In 1995 the EPA undertook a new idea, the idea that every home constructed in the United States should not only be a warm, dry, safe place for the family that owns the home, but the home should be energy efficient also. This week the EPA achieved a huge milestone in their program when the one millionth home was Energy Star certified. Read more…
There has been plenty of discussion over green building, affordable living, and square footage. If you read the majority of articles and blogs on the subject, you know the trend is smaller the better. Some display living areas no bigger than a cracker box (or a U-haul truck), and expect us to be giddy with joy! But living in such extremely small spaces such as those can’t be good for one’s functionally, spirituality, or sanity! There is a such thing as going too small, and going small for small sake (to keep up with the Jones’) and it isn’t going to help anyone in the long run – especially you. Read more…
Recently a G-20 economic summit was hosted by the United States of America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to discuss, among other things, the global economy, a growing global credit crisis, and ideas to stimulate the global economy to turn itself around. The G-20 is a group of 19 industrialized nations plus the European Union; considered to be the world’s wealthiest and most influential governments. Typically, I don’t follow the G-20 or its progression from what used to be the G-6, the G-7, the G7 plus 1, and so on. But there was one event at the September, 2009 meeting that I found fascinating and it had nothing to do with finance…on the face of it. However, it had to do with the real possibility of a sovereign nation simply disappearing off the face of the Earth.
