To believe, to live , and to achieve

These three words represents three circles that circle every act or deed you do in your life, any thing you do probably is for the sake of one of these three verbs.

Lets start by the most mandatory one, not just for humans, but for all living creatures on the earth,

TO LIVE.

Simply you want to live, everybody want, and of course some of your actions you do just to live. like eating, drinking, wearing, and housing. you go to work every morning, some of the work routine you just have to do because you need the money that you well get at the end of each month.
not all the deeds you do for living are physical. you have also some psychological needs and some of your every day acts you do to satisfy these needs. Like playing with your kids, visiting your family and friends, socializing, and even relaxing.
It's OK to do something just to live, but what is not OK is to do everything in your life just to live. Simply because you are a human being and you must differ your self from animals which do nothing but live and survive. that leads us to the next circle

TO BELIEVE.

I'm sure that every human in the world believe in something, this thing can be a religion, a thought, or just an idea. and you can see this believe clearly when people do good.

If somebody give charity -for example- he must believe in something to do so, may be he is a Muslim, a Christian, just believe in humanity, in human rights, in equality. of course nobody give charity to live. nobody have to.

Some people go vegetarian because they are fasting, and others go vegetarian because they believe in animals rights.

Some people volunteer because they want to go to paradise, and others believe they have to volunteer for the sake of good. 

Praying is another example.

there are a lot of examples demonstrate acts can not be done without a belief.

Again I believe that to believe is as mandatory as to live, but what is optional in this life is

TO ACHIEVE.

However every one have to live. and all of humans believe in something. not every one live for a goal. unfortunately some people just live and do just what they have to. they don't manage to do something big. they don't want achieve anything.

But if you want to differ yourself from other people, you have to set goals and do some acts to achieve it.

you have to choose your goals carefully and to choose a way to achieve it. you can study and gain an academic degree. you can start your own company and achieve a certain level. you may want to be a manager, or a CEO for a multinational company. or you want to be a well known writer or public speaker and spread your ideas around the world.

Some of these goals may help you live or to satisfy your ego and self esteem, some of these goals you set because of a belief you have, and the best goals are those fulfill both of these parameters.

My advice is to try to do at least one of your daily activities for the sake of achieving your goals. and try not to let "to live" acquires all of your time. 

Finally, this is my opinion, may be I'm not accurate enough, and may be I'm totally wrong, what is you opinion?

Renewable regards,

Abdelhalim Osama

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 [photo source :addicted2success.com

أوقات تعليمية ممتعة مع ريتاج في ورشة الميكانيكي

هناك أدوار تربوية و أنشطة تعليمية لا يستطيع القيام بها الا الأب.

فإن كنت لن تستطيع ان تعين زوجتك في أداء المهام التربوية و التعليمية الأساسية فعلى الأقل يمكنك أن تؤدي المهام التي لن تستطيع زوجتك القيام بها.

بالاضافة إلى اننا كآباء لابد أن نكوِّن ذكريات خاصة مع أبنائنا لا يشاركنا فيها أحد. تلك التي سنظل نتذكرها طوال العمر إن شاء الله. 

فاذا كان ذلك إختياريًا بالنسبة لجميع الآباء - وأنا لا أراه كذلك - فهو إجباري على من يريد أن يساهم في تربية أبناءه ليكونوا نافعيين للمجتمع و بالأخص الآباء اللذين إختاروا التعليم المنزلي لأبنائهم مثلي.

الأمر ليس صعبا فهو أحيانًا يمكن إنجازه أثناء تأدية المهام اليومية مثل تلك التي نحن بصدد الحديث عنها.

دائمًا ما يكون مشوار الذهاب إلى الميكانيكي - أو محطة البنزين - لتغيير الزيت للسيارة أمراً مملاً ولكن تلك المرة كان في غاية الروعة فقد قررت أن آخذ ابنتى ريتاج مع في تلك الرحلة.

بسبب متابعتي لمنهج ريتاج التعليمي كنت أعلم أنها بدأت تتعلم المهن. ومن هنا جائتني الفكرة أن أقدم لريتاج خبرة عملية وتشاهد مهنة الميكانيكي على الطبيعة.

