Ed Begley Jr.
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Living with Ed follows Ed Begley, Jr., and his wife, Rachelle, as they green their home, family, and celebrity friends. But if you've ever wondered what kind of advice they'd give the rest of us, then the Ask Ed forum is your chance to find out. Readers submit questions and comments about the show, green living, etc., and Ed chimes in with his green answers; here, we've rounded up some highlights of the past week.
Q. One sure fire way to massively increase your carbon footprint is to have children. Even if you only have one kid and they don't have any, you are still doubling your carbon footprint (approximately). I don't have the math to hand, but I saw an article in that showed how a vegetarian parent of 2 driving a Prius, never using air travel, etc., has a significantly higher carbon footprint than a person who doesn't have any kids, but holidays long haul twice a year, doesn't recycle, drives a large 4x4 everyday, etc.
For those parents who consider themselves green, I'm not having a go at you or saying that you shouldn't have children. The point is actually whether we can expect these big decisions to be made with a priority for the environment or whether we think of ourselves first?
A. Family planning is certainly an important part of how we manage the resources of this planet. Many of the challenges we face regarding finite resources are a function of how many people we now having living on this planet. It's a difficult subject, but one that must be discussed and considered.
Ed
Q. Has anyone tried the new solar attic fan? I saw this and was immediately interested. I will be purchasing a new home soon and would like to make it as energy efficient as possible.
A. I used to have attic ventilation but the home energy audit pointed me in the direction of additional insulation and other things instead that have made a larger difference. It depends on the size of your attic and other things, but the home energy audit should come first!
Ed
Q. I'm trying to find the whole house water filter very briefly shown in the segment of the couple with a baby in Venice where they did a whole house renovation and had the rented solar panels on the roof. The whole home water filter was verbally described as a sculpture and there was only a glimpse of it shown in the segment.
A. The system in the early Living With Ed episode is called the Wellness Filter. It was installed in the house in Venice, CA on the show. It is not the one Rachelle and I selected for our own home. We have the Lifesource Water System in our house and we're very happy with it. You can find it at www.lifesourcewater.com. Hopefully you'll see the installation of it in our house on a future episode—it was pretty funny and Rachelle and I got into it pretty good. We also use a KYK ionizer for our drinking water—you can find it at www.waterforlifeusa.com.
Ed
More about Ed Begley, Jr.
Living with Ed: Inside the Show
The TreeHugger Interview: Ed Begley, Jr.
Ed Begley, Jr., on Going Off the Grid, Greening Traffic, and More
