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We are all responsible for the state of the world and the legacy that we will leave our children. We all have a part in the Green House Effect and we can all do something about it! I have composed a list of eighteen easy things that every family can do to greatly improve and slow down global warming. I hope that everyone will pass this article on to loved ones because maybe, just maybe the suggestions can save the world for future generations.
Do not choose paper or plastic; use your own shopping bags - Bags on the Run, found at bags on the run.com, sells environmentally friendly green bags at the extremely reasonable cost, of around $1.60 each. Publix Shopping Center in my neighbor actually sells the green bags, offering their customers this environmentally healthy alternative, and I took advantage of it. The green shopping bags are very sturdy, and they hold a lot more groceries then plastic bags, even more then paper bags in some instances. I use them all of the time. I have to admit that it is difficult, sometimes, to remember to take the bags with me, so I keep them hanging on the outside of the pantry door. This way when I begin to make my shopping list, I transfer the bags to my front door, for easy grabbing on my way out. You can also visit greenbag.info for more information on the green bags.
Stop Junk Mail - Junk mail is by far the most disturbing and annoying phenomena to me. When I see junk mail in my mailbox, it has the opposite than intended affect. Junk mail makes me not want to buy from the uncaring, insensitive merchants who use this advertising medium. I, for one, won't even look at the ads. Junk mail is the biggest waste of our natural resource, the tree. The amount of junk mail and catalogues that I used to receive on a daily basis was overwhelming and it made me wonder, if all the junk mail in the world was collected for just one day, how many tons it would be. I am sure that the total would be astounding. I was happy to see Oprah's episode featuring schoolchildren campaigning to stop junk mail. Oprah's show featured greendime.com. The site does charge a $20.00 fee to stop junk mail, but does plant 10 trees in your name for the fee. You can also plant a tree in anyone's name. I recently received the gift of a tree planted in my name, from my favorite niece. Another good option for every family bombarded by junk mail is to visit the site optoutprescreen.com.
Recycle plastic, paper and glass - If your community, or apartment complex does not recycle, then get on the horn and make it happen. If your community does have a recycling center, then use it! There are many wonderful new trash cans manufactured today that come with separated recycle bins built right in. For ideas visit recyclingbins.com or nextag.com. If you have an abundance of plastic shopping bags, many grocery stores have recycle bins for the bags. Take them with you back to the store. You can also phone your local recycling center for more ideas on recycling.
Read online Newspapers - Not only do newspapers use trees, newspapers are delivered to residents in plastic bags. Newspapers are not an environmentally safe product. "Nothing in North America eats more forests than newspapers. The daily and Sunday volume is staggering. There are 1,580 daily newspapers in the U.S. with a circulation total of 61-million. There are 875 Sunday newspapers with a total circulation of 62 million. This huge destructive process happens every day, 365 days a year. These numbers do not include weekly publications," says Frank Erickson in his article "Perspective and Questioning the Paper Were Printed On." Posted in the Minnesota Daily.
Turn off your computer at night - Turning off your computer at night, not only decreases risk of someone accessing your files and emails, it saves you money and conserves energy. According to The Tufts Climate Initiative Computer Brochure "If each household in the metro Boston area turned off their computer just one additional hour per day, we could save $3.2 million in electricity costs and prevent 19,000 tons of CO2 from heating the atmosphere. If businesses and universities were included, the savings could be much greater," according to and article in Tufts.
Can you imagine what that would equate to if everyone in America was in the habit of turning off his or her computers? The article goes on to announce, "One computer left on for 24 hours a day can cost you between $115.00 to $160.00 in electricity cost a year, and dump 1,500 pounds of C02 each year." Turning off your computers, when not in use, is a win, win for you and the environment.
Do not support or attend public firework displays - This one is huge. Before you trivialize this, ask yourself, do you really think your children would rather watch a fireworks display today, or have a world to live in tomorrow? We all have our heads in the sand when it comes to things we find entertaining and their impacts on the environment.