أخذت ريتاج معي بمفردها وهذا ما اتاح لي فرصة أكبر في التقرب من ابنتي و قضاء وقت ممتع يتحول الى ذكرى سعيدة بيننا. 

وصلنا للمحطة و أوقفت السيارة أمام ورشة تغيير الزيوت أو "ورشة الميكانيكي" كما سميتها لإبنتي و جلسنا ننتظر دورنا. ولحسن الحظ يوجد كنبة أرجوحة في مكان الإنتظار فجلست عليها أنا وريتاج وكان وقتا ممتعا لم نشعر فيه بالملل و ظللنا نضحك و نتأرجح الى أن جاء دورنا (طبعا كنا فرجة لكل من فى المحطة).

في تلك الأثناء كنا نشاهد السيارة التي تسبقنا وهي تُرفع بالرافعة الموجودة في الورشة وأخذنا نسمي كل ما نراه فريتاج أول مرة ترى "رافعة للسيارات" وان كانت تعلم الرافعة المستخدمة في البناء فكان من الشيق أن ترى نوع آخر من الرافعات و تعرف اسمه. ثم رأينا الميكانيكي أو "عمو الميكانيكي" كما أطلقت ريتاج عليه. ولكن لبعد المسافة لم ترى أكثر من ذلك حتى تلك اللحظة. 

ثم جاء دورنا وركبنا السيارة و دخلنا بها  الورشة ورأيناها من الداخل.

نزلنا من السيارة و كانت ريتاج مهتمة كيف يضع الميكانيكي أذرع الرافعة تحت السيارة ومن أين يقوم بتشغيل الرافعة وكيف تتحرك، وكان يظهر عليها التركيز الشديد فاكتفيت أنا بالمراقبة وتوجيهها إلى ان تبتعد بالقدر الكافي لسلامتها واحيانا اقوم بتسمية الاشياء لها أو اقوم بشرح ما تراه أمامها.

 بعد أن قام "عمو الميكانيكي" برفع السيارة ووضع حوض الزيت تحت السيارة, قام بفتح طبة الموتور من الأسفل ب"مفتاح الميكانيكي" لإخراج "الزيت المتسخ". وهنا ريتاج تعلمت أن الميكانيكي لديه أداة تسمى مفتاح -وهي مختلفه عن مفتاح الباب- وأيضا تعلمت أنه يقوم باصلاح السيارة عن طريق اخراج الزيت المتسخ من أسفل السيارة. 

ظلت ريتاج تتابع تدفق الزيت الى ان انتبهت انها ترى لأول مرة السيارة من أسفل فأخذت تدقق في باقى أجزاء السيارة و سمينا بعض الاجزاء مثل ال"عجل" وال"محرك".

ثم قام الميكانيكي بانزال السيارة وقام بوضع الزيت النظيف فى المحرك وطبعا كانت ريتاج تقف على حافة الكبوت و أنا أمسكها - للأسف لا توجد صورة لاني كنت أمسك ريتاج خوفا من أن تسقط - وظلت تسألني عن لماذا نضع زيت في المحرك وبالطبع كانت ايجاباتي بسيطة جدا لصغر سن ريتاج فكانت جميع الاجابات على غرار " أن الزيت للسيارة بمثابة الطعام الذي نأكله لكي نكون أقوياء".

بالطبع المعلومات التي خرجت بها ريتاج من تلك الرحلة ليست كثيرة ولكنها كافية جدا بالنسبة لسنها. 

فهي قد علمت أن الميكانيكي يعمل فى الورشة ويقوم باصلاح السيارة و يقوم بتغيير زيت المحرك المتسخ بزيت جديد ونظيف. وتعلمت أيضا ان الميكانيكي يستخدم المفتاح والرافعة.

أعتقد أنني سأقوم بتكرار الزيارة بعد عدة سنوات لتتعلم ريتاج ميكانيكا السيارات بشكل أعمق. فأنا أعتقد انها ستصبح مخترعة عندما تكبر فهى بالفعل تحب تفكيك الاشياء ومعرفة نظرية عملها.

