The earth is sighing. It is overburdened, old and tired. It needs our help. A lot of us are all ready and eager to help but most of us don’t know how. It is true that a quick change in our lifestyles is required to reverse and correct the damage that has already been done. Drastic measure can only be taken at higher Governmental levels, true, but we can contribute in our small ways to reduce our Carbon Footprints, and we can start today. Every drop counts when measuring the Oceans. You can help.
TIPS:
• Install Solar Panels to provide electricity for your house and business,
which will insure that you will leave behind a smaller Carbon Footprint, as your electric needs will be fulfilled but by burning less fossil fuel.
• Replace all bulbs with the mercury bulbs.
• Buy only enough food that you know you will eat, don’t hoard today only to throw away tomorrow.
• Eat more fresh foods, the less processed food you eat, the better for your health and the environment.
• Wear less darker clothes to work boys, yes, the black suits absorb the heat towards the office buildings, making them warm and consequently making the cooling work overtime.
• Wear warm clothes inside the house instead of turning up the heating every time it gets colder. Socks and sweaters are the friends of environment.
• Try helping the trees by using both sides of paper.
• Have your monthly bills e-mailed to you.
• Plant more trees.
• Only run the washing machine on a full load of clothes.
• Only use the dishwasher when it is full.
• Only vacuum the house when needed, like once every week or every other week.
• Plan your car trips to town in advance so that you can do all your chores in one go; so that you don’t have to run to the store just for a gallon of milk, make lists ladies.
• Use natural sunlight wherever possible in the mornings, open the blinds and turn off the lights. Set up work desks near windows.
• Turn off all extra lights.
• Unplug electronics when not in use. Don’t leave you PCs on forever.
• Turn off the TV when no one is watching.
• Do not throw away used electronic batteries (laptop, cell phone batteries etc.) and other electronics, into the trash; take them back to the electronic stores they will recycle them properly. You can also try finding Electronic Recycling Centers in your yellow pages.
• Do not throw away old printer cartridges in trash also, these too can be taken or mailed to sellers for proper disposal.
• Recycle glass, tin, paper and old clothes.
• Use e-bay and Craig’s list to buy stuff whenever possible, it is recycling when you buy used stuff and re-use it.
• Sell your old stuff or give it away rather than throwing it away.
• Use car pools to and from work, and for kids’ school pick and drops.
• Ride your bike to work, if it not freezing outside and you live near your work place.
• Do not use plastic bags!!!!! Get cloth shopping bags today.
• Use less paper towels, buy some dish cloths and don’t throw away the dirty ones, wash them and reuse them.
• Try using as less of plastic stuff as you can. Plastic bottles, containers and pots etc. are harmful for you and the environment.
• Use detergents and bathroom cleaners that do not have ammonia in them.
• Take smaller showers.
• Use soaps, shampoos and other grooming products economically.
• Try using deodorant sticks rather than sprays.
• Do not flush empty toilets.
• Fix the water leaks or have them fixed. Yes, the dripping shower is also a water leak.
• Use filtered water rather than buying a bottle, drinking a sip from it and throwing it away.
• Have things fixed, whenever possible, instead of replacing them.
• Support the harvesting of solar and other natural energy sources like wind and water.
It is a fact that nothing written above is new for us. We’ve heard it all before but the question is, are we practicing it? We must keep our minds open and adopt positive changes regarding the environment. We must start practicing what we are hearing and learning everyday. It sounds pretty clichéd but it is all true so:
Change your attitude towards earth today.
Start living green.
Start living in a way that you leave smaller and smaller “Carbon Footprints” behind every single day.
Start today for a better tomorrow.
A Public Awareness Message by,
Yellow Lite
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Causes of Carbon Footprints
Carbon footprints are the measure of the green house gasses released by everyday living practices of human beings. Conscientious people like us are naturally curious regarding how much we are contributing to the Global Warming via the production of the Green House gasses. So, what are the causes of Carbon Footprints? The causes are numerous and stupendously surprising. The choice of what we eat, to how and where we travel to, to how we wash our clothes or utensils all directly or indirectly leave a Carbon Footprint on the environment.
It is common knowledge that COAL and OIL burning causes greenhouse gasses and are bad for the environment but is it also common knowledge that they are not the only causes. Yes, there are a thousand other causes of Green house gas emissions. Before any further discussion it must be kept in mind that Methane and Nitrous Oxide are as lethal for the environment as CO2, if not more so. When Green house gasses are mentioned, these are the main three gasses, produced by humans, their animals and their machines that are being referred to.
