Kermit the Frog was wrong: It is actually easy, as a matter of fact, very easy to be green.

I do not know if I mentioned this before: I LOVE THE COLOR GREEN.  Green is my all time favorite color.  I drive a green Honda civic. I use a green tooth brush, and favorite shorts sleep are even green.  My personal e-mail address is even [email protected].  In the summer, I even get to wear green at work as a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, where we even jokingly call ourselves ‘the green & gray.’

Often times when you hear people talking about conservation or environmental issues as “green issues.” This is because the color green reminds us a lush green forest or mountain meadow in nature.

Most people, they will tell that they try to be green by recycling, not littering, and paying attention to green issues.   However, it seems that people have a hard time taking actions beyond those basics.  They believe they have to buy a hybrid car, buy organic fruits and vegetables, or weatherize, which they consider to be too expensive.  Tonight we are going to talk about why MAKING CHANGES TO REDUCE YOUR HOME ENERGY COSTS IS GREEN..

The Bottom line is that: GREEEN IS $GREEN$
(In the long term it saves you hard earned cash)

I am going to show you here tonight that unlike Kermit the Frog It is Easy and Fun to be Green.  First of all, who here in the audience has switched their light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL)?

Why did you do this?  Because switching your light bulbs save you a lot of money in the long run.  According to Homedepot.com, CFL will use around 75% less electricity than an incandescent bulb with the same light output, while lasting about 10 times longer. Additionally, since CFLs produce less heat, they can help you save on cooling costs in the summer.  The bottom line though is that if you Replace 3 frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and you could save around $60 per year.

Changing your light bulbs is just the tip of this green iceberg, for saving your hard earned green cash also.  Exactly one year ago, Consumer Reports had a cover story on 7 Ways to Slash Your Energy Bills.  Among their tips to helping you or the average America household to save green:

1. Adjust your TV mode from “retail mode” which enables TVs to have the best quality mode under bright showroom lights to “home mode,” which is fine for most types of viewing.  Average yearly savings around $45.

2. Pay a qualified heating and cooling pro to seal and insulate heating and cooling ducts that run through your home.  Average yearly savings around $400.

3. Unplug those voltage vampires, such as your DVD player, microwave oven, computer, TV, cell phone charger, and Hello Kitty toaster (which I know ___________ uses with pride very morning).  Average yearly savings around $125.

4. Stop pre-rinsing dishes before you put them in the dishwasher.  Believe it or not, your dishes come just as clean, and it is an unnecessary waste of time and energy.  Ultimately, the yearly savings is $75.

5. If you can wash your clothes in cold water.  If you are worried about removing tough stains, Consumer Reports recommends Tide 2X Ultra for Cold Water.  Even if this Tide detergent is twice as expensive as other detergents, Consumer Reports thinks you could receive an average yearly savings of $60.

6. Lower your water heater from 130 degrees to 120 degrees and insulating your hot-water pipes could save an average yearly savings of $15.

7. Insulate your attics, basements, and other key areas could save the average American household up to $191 a year.

Which could be your airfare for you and your significant other to: (Florida, Bahamas, Hawaii, or Cancun, Mexico)

And I have heard that it is a lot greener down there in January with all the palm trees than it is in St. Louis.

I know what you are thinking right now:  Brian, I do not have the time to make all those adjustments to my home to make it more energy efficient.   Your neighbor might be making these changes already.  I found an article this on May 13, 2011 on the ClimateCentral.org, To Save Energy, Utilities Tap into Our Competitive Instincts by Nicole Heller.

The article reported that City of Palo Alto, Calif. recently began including Home Energy Reports in residential utility bills to empower their customers save energy and be greener. Each report compares a household’s energy use with their 100 closest neighbors in homes of similar sizes, and also provides targeted energy conservation tips.  The bill reported that the author, Nicole’s energy bill was “ranked as the 23rd-most-efficient household in the neighborhood, based on the previous month’s electricity and natural gas use.”  They were listed in the good, but not the great category.  Nicole and her husband wanted to be listed in the Great category, so they immediately dusted off the caulking gun that had been sitting for over two years.  This couple then spent the next two hours caulking the windows and weatherizing their home.  They then waited patiently for their next utility bill.  To their excitement, they were now classified as “Great,” having moved up in the standings to become the ninth-most-efficient house among their neighboring peers, and saving about $50 per month relative to the average household, or about $600 a year.