كانت تجربة شيقة لي ولريتاج على حد السواء. فتلك أول مرة أصطحب ريتاج بمفردها فى مكان مثل هذا. كنت مستمتع جدا بتعلق ريتاج بي وسماعها لكلامي. واستمتعت بتعليم ريتاج معلومات ومصطلحات جديدة ومازالت تتذكرها حتى الآن و ستستخدمها طوال العمر باذن الله.

بالطبع كان هناك القليل من الاحراج فانا لن أنسى نظرة الميكانيكي لي عندما سألتني ريتاج ببراءة وهي تقف على كبوت السيارة في مواجهته مباشرةً "هو عمو ميكانيكي بيعمل إيه؟". ولكنه تقبل ذلك خاصة وانا تجاهلت نظرته وبدأت أشرح وأوضح لريتاج ما يقوم به عمو ميكانيكي من بطولات لإصلاح السيارة :D.

وأخيرًا هل هناك مدرسة تقوم بعمل رحلة تعليمية مثل رحلتنا هذه؟ 

Work smarter, and Harder

I read many articles about how to work smarter and how to do the same tasks with less effort and time.

But what if I'm a person who loves to work hard and I enjoy my work?what if I have already allocated a specific time for work and I'll gain nothing if I finished early?. because -for example- I have to stay at work for the work hours, or I have nothing else to do but work in these hours, or simply I managed to work that time.

If so, why not to work harder and smarter too? Is their is a reason to stop working harder If I want to work smarter? In my opinion the answer isNO.

You can work smarter to save time and energy, and use the remaining energy to do more "smart" work in the saved time, so you keep work harder.

To do so you have first to learn how to work smarter, and you will find some very good articles telling how to work smarter by managing your time, set your priorities, stop wasting time, set limited goals, sleep well, take breaks, and a lot of ways that you can find by searching the topic on the internet.

secondly you need to know how to fill the saved time with more smart work and here after you will find some good examples for that extra work you can do:

Learn new things:

Learn, learn, learn, and never stop learning. because you need to develop and to grow in your career/business. the problem is we usually don't have time to learn more. ... by working smarter, you now have time.

Take new responsibilities:

As you want to grow in your career, for sure you will take more responsibilities in your path. the surprise is you don't have to wait for new responsibilities to come to you. Go and ask for it if you have the ability to handle it.

Volunteer to help your colleges / your boss:

Being a helpful person will increase your credit and reliability. and also will give you the chance to test new responsibilities and to boost your abilities in addition to learn new things.

Check for forgotten work:

Some times, you decline some tasks to do your priorities then you forget about this declined tasks. but If you already finished your priorities by working smarter, why not working harder and finish these forgotten work too.

Network / socialize:

Networking is an important issue as many successful people said that. but it also need time and energy -especially if you tend to be introvert like me-. so if you have excess time and energy, manage some networking calls and visits.

Of course their is more smart works to do to keep work harder -while working smarter- and increase your abilities and chances to grow. If you do something smart in your excess time, I'll be glad if you shared it with us in a reply to this post.

Renewable regards,

Abdelhalim Osama (Halim)

You can read the original post on linkedin in here 

"Wind technology" for "Non-wind technical" people (2)

This series is for people who are interested to know about wind technology, but they don't actually need a deep knowledge in this topic. or this series can be your start into the wind technology.
you can find the first article of this series here.

now lets talk about the secret behind the wind turbine blade movement. this secret is called "Aerodynamic Forces".

Aerodynamic forces and Basics:

Aerodynamic forces refers to the forces and moments existed on any object that subjected to air flow (did you put your hand out of a moving car window before?!!, then you met aerodynamic forces).

These forces magnitude and direction depends on the body shape, and surface material of the subjected body, and air characteristics (like: speed, direction, density,....etc).

the best shape that develops a good forces to be used is called an Airfoil, you find airfoil in the cross section of an airplane wing, birds wing, sailing boats sails, and of course most of wind turbines blades

YES, you got it, we actually us this forces to rotate wind turbine blades.

Wind turbines classifications:

Wind turbines can be classified by a lot of factors.At first we can define a wind turbine by its size (rated power); their is a micro wind turbine which has a power of few watts, then their is a small wind turbine (house hold) with a power lower than 50 Kw, then a medium size wind turbine with no more than 800 Kw, Large wind turbine with a higher rated power, and finally a mega scalewind turbines.