Fact: Fireworks contribute to Air Pollution, Water Pollution, and Noise Pollution. Fireworks are an endangerment to domestic animals, fireworks are an endangerment to wildlife, and fireworks are an endangerment to humans.
Fact: Firework Displays are a worldwide form of entertainment. To put this into perspective think about the Millennium celebrations that we watched on television. If you do not believe that fireworks displays and competitions are global then visit Fireworksguide.com. Every country on the globe performs celebrations involving fireworks displays.
Air Pollution: fireworks are responsible for high concentrations of particles of pollutant metals, organic compound, and gasses.
Water Pollution: According to a new study published in the journal, "Environmental Science & Technology," "Fireworks heavily contribute to water pollution by dispersing perchlorate contamination into nearby bodies of water. Accordig Treehugger.com, perchlorate is well-known to pose risks for both humans health and wildlife. The results of the study indicated that within 14 hours of fireworks displays the background levels of perchlorate increased 24-1028 times, typically peaking at 1 day, and took 20 to 80 days to reach normal levels."
An endangerment to animals: Domestic animals and wildlife are often sensitive to the loud noises, associating fireworks with bad weather and causing animals to produce erratic behaviors that put them in harms way. More information regarding this phenomena visit all-creatures.org.
Human endangerment: Eleven deaths were associated with fireworks in 2006 in the United States alone, and 9,200 people suffered injuries from fire works that required hospital visits. In 2005, there were four fireworks associated deaths, and 10,800 people sustained injuries requiring a hospital visit, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Fireworks can cause life threatening residential and motor vehicle fires as well as environmental fires that can affect the environment.
Now - Think about how many fireworks displays are set off in the United States on the Fourth of July alone, not to mention New Years Eve, national football games, nightly fireworks displays at Disney Land, Disney World, Universal Studios, every conceivable event and festival in every major city, and not so major city in every state in America. Compound this by every country in the world! DO YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT FIREWORKS ARE A PROBLEM TO THE ENVIRONMENT, NOW?
Opt for entertainment Displaying Laser Light shows that are more environmentally friendly - True, laser light shows consume electricity, but electricity can be manifested in green ways, such as solar, wind and waterpower. Laser light shows are much more environmentally friendly than fireworks displays.
Do not support large, public Christmas light displays by attending - Another biggy! Ban Christmas light displays that are grandiose and consume enormous amounts of electricity. I am not talking about community trees. I am talking about huge drive by Christmas light displays. Let me elaborate. An average house decorated with incandescent lights at Christmas might use up to 40 strings of lights. This translates into $600.00 of electricity during a 30-day period and equates to 10, 000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Granted LED lights are far less brutal on the environment, but they too, consume electricity and release carbon dioxide into the environment, albeit in greatly reduced quantities. Now, imagine how much electricity is consumed and how many pounds of carbon dioxide are dumped into the environment at the cause of huge drive-through Christmas light displays.
Just like keeping up with the Jones', spectacular Christmas village type, spectacular light displays seem to be a national trend in America. If you don't believe me, Google Christmas light displays. I have done some research in this area and was going to compile the information into a report, but the vast number of displays, numbering a mere 100,000 bulbs, was overwhelming, let alone the displays that ran into the millions of bulbs. The average monthly bill for one 100,000- light display, runs $5,000.00 a month, and dumps up to 80,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the environment. These people are literally, stealing the future of the world away from your children due to the impact that they are having on the green house affect, not to mention the copious amounts of electricity that they are using, which frankly, could go to better uses.
I am not trying to be scrooge here, but can't we enjoy a more old-fashioned Christmas? Can't we get back to what Christmas is really all about. I mean when did Christmas become about who has the biggest light-displays? For that matter, when did Christmas become about Christmas lights at all? When did cruising Christmas lights become part of the world's Christmas traditions? The world has celebrated Christmas for nearly 2008 years and got along fine without Christmas lights for 1882 of those years. I am positive that the children of American shall not be deprived in anyway, if we opt not to support the unnecessary over indulgence of others, who are exploiting the world's resources on trivial things, like Christmas lighting. For more information please visit energysmart.wordpress.com, or the blog Christmas-Lights-Electricity-Use.