Just think if you decide not to weatherize, your neighbors might just thumb their nose at you. Tell you that you stink.  Or, even call you an energy hog.

And you know Howard, that GREEN IS $GREEN$.
Becoming more energy efficient can save you a lot of money.
Again, Kermit the Frog, for all of his cuteness has it wrong.
It is easy and fun to be green.

Don’t just take my word for it.  Anne Frank said it so beautifully some 60 years ago in her book, The Diary of a Young Girl: “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

Keep in mind where she wrote this.  Anne and her family where hiding from the Nazis.  They were confined to in an attic of a house in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  She could not go outside for two years and basically had no contact with nature.  She only had a window to look out into the sky.  A vibrant chestnut tree that grew right in front of the window was her closest contact to the natural world.

I recently got into a debate with someone on Facebook whether or not there is really hope for the future with the immense problem of climate change.  With all the environmental destruction caused by humans, my friend did not think there was hope for the future.  On the other hand, I am endlessly optimism who believes all of us humans can lessen the impact of climate change.  How do I know this?  From all the time I have spent in nature.

I grew up walking the trails of a county park that looked the Mississippi River by my house, Bee Tree Park.  I loved walking the woods and exploring the creeks by around my parents house in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri.  As soon as I graduated from college in 1992, I worked at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.  Every summer since, I have enjoyed hiking as many trails as I can in my spare time.  Up until spring 2008, I spent my winters in Everglades National Park, Florida.  As much as I could, I would canoe, bicycle, bird watch and hike all around that magnificent park also.  Local, state and national parks, and wilderness areas have always provided me a sense of wonder, renewal, peace, and hope.

From the past 20 years of working in the national parks, I went from working as a housekeeper and gift store cashier to a naturalist ranger leading presentations to visitors.  I even used that Anne Frank quote in many of my ranger programs.  When I was not out exploring nature, I loved reading about it in the evenings to educate myself and be knowledgeable for the park visitors.  My quest for green knowledge led to my interest in climate change.

For ten years now, I have been reading as many books as I can about climate change.  Most of the authors and scientists I read are very alarmed by the negative impact it is having on planet.  However, most seem hopeful that we can take lots of actions to lessen the impact for future generations.  Thus, I have always maintained hope we can solve climate change.

Four years ago, in November 2007 while still working in the Everglades, I had an epiphany.  I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to find some way to educate and inspire people to resolve climate change as some kind of public speaker or teacher.  Ever since then, I have been looking for a grad school to truly learn the art and science of effective climate change communications.  This is now my fourth winter in St. Louis trying to make this life transition.  While I am living with family and working various winter temporary jobs, I still have sought out nature.  I still make regular pilgrimages to Bee Tree Park to hike the trails, admire the wide Mississippi River, and look at the deciduous trees in amazement, especially how they change with the seasons.  Nature is still blessing me with renewal, wonder, peace and hope.

For my friend on Facebook, whom I was debating on the solutions to climate change, I tried to instill my hope from spending time in nature.  He was just not going to buy it.  Oh, well.  Some people are never going to be persuaded by your point of view.  However, I was really shocked by his pessimism and lack of hope for the future though.  After a conversation with him, you may not be hopeful that humans can take meaningful actions to reduce the threat of climate change.  I have never been convinced either that total pessimism inspires people to change their ways and take positive actions.   If you are just going to focus on doom and gloom projections of the future, you not going to be a joy to be around.  People will not be challenged to live a healthier, more sustainable, green life for the planet.  You will not help the cause.