Wind turbines can also be classified by its rotation axis; Some wind turbines rotate around a vertical axis, and others rotate around a horizontal axis

you can call a wind turbine by its number of blades; like a single-bladedwind turbine, double-bladed wind turbine, three-bladed wind turbine, andmulti-bladed wind turbine.

Their are a lot of other classifications like; Up-wind vs Down-wind, Geared vs Gearless (direct drive), and stall vs pitch controlled wind turbines.

The most common type nowadays for large wind turbines is:
Horizontal axis, three bladed, up-wind wind turbines (HAWT)

I hope you enjoyed it, if so please follow me for more alike articles.

If their is any question or you want to add some interesting info about wind turbines, feel free to reply to this post.

Renewable regards,
Abdelhalim Osama

[photo#1: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0194.shtml ]
[photo#2: http://www.windturbine-performance.com/www/types%20of%20wind%20turbines.htm ]
[photo#3: http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/01-02/RE_info/wind.htm ]

you can read the original post on linked in here

ريتاج في المسجد ... مثال حي علي منهجية التعليم المنزلي

كنت قد كتبت سابقا عن قراري بأخذ ريتاج معي في صلاة الجمعة وكيف كان قرار مخيف حينها لعدم ثقتي فيما قد يحدث.

والحمد لله أنني لم أتراجع ففي ذهابنا للمسجد الكثير من الفوائد لي ولإبنتي ريتاج.

أولا أحب أن أوضح أننا قد إتخذنا قرار - أنا و زوجتي Marwa Elhabashy- بتعليم بناتنا وأبنائنا منزليا. بغض النظر حاليا عن كيف سنفعل هذا وهل سندخلهم مدرسة أم لا - قد أقوم بنشر موضوع أخر عن هذا القرار- ما يهم الآن هو كيف الاستفادة من الذهاب إلى المسجد تربويا و علميا و اسقاط منهجية التعليم المنزلي على تجربتي تلك مع ابنتي ريتاج.

 سياستي في تربية ابنتي هي تركي لها اكبر مساحة ممكنة لتكوين شخصيتها دون تدخل مني. تدخلي غالبا يكون بالقدوة أو بالحوار و الاتفاق و الاقناع أو بوضع قواعد وذلك في اضيق الحدود وللضرورة فقط. وعلى ذلك فانا لم احاول ان اقول لابنتى ماذا عليها ان تفعل في المسجد, مثلا كيف تجلس واين تنظر و وكيف تقف و لم اجبرها ان تقوم للصلاه و هكذا. كل ما فعلته هو الاتفاق معها على بعض القواعد التي لابد لنا جميعا ان نتبعها اثناء الخطبة والصلاه و تواجدنا في المسجد. وهي  خلع الحذاء قبل دخولنا للمسجد و عدم الحديث اثناء الخطبة و الصلاة و اخيرا عدم الذهاب بعيدا عني - لامنها وسلامتها-.

فيما عدا ذلك تركت لها كامل الحرية ولم اقومها الا في اضيق الحدود فلم امنعها من فعل شئ الا اذا كان سيتسبب في الهاء المصلين عن الخطبة والصلاة, والحمد لله لم يحدث منها ما يستوجب ذلك الا قليلا كالقفز مثلا اثناء الخطبة.

في البداية كانت ريتاج تقف بجانبي اثناء صلاتي ركعتي التحية ثم تقف أمامي عندما اجلس للاستماع للخطبة أو تجلس امامي في حجري. واحيانا كانت تنام وتركتها تنام عدة مرات الى ان خفت ان تصبح عادتها النوم في المسجد فتناقشت معها واتفقت معها الا تنام فى المسجد و بعدها حاولت ان تنام وكنت اذكرها باتفاقنا بعد الصلاه والحمد لله لم تحاول ان تنام فى المسجد منذ فترة طويلة حتى الان.

اثناء الصلاه فى الايام الأولى لم تقتنع ريتاج بالوقوف جانبي فى الصف بل كانت تقف امامي و لا تريد ان تقف فى الصف ابدا, وبالطبع لم اجبرها على ان تقف بجانبي كما اوضحت سابقا لا اتدخل الا في الحالات القصوى.

