Essential Skill #47: Install a Windmill

"Nobody likes the thudding sound of a power bill meeting your wallet," writes author David de Rothschild in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook. "Good news: freeing yourself from utility serfdom is getting easier and cheaper."

It's Essential Skill #47 in The Handbook:

Install a windmill.

Of course, it's not just your pocketbook that will rejoice at your energy savings on wind power. So will the earth. "If 100,000 households installed an ample-sized wind turbine, the annual CO2 reduction would be 900,000 tons."

If you're thinking about installing a windmill, here's what you need to know:

• The ideal average wind speed on your property should be at least 10 miles per hour, and the harder the wind blows, the more energy you'll save -- as much as a 50 percent more with just a couple of mph difference
• Cost of wind power has fallen 90 percent during the past two decades
• Your utility company may offer the option of supporting wind power through the main grid instead of installing your own, as you may still find it too costly for your own personal windmill installation

As great as wind power sounds, we couldn't help but worry about its impact on birds. We've heard before that blades from windmills are to blame for bird deaths. But de Rothschild sets our mind at ease there too. Turns out that of all the bird deaths caused by humans every year, only 1 in 10,000 are caused by windmills.

"Wind can't carry our whole load," writes de Rothschild, "but it could go a long way toward capping our carbon output."

Essential Skill #46: Build a Straw Home

"Straw has been used in construction for thousands of years," writes author David de Rothschild in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, "and bales were turned into buildings in the 1800s on the American Great Plains -- where there were no trees. The idea of building with straw was rediscovered by eco-conscious architects in the 1980s, and today's straw houses are not just drafty little houses on the prairie."

So what makes straw-bale construction such an eco-friendly alternative to wood? Well, there' s the obvious reason of all the trees saved in the process. Then there's the fact that the straw that's used for home construction is "waste" straw that would normally be burned, emitting CO2 into the air. Finally, straw is a super-insulator -- keeping it cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter.

Of course, at first consideration there appears to be one serious drawback -- fire hazard. But as it turns out, straw is actually more fire-resistant than wood construction!

Here are the basics of straw home construction:

• Straw bales are used to fill in a wood frame
• The straw-stuffed walls are two-feet thick
• It's coated with stucco and plaster
• You get two to three times more energy efficiency than with traditional construction

"Combined with other green building tricks," writes de Rothschild, "(south-facing windows for 'passive solar' heating, efficient heating and cooling systems, and double-paned, low-e windows), your energy use can drop by two-thirds."