CO2 is basically released by:
• The direct burning of all fossil fuels i.e. coal, gas, petroleum etc.
• The use of any vehicles i.e. cars, busses, trains etc.
• The Aerodynamics industry i.e. the flying industry, planes, helicopters jets etc.
• The electric industry, while producing electricity use coal or petrol.
• The heating or cooling plants like Air conditioner and heaters either commercial or private.
Methane is basically released by:
• The landfills, where the world dumps garbage.
• The agricultural industry, yes the vegetables release it (Only trees help in decreasing CO2 by taking it in and releasing Oxygen but they are being cut off too).
• The digestive systems of grazing animals, especially the flatulence of cows.
Nitrous Oxide is basically released by:
• The use of fertilizers.
• The use of various gases in freezers and cooling units, commercially and/or by the consumers.
A single bus (public transport) trip of around 10 miles or a drive in the car for the distance of only 6 km adds around 1 kg of CO2 to the environment. If we keep a single kg of CO2 productions as our base than the production of just five plastic bags or two plastic bottles adds the same amount in the air. The production of a single American hamburger contributes around 3 kg of CO2 to the atmosphere. Just a 4 km flight trip can produce up to 2 kg of CO2.
The breakdown of the most important causes of the production of Greenhouse gasses shows that, directly or indirectly, all the humanity is contributing to the dilemma known as Global Warming, every second of their lives. The extravagance of our advancement, technologically and scientifically, in just half a century has in fact contributed to this ruination of earth’s ecological balance. Americans produce the most CO2 in the world, that was around 5773 Mio tons of it in 2002 (the figures have increased by 12 to 15 % now), the number two contributor was China with it’s production of around 3700 Mio tons in just 2002 but the least CO2 producing country is Iceland, it contributed around 2 Mio tons in the year 2002.
A Public Awareness Message by:
Yellow Lite
Citations:
The Data provided in this article was directly or indirectly taken from a website called “Time for Change”.
www.timeforchange.org
It is common knowledge that COAL and OIL burning causes greenhouse gasses and are bad for the environment but is it also common knowledge that they are not the only causes. Yes, there are a thousand other causes of Green house gas emissions. Before any further discussion it must be kept in mind that Methane and Nitrous Oxide are as lethal for the environment as CO2, if not more so. When Green house gasses are mentioned, these are the main three gasses, produced by humans, their animals and their machines that are being referred to.
CO2 is basically released by:
• The direct burning of all fossil fuels i.e. coal, gas, petroleum etc.
• The use of any vehicles i.e. cars, busses, trains etc.
• The Aerodynamics industry i.e. the flying industry, planes, helicopters jets etc.
• The electric industry, while producing electricity use coal or petrol.
• The heating or cooling plants like Air conditioner and heaters either commercial or private.
Methane is basically released by:
• The landfills, where the world dumps garbage.
• The agricultural industry, yes the vegetables release it (Only trees help in decreasing CO2 by taking it in and releasing Oxygen but they are being cut off too).
• The digestive systems of grazing animals, especially the flatulence of cows.
Nitrous Oxide is basically released by:
• The use of fertilizers.
• The use of various gases in freezers and cooling units, commercially and/or by the consumers.
A single bus (public transport) trip of around 10 miles or a drive in the car for the distance of only 6 km adds around 1 kg of CO2 to the environment. If we keep a single kg of CO2 productions as our base than the production of just five plastic bags or two plastic bottles adds the same amount in the air. The production of a single American hamburger contributes around 3 kg of CO2 to the atmosphere. Just a 4 km flight trip can produce up to 2 kg of CO2.
The breakdown of the most important causes of the production of Greenhouse gasses shows that, directly or indirectly, all the humanity is contributing to the dilemma known as Global Warming, every second of their lives. The extravagance of our advancement, technologically and scientifically, in just half a century has in fact contributed to this ruination of earth’s ecological balance. Americans produce the most CO2 in the world, that was around 5773 Mio tons of it in 2002 (the figures have increased by 12 to 15 % now), the number two contributor was China with it’s production of around 3700 Mio tons in just 2002 but the least CO2 producing country is Iceland, it contributed around 2 Mio tons in the year 2002.
A Public Awareness Message by:
Yellow Lite
Citations:
The Data provided in this article was directly or indirectly taken from a website called “Time for Change”.
www.timeforchange.org
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