مرة بعد مرة وجدت ريتاج تجلس جانبي فى الصف اثناء الخطبة دون ان اطلب منها فعل ذلك ولكن تعلمت ذلك من رؤيتها وملاحظتها الجميع يجلس في صفوف وخاصة الاولاد الاكبر سنا القادمين مع آبائهم للمسجد. بل وأكثر من ذلك أنها اصبحت تصلي معي بعض الحركات اثناء صلاتي للسنة و تقف معي فى الصف اثناء صلاة الجماعة تنظر للصفوف و الناس يؤدون حركات الصلاة التي علمتها لها زوجتي من قبل وتؤديها معي احيانا اثناء صلاتي.

ثم بعد ذلك حدث التغيير بصورة تدريجية الى ان اصبح الوضع كالاتي: تقوم ريتاج بخلع الحذاء قبل دخولها بدون مساعدة ولا طلب مني ثم تدخل وتنتظرني بعد الباب مباشرة الى ان اقوم بخلع حذائي واخذ حذائها لوضعهم فى مكان الاحذية ثم ندخل ونقف سويا نصلي تحية المسجد, وهنا تقف ريتاج تصلي معي كامل الركعتين وكأننا نصليها جماعة ثم تجلس بجانبي طوال فترة الخطبة وتحاول ان ترى الخطيب او تتابع الناس من حولنا طوال الخطبة. - احيانا تحاول ان تخبرني بشئ اثناء الخطبه بصوت هادئ في اذني ولكنني لا استجيب لها حتى لا تعتقد ان هذا الامر مباح وحدث مرة بعد الحاحها ان اخذتها للحمام لظني انها تريد اخباري بانها تريد الذهاب للحمام ولكن الحمد لله كانت تريد شرب الماء فساعدتها ان تشرب من المبرد ثم عدنا للخطبة وتناقشنا بعد ذلك انها اذا ارادت شئ فالافضل ان تؤجله بعد انتهاء الصلاة.

وعندما تبدأ الصلاة بالطبع تقف معنا في الصف وتؤدي معنا الصلاة كاملة الى ان يسلم الامام فتقوم مسرعة الى حضني لتخبرني بما تريد او ما شاهدت و عادة تطلب مني ان نشتري مقرمشة شكل مثلث - دوريتوس :D - وهو اليوم الوحيد في الاسبوع المباح لها اكل اي منتج مشابه فيه مرة واحدة فقط.

كل ذلك تعلمته ريتاج دون تدخل مني. كل ما قمت به هو توفير البيئة المناسبة للتعلم - وهي اخذها الى المسجد في هذه الحالة - ووضعي للخطوط العريضة بالاتفاق معها والنقاش قدر الامكان تلك الخطوط التي تضمن سلامتها و عدم التعدي على حقوق الغير.

قس على ذلك كل شئ في الحياه يمكن ان يتعلمه الطفل بنفسه وبملاحظته الشخصية. كل ما عليك فعله هو توفير البيئة المناسبة و والتوجيه عن بعد. وذلك لضمان عدم تأثر شخصية الطفل بما لدينا من خبرات متراكمة قد تكون ليس لها اهمية وتحد من ابداعه وانطلاقه و هو فى مراحل تكوين الشخصية.

ملحوظة: ريتاج تلبس ما تريد وأحيانا تصر على ارتداء الطرحة كشكل احتفالي ليس الا ولكن غالبا ما تذهب ببنطلون و تيشيرت او فستان من اختيارها وذلك لصغر سنها وعدم وجوب الحجاب عليها بعد .

"Wind technology" for "Non-wind technical" people (1)

This post is for people who are interested to know about wind technology, but they don't actually need a deep knowledge in this topic. or this post can be your start into the wind technology.

I'll talk about modern wind turbines and how it converts wind to electricity? but at first lets talk about some basics and background information that will help us to understand this topic.

what is wind?

first of all we have to know what is wind? of course you can say it's a moving air. but why the air moves?