My friend Tom Smerling, who founded the website www.climatebites.org said something interesting to me a few weeks ago.  He remarked that if we (who are very knowledgeable and aware of climate change) are not providing some kind of hope to our family, friends, students and people whom engage about climate change, then we must take a vacation or sabbatical.  This is a very truthful statement.  Even more, if you cannot take that vacation or sabbatical, at least go hiking in a nearby park.  Reconnect with nature.  Find that wonder by being in the natural world.
 
Don’t just take my word for this either.  Keep thinking about Anne Frank.  She expressed this deep appreciate for nature at the age of 14.   She even had this deep longing to reconnect with nature especially because she trapped hiding in that small attic with her family for two years.  She never gave up hope and optimism, despite the Holocaust happening all around.  Her words and spirit of hope forever lives on.  She would want us to go spend time in nature, especially if we were feeling hopeless and pessimistic about global issues like climate change.

If you really are feeling hopeless about the state of the world and humanity, please do yourself a favor and go spend some time in nature.  Nature has been such a wonderful friend to me.  The natural world has really inspired me to be green (strive to live more sustainably) and educate people to take action to resolve climate change.  I know if you are feeling blue, taking a hike will inspire you also to be green and live your best life.

Tomorrow, I give my a speech for St. Louis South County Toastmasters.  It will be my fourth speech since joining Toastmasters last January.  I love public speaking.  I miss it when I am not working in the national parks. Plus, I have really enjoyed getting to know the members of South County Toastmasters.  They have all been incredibly warm and kind to me.  Even more, they have provided many helpful suggestions to improve as a public speaker.  Their tips have really helped me improve as I give presentations to the public as a seasonal  ranger at Crater Lake National Park.  My dream is to be a full time green speaker/climate change communicator.  Toastmasters is really helping me gain the skills to be a professional speaker.

Thus, I do recommend Toastmasters or a public speaking group to people who are passionate about climate change, environmental issues, and promoting living green lifestyle.  It will make you a more polished speaker.  Furthermore, you get to speak to a cross-section of society.  You are not just “preaching to the choir” like if you spoke at a conservation club meeting.  A Toastmasters’ audience ranges across the political spectrum from hard core conservative Tea Party supporters, moderate and undecided voters, to very progressive liberal voters who sympathize with the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Toastmaster members do a great job to evaluate your speech based upon your delivery, organization, and effective speaking techniques.  They are not suppose to be critical of your speech if they disagree with you politically.

Toastmasters has been a fabulous forum for me to present speeches on climate change and green issues.  I know for a fact that there are some hard core deniers of climate change in the audience.  They bristle as soon as I mention the word “climate change.”  There are a couple of members who question the evidence after my speeches, such as “What is the evidence that climate change real?”  “Isn’t climate change just natural and normal?”  “Don’t you drive a car and use carbon to heat & cool your home?”  “How do we know that the measurements that carbon dioxide is increasing are accurate?”  These are all great questions that challenged me to really learn more in depth about climate change so I can speak more fluently about it.  I appreciate the members of the club who are deniers of climate change because they have been very tough taskmasters to me.  At the same time they have been respectful and kind to my passion on climate change.  I appreciate their openness to allow me to use Toastmasters to create speeches on the problem and solution to climate change.

This past April, I presented a speech for Toastmasters, with the title: I am Drop a Stink bomb on You!  The speech was about the key evidence that scientists point as the key indicator of climate change, carbon isotopes.  My key point was that scientists know humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not volcanoes or the ocean, because they can measure the carbon 12 versus the Carbon 13 or Carbon amount in the atmosphere.  It was very tricky, technical speech.  I definitely felt like I was performing a high wire balancing act with heavy scientific information to a non-scientist audience.  For the most part, I felt like I succeeded with the speech.  However, I had technical difficulties with the power point remote and I kept turning around to point at the large screen.  Both of these speaking glitches my audience found distracting.  However, I did scare them pretty intensely with the information about climate change.  A few weeks after the speech, a good friend in the Toastmasters club, Nilsa, informed me that my next speech had to be “more uplifting with solutions to climate change.   You scared the hell out of us that WE ARE STINKING UP THE PLANET with your last speech.”

