Declaration of Energy Independence”). The result is that the U.S., Europe, Japan and even China and India embrace policies that expand investment in renewables, nuclear and emerging carbon capture and storage technologies. The high oil price also creates strong incentives to improve energy efficiency. In Break Point, global energy intensity (the amount of energy required to produce a unit of GDP) in 2030 is 32 percent lower than in 2005.

What would happen if public support for globalization around the world wanes and economic insecurity feeds greater nationalism and protectionism? That question is at the heart of Global Fissures, which suggests that energy markets could evolve in an entirely different direction. Diminished economic growth would cause oil prices to tumble back into the $20 range. In this scenario, governments assert more control over the energy sector. The trend in the electric power industry in many countries is a move away from competition and toward social mandates and more regulatory intervention-in some cases, even the nationalization of assets.

Given the high stakes and uncertainty surrounding the future of energy, there is a need for structured ways of thinking about how the future may unfold. The next 25 years will be full of surprises. Scenarios can help us better prepare for these surprises-and perhaps even anticipate the surprises before they arrive.

Daniel Yergin, chairman of CERA, received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” and the United States Energy Award for lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding. Vist CERA at http://cera.ecnext.com.

Throughout history, people have been recycling waste materials in some way or another. The main reason that recycled materials were used, rather than new was that second hand material was cheaper to use. Today, we have other reasons for recycling our waste materials, such as preserving our planet, reducing waste materials being buried in the earth in landfill sites, and saving money by using second hand materials, rather than producing new materials.

The first real recycling started out in pre-industrial times when scraps from precious metals were recycled, and melted down for further use. Around this time, Britain was also recycling ash, and dust as the base materials used for brick making. In 1921, Britain also began a waste paper association, which was created to encourage the recycling of used paper. Another example of early recycling was that during the world wars when the governments encouraged citizens to recycle by donating their metals, and conserving fiber to do their part for the wartime effort.

Recycling And its Benefits

Recycling has two main benefits, which are reduction of both energy, and virgin materials needing to be collected, as well as reducing the amount of waste that is disposed of in landfills. Recycling also reduces the negative impact that waste has on the environment, and reduces the space needed to keep refuse sites functioning, it is estimated that in the UK, by the year 2010, almost all of the landfill sites will be full.

By recycling, we are not only helping our planet, we are decreasing the money spent on raw materials, and their production. Currently, the UK is recycling around 17% of their waste, which is a small amount considering that some neighboring countries are recycling up to half of their waste, that would ordinarily end up in a landfill site.

What Are The Recyclable Materials

For recycling to really work, households must be made aware of what is a recyclable. Many people are still throwing materials that could be recycled into their regular rubbish bins. Some of the materials that can be used for recycling are:
- Asbestos,
- Batteries,
- Building Materials,
- Cars,
- Clothing, and material,
- Compost matter,
- Computers,
- Electrical equipment,
- Furniture,
- Glass,
- Metals,
- Mobile phones,
- Paint, and oils,
- Paper,
- Plastic,
- Printer cartridges,
- Wood

Criticism Of Recycling
Recycling is a great thing, and has a positive impact on our long-term economy, living standards, and health of the planet we live in, although there are some factors surrounding recycling that are not ideal. All recycling uses energy of some type whether it is fuel for transportation of the materials, or the processing that takes place to reuse the materials. Additionally, many recycling plants use large amounts of water while preparing, or cleaning the materials they will reuse.

The only way to really benefit from recycling, and reducing the waste that is being produced is to use fewer materials where possible, and reuse materials in their current form.

http://www.envirochemcontrol.co.uk/ Specialists in Waste Recycling, Precious Metal Recovery, Environmental Consultancy & Waste Haulage.

The dramatic run-up in oil prices in recent years has been the subject of much attention and many headlines. What has received far less attention is another increase: the parallel rise in the costs of drilling for oil and building the infrastructure necessary to pump it out of the ground.

This surge in costs has a significant impact on the oil industry’s ability to meet growing global demand for oil and the timing of developments. These rising prices figure directly into the price of crude oil, gasoline and other products.

Among investors and within the industry, this rise is a major preoccupation, and with good reason. For the increase is substantial. Project costs are up 68 percent on average since 2000. That is the conclusion of our new IHS/CERA Capital Cost Index. And most of the real increase has been in the last two years.
What’s driving these cost increases? We call it the “double bubble.”

