Green Spotlight

15 Things You can Do to Save the Earth

Posted on June 11th, 2008 by ivyr.
Categories: Enviro-news.

15 Things You Can Do

1.     Unplug all lights and appliances when you’re not using them.
Remember, even though the power is off, electricity is still running through
it. If the appliance has a power-save mode, use it. If you want to just take
care of a bunch of things all at once, turn off the power strip.

2.     Take a shorter shower. When you take a half-hour long shower, you are
wasting oil and money to heat the water you are using. You are also wasting
all that water. You can find a timer, like an ordinary kitchen timer, to
help you get out of the shower quickly. Set it to 5-7 minutes.

3.     Recycle and reuse. Papers drink bottles and cans, plastics, metals,
glass, and old light bulbs. Toys and clothes can be given to goodwill and
books can be donated to schools, libraries or used bookstores.  You could
also try to sell your things on Craig’s List (with your parent’s
permission).

4.     Walk, scooter, or ride your bike to school, instead of going on the
bus or having your parents drive you. If you absolutely need to use a car,
plan to carpool with your neighbors and friends.

5.     Eat less beef. It may be hard (especially if you’re a meat lover,
like me). But eating beef is totally inefficient. In general, you are
wasting food to feed the cow for its meat, and you are wasting the land and
your time to get that corn to feed the cows. A study by the National
Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science said that 2.2 pounds of beef
burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days.

Encourage Your Parents To:

6.     Plant trees. It can be a whole family thing. They make your yard look
good, give you shade, and eat carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.
According to the American Forestry Association, if every American planted
one new tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by a
billion pounds a year.

7.     Start composting. I know it may sound like a whole lot of hard work,
especially for a kid, but trust me, it’ll feel good. Besides, it saves water
and electricity by reducing the use of garbage disposal. It conserves space
in landfills and helps you save fossil fuels and tax dollars. Don’t forget
that it makes the soil in your garden a whole lot richer.

8.     To buy and, more importantly BRING reusable bags when shopping.
Millions of plastic bags are found as litter each year and huge amounts of
oil are used to make them

9.       Buy local, fresh, and organic foods. Buying locally means using
less fuel to get your food. Around 17 times less fuel, to be exact.

10.      This may sound really silly, but give hints on hybrid cars to your
parents. Who knows, maybe they’ll figure it out and get one. The reason a
hybrid car is better than a car that runs fully on gas is, just that. A
hybrid car is a car that uses electricity AND gas.

11.      Check their tires every week. Flat tires make it harder for the car
to move, therefore making it use more fuel to move the same speed as a car
with full tires would.

12.      Buy energy efficient appliances. The average home spends about
$1,900 a year on energy costs for appliances. If your parents change to
energy efficient appliances, they may save a lot of money a year, while
helping the environment. Tell your parents to try to look for the Energy
Star in or on your appliance.

13.      Change light bulbs to energy efficient CFLs.  If every household in
the US just replaced ONE regular light bulb to an energy efficient CFL, it
would eliminate the equivalent of the emissions created by 1 million
cars.  Just
dispose of CFLs carefully, as they have a tiny bit of mercury in them.

14.      Support wind energy and solar energy. Maybe even talk about
installing solar panels (you don’t have to, seeing as they are really
expensive).

15.      Cancel junk mail. The junk mail received by Americans every day can
be used to produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.

Spread the word! Talk about global warming. Persuade your friends and family
to do something about it, or use the suggestions I have written here. The
best thing you can do is telling other people about what is happening to our Earth.

Thanks,
 Rachael Glover

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