To make it simple, there are Two main causes of wind:

1. Temperature difference of the different areas of the earth (i.e. the equatorial areas are hotter than the polar areas) which make the hot air to go up in the atmosphere, causes low pressure at these areas, which drives air from the other cooler areas.
2. Earth rotation makes the air slides in the reverse direction.

there are also some minor reasons for the wind movement like mountains, sea breeze and some other local reasons.

from the above we can expect that wind is not the same (speed and direction) for all places, and also it varies with time (daily and monthly profiles).

OK, now I know why the wind moves, but what makes it useful?, Good question.

Any thing moves gains an energy called kinetic energy which depends on its mass and speed, as the air has density which mean it has MASS, if it moves at any SPEED it will has a KINETIC energy. what remains is how to convert this energy to a more useful sort of energy. which lead us to the next step.

How humans got benefit from wind?

Nowadays we can generate electricity from wind, Is that our first attempt to use wind?

Actually we used wind for thousands of years before electricity. humans used it when the ancient Egyptians first used their sailboats that were driven by wind. We all also know the Netherlands Windmills, and how they used wind to grind their grains. from this point
Humans started to know how to use the energy exist in wind to have a rotational motion that can be used for any application; like the famous american wind turbine used in farms to lift water from wells, and for sure you can use this rotational motion to generate electricity too.

How a wind turbine work? and what is the main parts of a wind turbines?

the first stage of the wind turbine is to convert the wind energy to rotation and that happens by its BLADES. when the blades expose to wind there are some forces generated on it (called aerodynamic forces) these forces develop torque which makes the blades to rotate around their axis. the blades are attached to the MAIN SHAFT through the HUB (Blades + Hub = ROTOR).

Now you have a rotating shaft (main shaft) so you can either attach the GENERATOR to it directly (in small wind turbine and large direct drive wind turbines) or attach a GEAR BOX at first to achieve a specific speed on another shaft (HIGH SPEED SHAFT) to be suitable for the common wind turbine generators.

finally you can use the generated electricity directly or change its characteristics to match your requirements and your electricity grid.

Usually the gearbox and the generator enclosed in a compartment called theNACELLE, that nacelle is mounted on the wind turbine TOWER, which is fixed on aFOUNDATION.

Conclusion:

• The wind moves due to the rotation of the earth and the spatial temperature difference.
• As the wind moves it gains energy.
• Humans can use this energy for a lot of applications.
• The modern Wind turbines converts wind energy to electricity
• The main parts of a wind turbine are:

1. Rotor: consists of blades and hub. Converts wind energy to rotational kinetic energy.
2. Nacelle: Contains the gearbox, generator, and some other control devices. Converts mechanical kinetic energy to electrical energy.
3. Tower & structure: Varies depends on the wind turbine type and size.

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It was just the beginning, If you liked it and want to know more basics about wind technology, then FOLLOW me to be informed about the upcoming posts.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

[Photo#1 from www.rgbstock.com]
[Photo#2 drawn by me]

Abdelhalim Osama (Halim)

you can read the original post on linked in here

How to live Green in a developing country?

Sustainable development is a huge word that needs a huge number of actions include a lot of work, new laws (industrial and civilian), and spreading the culture between our people, it need also to invest a lot of money. Most of these actions can only be conducted by the government, the problem is that the governments in the developing countries always make excuses like "they have a lot of other urgent problems to deal with". But why we keep harming our environment -more and more- every day and our excuse is "we need a better government to manage the process"? Why waiting for an external change to live green? Why don't I start live sustainable -myself- and the change will be forced in the recent coming years?

Be the change that you wish to see in the world " ...Gandhi

Actually you can live green as a person and you don't need the whole country to change to be able to take on sustainability, The question now is what can I do to live Green?

Reduce your carbon footprint.

Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide -or any greenhouse gas- that emitted to the environment because of your usage of energy -or any product-. By reducing it you will help to "delay" global warming. And the surprise is that you can reduce it by simple changes in your life style, and here are some examples for you:

• Turn off unused lights. That ridiculous advice -that everyone knows but doesn't do- is a very powerful way to reduce your carbon footprint.
• Turn off unnecessary appliances. Why do you use air conditioner and cover yourself with a heavy blanket, just remove the blanket and turn off the air conditioner unless it’s very hot, and if so 25°c is enough for you and healthier for your family. Or just use a fan.
• Keep your appliances, and car maintained and efficient. maintain your car if it takes fuel more than usual however it goes well functionally.
• Use public transportation. I know that in some cases this is difficult because of the quality of this transportation –ask me-, but if you want to fight for a cause you must bear, and also the more demand for the public transportation will encourage the transportation company to develop it.
• Use lower energy consuming appliances. for example:
  -use CFL (energy-saving light) or LED light bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs.
  -use a regular stove-top tea kettle instead of the electrical kettle.
  -use gas fired water heater instead of the electrical one.
  -use a broom instead of a vacuum cleaner as much as you can, or use a lower power vacuum cleaner.
• Use cold water when you can. I am in a hot country but everybody around uses hot water all the time –also in summer-. (Can anybody tell me WHY?) Also set your washing machine water temperature on a lower degree if your clothes aren't that dirty.

You can find a lot of ways to reduce your carbon footprint, just Google it.

Reduce your consumption of goods, paper, and plastic.

Use less money to save money, use less food to save food, and use fewer goods to save the environment. Goods like food, canned food, office stationary, clothes, baby toys and any kind of goods consumes the natural resources and uses energy for production and transportation.

Paper consumes a lot of water, trees, and power to produce. However these consumption are lowered dramatically in the past decade but it still high and must be reduced more and more to save earth for the coming decades. Plastic is made from fossil products that are finite and will end in one day.

Reduce your water consumption.

In the coming years here in Egypt we will suffer from reduced water supply because of the Ethiopian dam being built on the main tributary of the Nile River. Every counter in the world has –or will has- its water problems. Some people expect that the next world war will be over water.

Why waiting for the government to shut off water (forced) and to force us to use it wisely –like the electricity load shading that being forced because of fossil fuel shortage- ? Why we don’t start to use the water wisely to save it for the future? And as usual what you have to do is very simple.

Use water if you really need it, fix your leaking water tap and your over flowing toilet flusher, set your washing machine to a short program if it is enough, and last but not least take a 5 minutes shower instead of a bath. You can think of a lot of ways to reduce your consumption if you really want to.

Wake up earlier and sleep earlier.

Some countries applies Day-Light-Saving strategy, some countries not. Some people with, and some people against. My opinion is that day light saving is necessary for energy saving and we need to know how to deal with it to eliminate its side effects –if exist- instead of refusing the idea.

Wherever you live, whatever applying D.L.S. or not, and whatever your opinion, sleeping early will reduce the amount of energy that you consume at the night energy consumption peak hours, not to talk about the benefits of waking up early.

Separate your trash into categories.

Even when your country doesn't have any recycling strategy. you can help recycling your waste.

Here in Egypt we have the "freelancer" garbage man -with a donkey cart or a cargo motor tricycle- who collects the paper, plastic, glass, and metallic wastes from the waste container and sells it to the recycling factories for his own. However he is very efficient but he can't pick up the small plastic and paper waste that are mixed with your other waste. So why not to help him do his valuable job.

Reuse whatever you can.

Plastic bags can be used again and again. you can write on the other side of the draft printed papers or print on both of sides if that is applicable. reuse plastic bottles or replace it with a reusable plastic or glass bottles. save cardboard boxes to use it as a storage box.

you can also upcycle some of your wast and use it for a different purpose . like upcycling cardboard into furniture you will gain new cheap furniture and good family time.

what else can you upcycle? think about it and have fun.

Learn more about green life style.

If you want to do something and don't know how, learn it.

you can learn it online, you can read about it in books and magazines, you can join social associations which care about environment and learn from it, meet people with the same interest. You can also invent new ways that you can do in your country to reduce your bad impact on the environment.

Teach your children -and your circle of influence- to live green.

As we want to save the natural resources -or what left- for the next generations. we must build our children to do the same and not to fall in the same mistakes that we fell in.

Side by side, Try to spread this culture among the people around you as much as you can because this is the only thing you have personally to help saving the earth.

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If you are living in a developing country tell me what you are able to do to live green?
If you are in a developed country try to imagine to live green in a country that barely support this cause -till now- and tell us what you would do then?

if you liked this article please follow me for more.

Abdelhalim Osama (Halim)

you can read the original post on linkedin here