Two kinds of goods and services are needed to transform an initial discovery into a producing oil field. The first are commodities like steel and general-purpose equipment such as generators that provide electricity in remote locations. The second kind is equipment specific to the oil industry, such as drilling rigs, along with the experienced workers who can run them. Both kinds of costs have taken big leaps in recent years. That’s what we mean by the “double bubble.”

The major oil price spikes of the mid-1970s and early 1980s were accompanied by global economic slowdowns. Not this time. The costs of raw materials and general-purpose equipment have risen sharply because of the strong global economy, led by Asia’s expansion. As a result, the oil industry is competing with many others for raw materials.

Simple goods such as large-sized truck tires are in short supply. So are long-lead-time, complex goods like ship hulls. For example, hulls needed for oil tankers are in short supply in part because of high demand for container ships in Asia.

The costs of oil field equipment and labor are also up sharply. Higher oil prices mean producers have strong incentives to do more drilling. But the equipment required to drill is complex and expensive.

It isn’t possible to increase the number of hundred-million-dollar drilling rigs or billion-dollar offshore platforms available for use overnight. As a result, oil producers are competing with each other for the same scarce pieces of equipment to develop their fields. Costs have naturally spiraled as a result.

Over the past four years alone, drilling rig rental rates have more than quadrupled on a global basis, with salaries for expert personnel experiencing 50 to 100 percent increases. Since drilling equipment and labor represent between 30 and 50 percent of overall costs, it is easy to see why project costs have risen so rapidly.

The service industry-the contractors that do much of the work for the oil producers-has gone through a major contraction over the last two decades. When oil prices ran up in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, oil-service companies expanded rapidly.

When prices then fell in the mid 1980s, these companies were stuck with a vast overhang of equipment that depressed the rates they could charge throughout the ensuring two decades. They were hit again with the oil price collapse at the end of the 1990s.

In the face of these two collapses, capacity in the service industry went through a substantial shrinking.
Adding to the constraints is a worldwide shortage of experienced people to run oil field equipment. It’s almost as though a middle generation has disappeared from the service industry, a loss that will take years to overcome.

To quantify the impact of this double-bubble, CERA, in partnership with its parent company, IHS, tracks changes in the costs of oil and gas field project development in its Upstream Capital Cost Index, or UCCI. This IHS/CERA index demonstrates the aforementioned 68 percent leap in real costs since January 2000.

Escalating costs have the effect you would expect-they reduce drilling activity. Most oil companies fix their capital budgets one or two years in advance. When the money’s spent, it’s spent. In 2006, rising costs forced several small firms to terminate their drilling campaigns before year’s end.

Cost pressures have led other companies to reduce the number and scope of projects that they undertake. In addition, higher costs have forced oil companies to reevaluate the projected profitability of projects they approved during the 2000 to 2004 period, to take into account the new price-cost tradeoff that is in place today.

In some cases, unplanned cost overruns encountered during early project phases have pushed some projects into the “no-longer-economic” column, and caused their backers to pull the plug.

Markets sort themselves out. A continuation of high oil prices will eventually bring more oil equipment and personnel on line. Some of it will come from non-traditional sources, like China and India. But lead times are inescapable.

Signals sent by higher oil prices take several years to register fully, since the response involves mobilizing equipment with price tags that can extend into billions of dollars.

Moreover, it takes time to attract skilled workers who require long periods of training. Expectations are important in the decisions that people make, whether in terms of a major commitment by an oil service company or the decision by a younger, technically trained person to go into the oil industry.

People do have more confidence today. However, even with relief on one of the bubbles, the other one will continue to have its impact.

Strong economic growth will keep the costs of raw materials and general-purpose equipment high. And that translates into higher oil field development costs.
About the IHS/CERA Upstream Capital Costs Index (UCCI)
The IHS/CERA Upstream Capital Costs Index is similar in concept to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to track the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services.

In the case of the UCCI, the items tracked are the equipment and services required to construct a fixed basket of oil and gas projects. The UCCI helps to track and to provide a better understanding of rapidly escalating costs in the energy industry.

Daniel Yergin, chairman of CERA, received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” and the United States Energy Award for lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding. Vist CERA at http://cera.ecnext.com.

When it comes to energy, Brazil is on its way to becoming a “global brand.” Although the United States recently outpaced Brazil in ethanol production, Brazil is by far the leader in sugar-based ethanol. Its exports are growing, and it could become a major energy supplier to the world. But what Brazil is particularly known for is its grand conversion-moving almost 40 percent of its automotive fuel from gasoline to ethanol.

