save our water, and save yourself some money.

check out these 8 things you should and shouldn’t do while you’re taking a shower.

do

take a morning power shower. a short five-minute morning shower just to wake you up is a perfect way to start the day. (if you really want a wake up jolt, just before getting out turn the water to cold for a few seconds.)

don’t

rig up your showerhead to double as a microphone. as awesome of an idea as this may seem at first, it leads to longer showers. a few years back, australians were encouraged to stop singing in the shower in an attempt to conserve water.

do

get yourself a low flow showerhead. you can save up to 15 gallons of water during a 10-minute shower.

don’t

definitely don’t do this. 

do

take a navy shower. when you’re soaping up make sure to turn the water off and then turn it back on to rinse off.

don’t

don’t let the water go to waste while it is heating up. capture the cold water in a bucket and use it for other things around the garden.

do

find a shower buddy. nothing could be cuter than having a little friend with you in the shower.

don’t

don’t take baths.  it generally takes about 70 gallons to fill a bathtub with water. it also leaves you powerless against an evil marmot being thrown in the tub with you. even if you are the dude.

how do you conserve water in your day to day routine? willing to shorten your shower, or shower with a friend? let us know in the comments.

leor reef and matt seedorff are seniors at the george washington university majoring in journalism.

how the times have changed.

today, the price of advanced photovoltaic technology has plummeted as the technology continues to advance.  this is coupled with significant tax credits at the local and federal level brought on by the stimulus bill of 2009.  the economics have become much better, but buying and installing solar power can still be hard for one person or household to manage.

enter: anya schoolman.

about 10 years ago schoolman’s son and his friend diego went to see an inconvenient truth. they came back on a mission. with the help of schoolman, the trio decided they wanted to go solar. they looked into it, did their research, and came out more confused. the family found it difficult to navigate the policies, forms and finding the proper vendors.  so they had the idea of starting a solar co-op in their neighborhood.  their friends and neighbors joined them in a bulk order, making it cheaper and easier for everyone to get access to the technology.

and dc solar united neighborhoods was born to help other neighborhoods around d.c make solar power affordable and accessible to everyone.

today, schoolman has taken the idea of uniting neighborhoods in pursuit of clean solar power national with the community power network, an organization that brings solar cooperatives around the country together to share in techniques and methods.  we had the opportunity to meet anya, see her solar array surrounded by all her neighbors’ panels, and learn about her work to make solar power accessible to everyone.  for schoolman, solar power is not the energy of the future; it’s the energy of the present.

would you consider putting solar on your house if you had your neighborhood behind you? would you organize your neighborhood to go green? tell us how and show off your home solar projects in our comments section.

gabe salkin and leor reef are seniors majoring in journalism at the george washington university.

fact: approximately 925 million people in the world do not eat enough to be healthy. that means that one in every seven people on earth goes to bed hungry each night.

fact: well over half of the world’s hungry people–some 578 million people–live in asia and the pacific region. africa accounts for just over one quarter of the world’s hungry population.

fact: it costs just us $0.25 per day to provide a child with all of the vitamins and nutrients he or she needs to grow up healthy.

fact: in 2012, the united nations world food programme (wfp) provided school meals to 24.7 million children in 60 countries.

fact: school meals encourage poor households to send children to school and keep them there.

fact: wfp works with governments to allow them to continue wfp-funded program themselves and to create and run their own sustainable school meal program.

listen to paul’s story, and then sound off in the comments – have you benefited from a school lunch program? how has food impacted your life?

leor reef and matt seedorff are seniors at the george washington university majoring in journalism.

many americans and other people around the world are not as fortunate as most of are. people lose their businesses, their houses, and their possessions. cost of damage is increasing every year as the severity of these storms grows. 

over the past few decades we have seen natural disasters hit frequently. while this is not something new or novel, the severity and damage caused by these disasters is. five of the top 6 costliest atlantic hurricanes ever occurred in the past 10 years:

• hurricane katrina: $108 billion (2005)
• hurricane sandy: $68 billion (2012)
• hurricane ike: $37.5 billion (2008)
• hurricane wilma: $29.3 billion (2005)
• hurricane ivan: $23.3 billion (2004)

but this isn’t the most alarming of the statistics. 1,833 people died in hurricane katrina and the flooding surrounding it. 138 died in hurricane sandy. 195 dead from ike, 62 from wilma, and 121 from ivan. that is 2,349 deaths claimed from five hurricanes.

last fall, typhoon haiyan hit the phillipines. in the phillipines alone, the death toll was over 6000.

can we afford this type damage? what should we be doing to prevent or prepare for disasters like this? sound off in the comments.

leor reef and matt seedorff are seniors majoring in journalism at the george washington university.