Wondering how you can make a difference? Here are 10 things you can do to help the planet, whether it's Earth Day or not.1. Leave your car at home for a day (or a week or a month) and try walking or biking. If work is too far away to walk, take public transit or carpool. One city bus eliminates the emissions of 40 cars.
2. Turn off the lights, the computer and the television when they are not in use. Using only highly efficient and money-saving appliances can reduce the electricity consumption of an average household to one-10th of the national average.
3. Try eating meat-free at least one day a week. A meat-based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet. Livestock production is responsible for more climate change gasses than all the motor vehicles in the world.
4. Choose foods produced organically, locally and in season. Support your regional farmers and farming industry: buying locally and in season is better for the environment than buying foods that have been shipped hundreds of kilometres to your local market.
5. Put a composter in your backyard or use your green bin to reduce household waste. Composting organics has two key benefits: it reduces the amount of waste going to landfills and when added to your garden, helps nourish soil and plants.
6. Turn off your car's engine if stopped for more than 10 seconds. If every driver of a light-duty vehicle avoided idling by five minutes a day, collectively, we would save 1.8 million litres of fuel per day, almost 4500 tonnes of GHG emissions.
7. Set your thermostat above room temperature in the summer and below room temperature in the winter. For each degree you adjust, you can save 5% on your utility bill and 1% on your energy use.
8. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). A CFL uses only 25% as much energy as an incandescent bulb and lasts 10 times longer.
9. The simple act of recycling has more impact on the environment than the average Canadian thinks. The amount of wood and paper North Americans throw away each year is enough to heat five million homes for 200 years.
10. This is a great opportunity to brag. Tell someone what you're doing to make the world a better place. Support the cause. Encourage them to get involved too.
Source: Earth Day Canada
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8 comments:
Wow! You have really done your homework! Let's see...what am I doing? Opened the doors and windows to take in the free cool air! Happy Earth Day! **kisskiss** Deb
so many brits are trying to get home from overseas, such a mess after the volcano.lots of teachers not back after the holidays.
wonderful ideas Diana, we can always depend on you ! Happy Earth Day !
Beautifully done Diana!
Happy Earth Day.
You know, after reading your items, I did not realize how much I do, and have done, already.
My parents lived through the Depression, so we grew up saving, gardening, not wasting electricity, etc. Meatless meals were common.
I still do a lot of what they did, and am avid about recycling cardboard especially, since SO MUCH is used. (of course, some goes into art too...)
Gee....I feel a bit better about how I live! :)
XXOO!!
Anne
I love your Earth Day art and post. I wrote up an email and routed it at work this morning with tips on what we all can do. :)
Happy Thursday!!
Some great ideas on conservation, Diana. Many we already do and some are impossible (we live 11 miles from the nearest grocery store down a winding, narrow country road with no shoulders!). But thanks for the ideas to ponder and hopefully we can put into practice.
Happy Earth Day!
Earlier I never not heard about this day, but with help of my calendar what I won in one contest, I learned about earth day!
I read more interesting information about this really BIG day! Special for this day, I put on my desktop -Google View!-It's program what showed All Earth from satellite!
"Let's have a peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to our beautiful spaceship - the planet Earth, flying and rotating in the middle of a cold space with her so vulnerable to the load of life ..."
Happy earth day!!!
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