Ethanol in Brazil is used in two ways: either blended, in a mix of 75 percent gasoline and 25 percent ethanol, or as pure ethanol pumped directly into a car’s fuel tank. On any given day, motorists across Brazil can stand in front of a pump and decide, based on price, whether they want to put ethanol or gasoline into their “flex fuel” car engine or whether they want to blend them.

Brazil has now achieved energy self-sufficiency. Ethanol is a part of the explanation, but it would be an error to think that it is the only one. There has been great success from drilling in Brazil’s offshore waters, and domestic oil output has increased by 40 percent since 2000-from 1.2 million barrels per day (mbd) to 1.7 mbd in 2006. This 500,000 barrel per day increase compares to 240,000 barrels per day of ethanol consumption.

How did ethanol achieve its prominent role in Brazil? It has been made possible by a series of factors: strong government support, especially after the 1973 oil shock; continual adoption of new technologies over more than a quarter century; and the cheapest production costs in the world.

The Brazilian government made a strong commitment to ethanol in the mid-1970s, in response to the first oil crisis. At that time, Brazil was importing more than 80 percent of its oil. The first oil shock had a highly detrimental effect on Brazil’s economy, influencing a significant drop in the country’s GDP growth, from almost 14 percent in 1973 to five percent in 1975. A program to stimulate domestic production of ethanol as a transport fuel was embraced as the way to reduce the country’s exposure to the world oil market.

This Brazilian effort began in 1975. It was championed as the Pro-Alcohol Program, since ethanol is known as alcohol in Brazil. The program consisted of both public and heavily subsidized private investment in ethanol production, together with governmental mandates to blend the fuel with gasoline and incentives to stimulate the sales of cars that ran on pure ethanol.

With government incentives, pure ethanol vehicles comprised 95 percent per cent of domestic auto production in 1984. By 1988, Brazil was consuming 1.7 gallons of ethanol for each gallon of gasoline.
In the mid-1980s, however, ethanol got caught in a vise. Oil prices fell sharply and, at the same time, international sugar prices rose. Ethanol was no longer as attractive as it had been for Brazilian producers and motorists.

By the end of the 1980s, a sharp fall in ethanol production, together with a prevalence of pure ethanol vehicles, led to a shortage, enraging motorists and damaging the credibility of Brazil’s ethanol industry. As consequence, ethanol cars fell from 92 percent of total vehicle sales in 1985 to less than 20 percent in 1990. At the end of the 1990s, ethanol production was back to same level that it had been in the mid-1980s. Today, almost no pure alcohol vehicles are being produced, in large part because of an innovation that has recently helped ethanol enjoy a new boom in Brazil. This is the “flex-fuel vehicle.”

The flexible fuel vehicle is a simple technological innovation that has dramatically enhanced the attractiveness of ethanol in Brazil by giving consumers choice of the fuel they can use in their cars.

After 2000, stimulated by rising oil prices and a new initiative by the government to encourage consumption of renewable fuels, the Brazilian automotive industry began to produce vehicles that could run on either ethanol or gasoline in any proportion. The previous experience with the Pro-Alcohol Program had left behind a strongly developed ethanol infrastructure, with more than 90 percent of the country’s filling stations capable of offering the fuel in its pure form.

Thanks to competitive pricing for the vehicles and for ethanol, flex-fuel vehicles have been widely adopted in Brazil. They represented 80 percent of all light cars sales in 2006, a number even more impressive considering that they only started to be marketed by the end of 2003.

Today, many Brazilian motorists make their fuel choice based on the relative price of gasoline and ethanol. And ethanol is able to compete without any subsidies against gasoline. This partly is because the government taxes gasoline at a higher rate-the gasoline tax burden is 45 percent of the final price, while the tax on ethanol is only 28 percent. But the main reason behind ethanol’s competitiveness is that Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol has the lowest production costs in the world-estimated at $1.10 per gallon.

Good weather and high land quality are certainly important factors in keeping down the costs of ethanol in Brazil, but they are not the only ones. Sugarcane has been grown in the country since the Portuguese colonization in the early 16th century, and industrial production of ethanol as a fuel goes back to the 1930s.

