Airplane Reading

Air travel provides a really great opportunity for me to do something I don’t get to do enough: read. One of my favorite airplane reads is Real Simple magazine. I only buy it when I’m traveling, but I really enjoy it. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a magazine that provides articles on making life a bit easier … you know … organizing tips, easy recipes, green living, that sort of thing.

So yesterday I flew from Atlanta to Las Vegas and, yes, I picked up a Real Simple to read on my 4+ hour flight. I was enjoying the articles and one in particular grabbed my attention. “Going Green,” the magazine spread read. It was about how a couple in California transformed their home to be eco-friendly. I was intrigued; I mean glass is certainly green, so surely they upgraded their windows.

Here’s some of what the article talked about: They made their house more energy efficient with GreenFiber Cocoon insulation, which is made from recycled newspapers treated with borate. They use fireplace logs made from recycled coffee grounds. They used paint with no VOCs. Efficient appliances, composting, water aerators and more.

This is all fabulous, but what about the windows? All that the article mentioned was that they used “inexpensive cotton thermal drapes” that “leverage solar heat by blocking it in the summer and catching it in the winter.” Really? Doesn’t glass do the same thing? And if you’ve got to keep these thermal drapes over the windows, don’t you then have to turn lights on, which means you’re using up more electricity. Just a thought.

On another note, I also read a “Green Scene” article in the Delta Sky magazine. This one did talk about the benefits of windows. The article references the book You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!): 51 Easy Ways, written by Jeffrey Langholz and Kelly Turner. It talks about how insulated curtains and shades work, but the best option is an EnergyStar window which can “save 50 percent more energy than 10-year old windows and insulate five times better than single-pane windows.”

Maybe someone should pass that info on to that green California couple.