At the 21st. of September 2007, the final stage of the Eco Y Eco regional Sales office Baja North opened its doors to the public.  Eco y Eco is a provider of home residential hot solar water heaters.  Efficient, Affordable, and Green, Eco y Eco is leading the charge to help us here in Baja go Green and join the revolution to save ourselves from the scurge that is dirty expensive energy sources. 

Feel free to stop by and get informed about how efficient and energy saving solar water heating and solar pool heating technologies are. They serve the area from Tijuana in B.C. North to the famous Lands End in Cabo San Lucas with pool heating and solar water heating Thermosol products. 

There are basically three types of solar water heating systems that are used: pumped, integral collector storage, and thermo-siphon. The direct circulation system circulates potable water from the water storage tank through one or more collectors and back into the tank. The solar collector is the main component of the solar system. It is usually a metal box with insulation and a black absorber plate that collects solar radiation and heats the water.

Off the Grid in the Baja Wine Country

Local Man Sets Up Solar in Valle de Guadalupe

Carlos Ramirez, a Mexican National who worked and lived in Anaheim California for over 20 years came back to Mexico about 4 years to find his paradise.  Armed with the cross cultural skills of both American ingenuity and Mexican Hospitality, Carlos decided Baja Calfornia was going to be his home. "It was so close to Calfornia and family who still lives up there" Carlos said "Baja was just the very best choice for me"

Carlos bought 5000 meters squared of land, about 1.25 acres, in the Valle de Guadalupe Wine Country about 4 years ago.  I bought a 2 bedroom mobile home from a local friend for about $ 5,000 usd and put it on my lot.  I added a patio, storage room, a water storage system, and boom, he was almost ready to go when he had to make a decision about electiricty. 

Whole Foods Market is ending the use of plastic bags and has a goal of being completely plastic-bag free by April 22.

Whole Foods Markets across Phoenix and the nation will be giving out reusable shopping bags to customers Tuesday marking the beginning of the phase-out.

"We hope to inspire shoppers to prompt positive environmental change by adopting the reusable bag mindset," said A.C. Gallo, the firm's co-president and chief operating officer.

It's Amazing What You Can Do With All-Natural Products

By Stacey Wiedower

OK, I'll admit it. I've succumbed to the latest trend. I'm an all-out follower—believer, even. Whatever you want to call it, just know that if it's chic to be green, I'm totally chic. I didn't follow Leonardo, Cameron, Brad or even Al down the path toward an eco-friendlier lifestyle. My green obsession sprang from a more practical reason: I became a mom.

Once my little guy was mobile, the dangers lurking around every corner of my house were glaringly apparent, none more so than the toxic chemicals (known as cleaning products) hiding out behind my cabinet doors. I realized that for me, simply stashing them on higher shelves out of my baby's reach wasn't enough. After all, if they're harmful for him, they're probably not good for the rest of us, right?

A little research verified my suspicions that many of the household cleaners I'd believed my entire life to be harmless—the same ones advertisements show being used by smiling, happy families in sparkling clean homes—are decidedly not. Along with posing various threats to the environment, a lot of the cleaning agents we commonly use pose serious health risks—and not just when they accidentally fall into the hands of toddlers who don't know they're not safe to drink.

Air Pollution Comes From Many Sources
Written by Mason Inman

Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious form of air pollution. But there are different kinds of pollution—some visible, some invisible—that contribute to global warming. Generally any substance that people introduce into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things and the environment is considered air pollution.

Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

Other greenhouse gases include methane—which comes from such sources as swamps and gas emitted by livestock—and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were banned because of their deteriorating effect on Earth's ozone layer.

John Roach
for National Geographic News

Ethanol made from a prairie grass shows promise as a viable fuel that could be much more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient than corn ethanol, a new study says.
Ethanol is often touted as a cleaner-burning gasoline alternative that lessens dependence on oil. (Get the basics on greenhouse gases and global warming.)

But a key criticism of the biofuel is that large amounts of fossil fuels are required to farm and refine it.
Switchgrass ethanol, though, can yield 540 percent more energy than is required to produce it, the new study says.
Part of the reason switchgrass ethanol is more energy efficient is that the whole plant is used. Corn ethanol, by contrast, is made only from kernels. In addition, producing and burning switchgrass ethanol releases 94 percent less greenhouse gas than burning gasoline does, the researchers found.

Corn ethanol production and use emits 22 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline, according to the October 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Major Countries Declare War on Plastic Bags 

When will Mexico Join the War Effort?

BEIJING CHINA - Declaring war on the “white pollution” choking its cities, farms and waterways, China is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old — steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers on Wednesday.

The measure eliminates the flimsiest bags and forces stores to charge for others, making China the latest nation to target plastic bags in a bid to cut waste and conserve resources.  Beijing residents appeared to take the ban in stride, reflecting rising environmental consciousness and concern over skyrocketing oil prices.  Will Mexico join the green movement?  If so, when?