The 70-year old ethanol industry has invested heavily in new technologies and processes, and biotechnology is now employed to improve the quality and productivity of the sugarcane species. Integration of ethanol production with sugarcane processing has led to significant gains in efficiency and scale. For example, the cane fiber (called bagasse) is burned to generate electricity, which powers the sugar and ethanol production plant, with surplus power sold to the central grid.

The oil input in Brazilian’s ethanol production is minimal, restricted to the transporting of the sugarcane to the processing plant and moving ethanol from there to filling stations. The combination of these advantages provides Brazilian ethanol with a comfortable competitive position against oil.

The success of Brazil’s domestic industry poses an important question: Can Brazil go global with its ethanol? Brazil is already the largest ethanol exporter in the world, shipping 20 percent of it annual production abroad.

International demand for ethanol is expected to keep growing in the years to come. The main ethanol consumers outside Brazil are the United States and Europe, which are seeking to increase their domestic sources of ethanol supply. But, at least with current technology, their prospects are constrained.

High volume ethanol exports from Brazil to both the U.S. and Europe are also currently impeded by import duties, though some believe that growing demand for bio-fuels could lead to loosening of these barriers. But what happens to those barriers will be highly political, both in terms of domestic politics and trade negotiations.

If trade barriers fall, Brazil’s industry has much room to grow. Even excluding the rain forest and other protected areas, Brazil still has large areas that could be used to grow cane. Only two percent of the country’s total endowment of arable land-and ten percent of currently cultivated land-are now under sugarcane cultivation with half of that dedicated to ethanol production.

Advances in bio-technology have substantially enhanced plant types, improving their ability to thrive in a wider range of soils and climates. All this means that there is potential to expand Brazil’s ethanol production substantially and make it a major global energy supplier.

Furthermore, expansion of ethanol production in Brazil is unlikely to create the kind of food versus fuel conflicts that can be expected in other developing countries with agricultural potential.

How large a role Brazil will play in global markets will depend on many factors-the ability of the Brazilian industry to expand; the nature of fuel mandates and domestic industries of the large industrial countries; and international trade rules. Brazil’s ethanol industry will continue to play a large role in meeting Brazil’s domestic energy needs. It also has the potential to grow beyond the domestic market and to create large scale exports-and definitely make Brazil an energy brand around the world.

Daniel Yergin, chairman of CERA, received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” and the United States Energy Award for lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding. Vist CERA at http://cera.ecnext.com.

With the rising gas prices of today many people have begun to look for an alternative way to put fuel in their cars. A biodiesel kit fits the bill for many people who have started making this oil saving fuel in their own backyards. And why not make your own fuel, the hit to wallets and bank accounts with high gasoline prices makes finding alternative fuel sources imperative these days, particularly with the price of gas and oil in the news on a daily basis.

A biodiesel kit is a great way to save a substantial amount of money on your fuel costs. The basic function of such a kit is to convert vegetable oil into biodiesel, a fuel source that can be used in vehicles that currently run on diesel fuel. It is important to note that not all car companies endorse the use of biodiesel fuel in their vehicles and will void the warranty if an engine is damaged by its use. Be sure to research this before buying a new vehicle with a diesel engine. For older diesel cars and trucks there are engine conversion kits that will make the change to cleaner burning biodiesel much easier.

There is a minimal amount of supplies needed to use a biodiesel kit. You will need basic tap water, methanol and access to a good amount of vegetable oil, which can usually be obtained from restaurants and such. You can set the kit up just about anywhere, although most people do put them outside in a shed or under an overhang. You will be making a fuel oil so setting up in the house may not be a real good idea.

When it comes to pricing a kit the more features to be found the more expensive the kit. The most expensive models are built to prevent fumes and odors from escaping during the refining process. Having an odorless refining process may be important for those wishing to refine their fuel near their home. If you live on a farm or a large acreage this may not be as important as the kit can be located farther from the house. Of course if you can afford it go ahead and get the more expensive closed system just because they are very easy to use.

If for some reason you already have a large amount of cooking oil that you need to dispose of then a biodiesel kit would work perfectly. It does take more time to process used oil but the results are the same, a more environmentally friendly fuel that can be put into a diesel powered vehicle.

Considering that the price of gasoline is on an ever rising trend making biodiesel for personal use can be seen as a smart move. Having your own biodiesel kit producing a constant supply of a low cost environmentally friendly fuel right in your own backyard would remove the sting of high pump prices.