Therefore, the speech I am giving tomorrow night is a sequel or flip side to the previous speech.  It is much more upbeat and light.  It is called It is Easy and Fun to Be Green.  I am aiming for the undecided and deniers of climate change in my audience.  I am speaking to them in a language they understand: CASH! and not even mentioning the sensitive word of climate change.  I am getting excited because I will be giving the speech in less 24 hours from now.  Wish me luck!

Tomorrow night, I will post the speech and the response I received from my fellow Toastmasters.  In a future blog posting, I will also post the I am Going to Drop a Stinkbomb on You! speech.

Who am I?  I am an enthusiastic outdoor naturalist with a sense of adventure who wants to change the world and make a difference to those around me.  I wrote out that sentence about a month and a half ago on a three by five index card.  I was preparing myself for a phone interview for a job for an outdoor education naturalist for an environmental education camp for kids in California.  I was prepping myself for the standard interview question: ‘Tell me about yourself…”  I felt like I aced the interview, but I found out a month later that I did not get the job.  The positive thing about job interviews are two things: First, your resume had the right qualities that it caught the attention of a prospective employer.  They are then taking the next step to interview you.  Second, as you plan ahead for the job interview and the possible questions the interviewer will ask you, I think it forces you to ask yourself ‘Who exactly are you?’

I am still working on that question to my life: Who am I?  At my bedrock essential level, I am a passionate and an enthusiastic communicator who cares about others and the planet where I am blessed to live.  Does that sound incredibly vague?  Yes, but everyone has got to start somewhere when attempting to answer the question of who they are.  I always knew throughout my life that I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others.  But how?  For many years, I did not have a clue.  In college, I followed the practical advice to get a degree in business administration to find a good paying job to make money.  By my senior year in college, I knew I did not want to work in an sterile office cubical and fight rush hour traffic everyday to commute to work.  Thus, I luckily found a job working in seasonally Crater Lake National Park almost nineteen years ago.

I plan on working at Crater Lake again this summer.  I quickly found how much I loved hiking and exploring in the outdoors.  I loved living close to nature and I could not stop talking about it.  However, I had to find a winter job since Crater Lake only really offers jobs in the summer.  Thus, for many years I worked at Everglades National Park in the winter.  There was even a stretch where I worked there four years straight.  I got my first naturalist guide job there about thirteen years ago.  I really loved the job to talk all day about nature while narrating the boat tours there.  While I was learning about the Everglades and the natural world, park visitors started asking me how global warming was affecting the Everglades.  Over eleven years ago, I started reading books about global warming.  I started with Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can’t Afford to Lose by Dr. Stephen H Schneider at Stanford University.  Over the years, I found that I could not read enough popular science books about climate change.  I wanted to learn all I could about this very complicated subject.  As I read, I became more alarmed about the possible consequences climate change could have on future generations and even current life on earth.

Over the years, it became crystal clear to me that I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to educate people about the problems and solutions to climate change.  In November 2007, I decided I wanted to go to grad school to study climate change.  However, I had worked in the national parks so long that I did not have a clue how to network and research to find a good grad school program for me.  Also, climate change is such a huge subject that I did not know what I wanted to study.  Glaciers?  Sustainability?  Greenhouse gases?  Sea level rise?  Changes in weather patterns?  Effects on wildlife?  fossil fuels?  It all interested me and overwhelmed me that I did not know what to do.  Also, I saw friends from the national parks who went to grad school who graduated with a massive amount of student loans.  The thought of the burden of financial debt troubled me also, even though I firmly believe that education is an investment for one’s future.  My under grad background in business administration also left me academically weak when looking into studying the science of climate change in a university graduate program.

The answer of where I should go to grad school and what program should I study never emerged for me.  In November 2007, I gave myself the goal to attend grad school by the fall of 2010.  Sadly, with my indecision and dead ends when I approached some university professors for advice, my dream and goal of attending grad school by the fall of 2010 did not materialize.  My passion is still climate change, but I did not know how to pursue my life’s dream and passion.   I felt like the chorus of the 1971 song ‘I’d Love to Change the World’ by the music group, Ten Years After.  The chorus goes:

I’d Love to Change the World,
But I don’t know what to do,
So I will leave it up to you.

