if you're a girl and reading this, you more than likely share in the love of scented candles that afflicts most females. We collect them, purchase them at often astronomical prices, and love to just perouse the stores and smell them.
But they're not all roses and sunshine (or peachy, or strawberry-shortcake, or vanilla).. Regular old candles consist of wax made from petroleum (an environmental threat in itself) and release soot- carcogenic soot- into the air after burning, which certainly isn't good for the indoor air quality of your home or, in turn, your health. But there is an alternative available- perhaps not so widely, but easy enough to find, anyhow- soy candles.
Made from soy wax, the candles are a great deal better for the planet than ones made from oil, and, as an added benefit, doesn't release any of the soot that paraffin wax candles do- making them far better for your health. Also, most soy candles are produced by companies who have environmental responsibility in mind and therefore utilize recycled paper and lead-free wicks.
Let's just say that soy-candles are an all-around better choice.
(Also, if you are a non-candle buying male, relay the information on to a candle-purchasing friend or relative!)
I don't think I'll ever forget my eighth grade science teacher, Mr. Gilroy. He always made apocolyptic predeictions about oil drying up, and about how all of our cars should be running on vegetable oil. I thought he was crazy. He told us that it was possible to drive a car that ran on used french fry grease from fast food restaurants and diners. The only reason, he told us, that vegetable oil hadn't become standard fuel, was because it ran against the business model currently in place for importing, processing, and selling petroleum based fuel.
Nowadays, the idea of a vegetable-oil-powered car is getting more and more popular with the general public. Mr. Gilroy's ideas don't seem quite as crazy any more, now that we're all feeling the increase in gas costs whenever we buy anything that needs shipping. Granted, it's not a perfect solution. But it is a viable alternative to using oil as it rapidly dissapears.
That video is from a project called Grease Not Gas that happened in 2006, when a bunch of Snowboarders did a road trip in a veggie-fueled bus. I love the way sports can raise people's interests in natural resources. If you like snowboarding, it's in your best interest to prevent global warming and the emission of greenhouse gases any way that you can. It's a shame that it's such a tough sport to get started with, cost-wise, but at least the snowboarding community is doing something proactive to maintain the environment. We may not all snowboard, but we do all breathe the same air.
If you want to learn more about vegetable-oil powered cars, check out Greasecar, one of multiple web sites that offer conversion kits and information.
