Submitted by Dorothy Kethler on Wed, 04/22/2009 - 11:18.
I retired to Guatemala last year. I need no heat. I grow vegetables with ease. Fruit trees have 2 crops per year. I fight leaf cutter ants and white flies with diatoms and nim oil. I eat less meat. I don't have a car; I travel by tuk tuk (small golf-cart like vehicles for 60 cents) or walk. I use energy-saving light bulbs. Laundry is done in cold water and hung outside. During the rainy season it's hung on the porch. I have hot water only for showers heated only when I use it. Trash is more difficult, as everything is put in plastic bags, but I recycle as many as possible. Jars and other containers are reused. Foods I don't grow come from the local indigenous market and are incredibly cheap.
However, the use of corn as biofuel is causing hunger in this already poor nation. I believe the use of any food products for biofuel is immoral and should be stopped immediately. There are hundreds if not thousands of other plants that can be used more efficiently without affecting the world food supplies. I urge everyone to protest the use of corn and other foods as fuels. Happy Earth Day.
Fighting global warming is easy in Guatemala
I retired to Guatemala last year. I need no heat. I grow vegetables with ease. Fruit trees have 2 crops per year. I fight leaf cutter ants and white flies with diatoms and nim oil. I eat less meat. I don't have a car; I travel by tuk tuk (small golf-cart like vehicles for 60 cents) or walk. I use energy-saving light bulbs. Laundry is done in cold water and hung outside. During the rainy season it's hung on the porch. I have hot water only for showers heated only when I use it. Trash is more difficult, as everything is put in plastic bags, but I recycle as many as possible. Jars and other containers are reused. Foods I don't grow come from the local indigenous market and are incredibly cheap.
However, the use of corn as biofuel is causing hunger in this already poor nation. I believe the use of any food products for biofuel is immoral and should be stopped immediately. There are hundreds if not thousands of other plants that can be used more efficiently without affecting the world food supplies. I urge everyone to protest the use of corn and other foods as fuels. Happy Earth Day.