Do you want to know more about biodiesel kits and the fuel they make? Then visit this Biodiesel website at http://biodiesel.worfdog.com/Biodiesel_Fuel.html

Recycling has become a necessary way of life. It is just as easy to throw out to trash materials that can just as easily be recycled. The question is, who is going to be the one that does it? The answer is simple enough. Just hold up a mirror in front of your face. That is the person in charge of recycling in your household.

What gets recycled? There are four basic recyclable materials. These are paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic.

Let’s look at paper first. Most recycling centers accept all paper products. Put all your newspapers into a daily collection bin. You can start by reducing the amount of paper that comes in to our house. Cancel any unnecessary subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. Do you really need the newspaper if you don’t read it as soon as it comes in?

You can cut down on your junk mail by putting up huge signs on your mailbox. Recycle things like envelopes, packing material, etc. Print both sides of the paper and whenever you can use recycled paper.

Expended dry cell batteries are hazardous to the environment. They leach chemicals into the soil. Make sure you don’t put hem into the garbage as they contain harmful metals.. There are a number of places that pick up batteries for recycling. Find out is there is one near your home. You could call your local county government council to inquire. If possible, use rechargeable batteries so that you don’t have to keep discarding them as soon as their charge is gone.

Make sure you are careful if you are handling broken glass. Most county recycle programs have blue bins to recycle glass. If you are putting glass into a general recycle bin provided by the council, just check whether they accept broken glass because some do not. Clean out all the glass articles before you put them in. You don’t want the whole recycle center smelling to high heaven!

There are so many different kinds of plastic today but the two most recognizable items are polystyrene foam and polyethylene. Polystyrene comes in blocks or popcorn. Polyethylene is used in sheets and bottles. You should keep these materials in separate bags prior to local recycling centers where you can deposit plastic products. Clean them before you put them there.

And last but not least are aluminum cans. Every family consumes multiple gallons of beer and soft drinks. These take up voluminous air space, so you have to compress them. The easiest way is to pinch the empty can in the middle and then fold the top half over the bottom half. This will reduce the volume by half. There are can compressor presses available at some hardware stores where you can totally flatten an aluminum can just as if you were squeezing an orange.

Whatever way you choose to recycle, just do it. Nobody will give you a medal for your efforts, and you will not win the award of Recycler of The Month. Nobody will pay you a cent to recycle trash, although you could be fined if you violate a mandatory recycle law. The chief benefit comes knowing you are doing your part to keep the air and waterways clean. That is a benefit we all can live by

Bob Carper is a veteran consultant in information systems He holds a a MBA from Pitt. For additional information go to
http://www.secure-webconference.citymax.com. His blogsite is http://www.html-secrets.net/blog. You may also contact him at robertcarper06@comcast,net

Many children today don’t learn to think at all about the environment. Others do, of course, but if there’s no example set, what else can be expected?

This is something important for all parents to consider, although it can be easier for stay at home parents such as myself to set the example.

I consider keeping to the facts to be one of the most important things you can do. You want your children to trust you, and if they find out you exaggerated, there goes some of that trust

This can be challenging. Trying to explain the issues at age appropriate levels is not easy. You can start off at a fairly young age, however. Preschoolers can be great about turning off lights and asking before throwing items in the trash or recycling bins. They love helping in the garden. All very simple, very preschooler friendly.

As they get older you can discuss some of the more serious issues. Why we don’t want to produce more garbage than we have to, for example. You can also get into why you have to be more careful about disposing of things such as electronics and batteries.

Then there are endangered species, rain forests, air quality and water quality issues you can teach about. Exactly when each is appropriate can depend on the interests of your children. Some will love animals intensely at a very early age and may want to learn about endangered species early. Others will not.

Perhaps the most important thing you can teach your children is what they, as individuals can do. It can be hard to realize how much just one person can do. Discuss the big choices as well as the little ones that can mean so much.

Little choices can include such things as merely deciding to recycle, picking which items to buy and so forth. Bigger choices can include the car you drive and how you power your home.

Especially as they approach high school age, it can be good to encourage your children to become more actively involved in the issues that particularly interest them. I do strongly encourage you to allow them to pick their own causes, rather than your own pet cause. The main thing is that they participate, not that they do only what you think is most important.

Getting involved can start at a very early age. If you make it just a fact of life, children can learn to think about the environment as they grow. The younger green habits start, the easier they should be to live with.

Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.greensahm.com/ about her experiences trying to live a more environmentally friendly life. She offers tips on going green at http://www.greensahm.com/category/going-green/ and also discusses other environmental topics.