Global Consciousness & You, Part I

People are ever more concerned about climate change, global warming and the effect of their lifestyles on the environment. Fortunately, there are some easy and painless ways to decrease your negative impact on the environment.

Save water
Don’t use misters in your backyard; water your yard only as necessary and in the early morning; wash your car at a car wash; put a low-flow faucet in your shower, and install a low flow toilet. All of these save thousands of gallons of water. Every drop saved has a significant effect collectively on the rivers and the wildlife that depends on this resource.

Change the bulb
Nationally, 25 percent of our electricity is used for light bulbs. The standard incandescent bulb uses 10% of the electricity for heat, the other 90% is wasted as heat. If you replace one quarter of the bulbs in your home with compact florescents you’ll save a lot of money ($30-$60 over the bulb’s life) and have to change bulbs far less often. More importantly, you’ll save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment. Since carbon dioxide seems to be the primary component in human contribution to global warming, that would help to make a significant change.

Plant one right here
Plant a tree. One tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide a year. To offset the extreme damage of air travel or the lesser damage from car travel, you can go to non-profit websites that calculate the damage your travel costs, and provide an option to buy credits for planting trees to offset the impact of the carbon dioxide released. These non-profits plant the trees for you and it helps balance the damage to the air.

Kill stand-by power
Many people don’t know that their appliances are drawing electrical power – even when they’re turned off. Any appliance with a remote control, an LED, a clock or with push button on/off uses stand-by energy. That means you’re paying for energy you’re not using, worst of all that wasted energy depletes our environment. How can you change this? It’s easy, buy power strips and plug as many as possible of these appliances into it: DVD, VCR, stereo, TV, video games, computer, phone, fax, washing machine, microwave, air conditioner and oven. Then turn them off using the switch on the power strip, and they can’t passively draw power. It’s estimated that on average 5% of energy use is wasted stand-by power, costing you hundreds of dollars a year, and putting unnecessary pressure on the environment.

Little tweaks
Just turn down the thermostat a bit in the winter and set the temperature a bit higher in the summer. Turn off the lights every time you leave a room, and slightly turn up the temperature in your refrigerator. All of these changes will add up to savings on your energy bills and will reduce your negative impact on the environment.

Keep up with inflation
If your tires are properly inflated you’ll improve your gas milage by three percent. It’s painless to do and saves you money. Every gallon of gasoline you save keeps 20 pounds of dirty carbon dioxide out of the air you breathe.