Buy recyclable products, green products or recycled products - This is a no brainer. Look for products that are made from recycled materials. There are plenty of them on the market. This may take a little more effort on our parts, but it is worth it in the long run. My Green Electronics at http://www.mygreenelectronics.org/ is provided by the Consumers Electronics Association, as a resource for people looking to buy green products.
Recycle unused and old cell phones. - Visit Recycle My Cell Phone, on the web, to find out where you can recycle old unused cell phones. They will also recycle old PDA's and pagers. What a great resource. Recycle My Cell Phone claims that every cell phone can be recycled, so get to it!
Re-Use Printer Cartridges - Thank the Lord for drugstores that are now recycling print cartridges at greatly reduced rates. It costs half the price of a new cartridge to refill them. After the cartridge surpasses its refillable life, most manufactures include a postage-free envelope in the original packaging, so you can return the old cartridge for recycling.
Recycle Old Computers - Contact Earth 911 According to the EPA, Earth 911 is a comprehensive communication medium for the environment. Earth 911 has taken several environmental hotlines, web sites and other information sources nationwide, and consolidated them into a user friendly network. Once you contact the Earth 911 network, you will find answers to all of your questions regarding community-specific eCycling and much more. The Environmental Protecition Agency, also promotes the Electronic Industries Alliance's eCycling Central Web site for those who wish to find someplace to dispose of other old unwanted electronics.
Take your lunch in reusable containers - How many of us use sandwich bags and toss them away without a thought? Did you know that it takes thousands of years before plastic decomposes? Can you imagine the impact this is having on the environment? Recycle the food storage bags that you do use, rinse out larger bags and reuse them, and recycle smaller ones with other recyclable plastic products. Better yet, pack lunches in reusable containers and don't use sandwich bags at all.
Buy biodegradable paper lunch bags to use for cleaning up pet waste. As I said before, plastic bags take up to and beyond 1,000-years to decompose. Can you imagine someone 500 years from now discovering a plastic bag of your pet's poop? You think its funny, but what if that person was your 5-year-old great great ------------- grand child? This isn't a joke. Buy biodegradable lunch bags and use them to clean up after your pet. The earth will thank you and so will your ancestors.
Buy juice, or drink products in carton containers or glass containers, versus plastic containers. - The reason here is obvious. Plastic is not bridgeable. If you do buy products in plastic containers, be sure to recycle. However, if consumers stop buying products packaged in plastic, manufactures will stop packaging products in plastic, if they want to stay in business.
Refuse Styrofoam take out containers, even for doggie bags - Styrofoam is not biodegradable, paper is and paper is a renewable resource; whereas, Styrofoam comes from petroleum which is not a renewable resource. Therefore, it makes sense to avoid a product that is very harmful to the environment, in favor for a product that is much more environmentally friendly. I even suggest boycotting establishments that continue to use Styrofoam products. Obviously, these places do not care about us, or the future of the world in which we all live. More informaition can be found at media.www.thehilltoponline.com.
Walk more, or ride bikes - Not only is this last option environmentally healthy it is physically healthy for us. Walking or riding bikes to close destinations helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the environment. Walking can also help bring people together. Walk to a nearby restaurant for dinner or dessert. Walk to Starbucks for coffee. Walking with the one's we love can promote talking and helps burn off those extra calories that dining out can provide.
Get the Children away from the computers and video games for a day - Take the children to the park to enjoy the nature we are trying to preserve, take them rollerblading, biking, hiking, involve them in a family game of football, basketball, softball. Buy inexpensive digital cameras for your children and start nature watching; start a nature digital collection to help teach children about nature appreciation. You get the idea. Get out of the house and enjoy this great world we all live in, and save electricity to boot.
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