Beautiful song, but I knew I could not make it a theme for my life.  I am still trying to figure out how to effectively channel my passion for resolving climate change with utilizing my many years of public speaking experience as a ranger in the national parks.  As a I lead some environmental education programs at Crater Lake, I started thinking.  I also talked to friends who were leading environmental education programs in the national parks.  This lead me to the conclustion that kids can be more open to the message of climate change and saving the planet that adults .  This winter, I started applying to environmental education programs in California.  This lead to the interview I had in December that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog posting.  I also have an interview today for a guest naturalist position for another environmental education camp in California.  Ultimately, in five years, I hope to be a green educational speaker talking to children, high school students, college students, seniors, church groups, business groups, and who ever would have me speak about resolving climate change.

I do not know the exact steps yet for following my passion to inspire and educate people to resolve climate change, but I am taking that first step forward.  Again, I love that song ‘I’d love to Change the World’ by Ten Years after, but I know I cannot leave saving the natural world just up to other people.  I strongly believe in the expession, If it is to be, it is up to me.  Also, during my college years, another beautiful song is still stuck in my head, ‘Man in the Mirror’ by Michael Jackson.  The chorus has such an inspiring message of starting within yourself to change the world:

I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change

I have another job interview today for an environmental educational camp in California.  It is almost guaranteed they will ask the standard interview question: ‘Tell me about yourself…”  In that interview today, I will be taking that first step forward to make a positive impact for the world, especially for the chilren and future generations.  If they ask that question today, I will respond that I am an enthusiastic experienced naturalist who loves to work with kids.  I have a deep passion for the natural world.  I hope to educate them in a way that enables them to connect to the natural world.  I then hope to inspire them in some way that they will want to protect it and pass along this knowledge to others.     

Wish me success as I take that first step…   

My name is Brian Ettling.  This is my first blog posting.  I am jumping into an unknown realm.  I do not even follow other blogs as of this point.  However, I will have to start following them to see how my blog compares.  Furthermore, I will have to seek out the information to make this blog most effective for my life’s mission.  My mission is to be part of the conversation to somehow shift American society past the tipping point to be fully engaged in resolving climate change.  Will I be successful?  It does not matter.  As my hero Marjory Stoneman Douglas once said about restoring the Everglades, “When it comes to saving the Everglades (or the environment), it is not a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic.  It is something that just has to be done.”

Sadly, I do not feel like I have lived up to my inter potential in my life so far of making a difference for the planet.  I graduated from William Jewell College in Kansas City, Missouri with a degree in Business Administration in 1992.  Since then, I have made a career of working in the national parks, primarily Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and Everglades National Park in Florida.  For the past 13 years, I have worked as naturalist guide/interpretation ranger in those national parks.  I lead various ranger programs, such as narrating boat tours, leading guided sunset walks, leading bird identification walks, providing geology and history talks in both national parks, performing evening campfire programs using power point on the birds that utilize both national parks, and so many other programs.  I love nature, the outdoors, and our precious natural environment.  In my ranger programs, I aimed to instill an appreciation of the natural world and hopefully inspire my audience to take actions to protect it.  During my time leading leading ranger programs, I came up with my two of own mantras that I believe are uniquely my own.

1) Think Globally
Act Daily

2) Each and everyone of us can change the world. We do this by
    a) The way we vote
    b) The products we buy
c) The attitudes we share with each other.

I hope these ideas continue long after I have lived my life on Earth.  Please feel free to share these quotes, but I hope you would attribute them to me.  In future blogs, I hope to get more specific on how I hope to contribute and facilitate this conversation to make the planet and my life greener.  I have lots of thoughts that I want to share.  I also want to learn from others who are making the world a greener place and pass along those ideas here.

It has been a blessing to stick my toe in the water in the blogging world.  May this blog be a blessing to you.  Furthermore, may it somehow contribute to the massive effort and conversation of other people to inspire American society to fully resolve the issue of climate change.

Namaste!
Brian Ettling