It’s been almost ten years since Al Gore launched his plea to humanity to start thinking green with his Inconvenient Truth that was seen by most of us. The propaganda about global warming has made a difference because the ozone layer is beginning to show signs of repair.
The point is that we can make a difference and that is good news. It’s simple considerations like putting the cans that pass through your kitchen in a bag. In some countries, this recycling can is collected. If we are not aware of the environment, our children will teach us because it is now part of their education.
Often these ‘green’ additions to our lifestyle can save us money and improve our health, but changing your lifestyle is not easy and requires effort, planning and a little discipline. If the bag of cans collected without extra effort needs to be taken to a recycling depot, then you should.
But it all starts with education, so America can make a difference because they’re educated. The United States is responsible for more than two-thirds of the earth’s waste which, while completely disproportionate, has resulted in the majority of the population being literate.
For those readers who aren’t environmentally conscious, there are many other ways you can help that don’t necessarily require a change in lifestyle. For example, turn off the hot water system if you are going to be away from home for more than 24 hours.
Or walking to the store down the street instead of taking the car all make a difference to your carbon footprint. If you want to know what your own carbon footprint is, down to the last gram of carbon dioxide, you will find a carbon footprint calculator online.
If you can spare 5 minutes and change the thermostat on your home’s heating devices, turning the temperature down just one degree will lower your fuel bill by 10%. It really depends on your own sense of commitment to this ‘green thinking’.
Simple things like cleaning any dust you find on the coils in the back of your fridge or freezer make for the perfect green clean because if these coils are full of dust it could increase your energy consumption by 30%. The carbon debt impact of the average US citizen is 40% direct and 60% indirect carbon emissions caused by the things we buy or use in the form of goods and services that we can directly control.
If you are able to pay more attention to clothing consumption and waste, we will find many opportunities to conserve and reduce our carbon footprint. When we only had 5 minutes, we could make a call to stop spam and save trees by signing up for a service that will remove your name and address from circulating spamming lists we never read.
We can easily make the right decisions that take less than a minute by buying local instead of buying imported. We use 12 pounds of CO2 flying a 5-pound package compared to using 3 ½ pounds of CO2 if the same package is trucked locally.
For example, you could go a step further and start a compost in your garden where you put all your organic kitchen waste. In less than a month of this routine, you’ll have rich loamy soil that could be the start of a food garden. All of this makes a big difference to your own personal carbon footprint. But if you’re only willing to spend 5 minutes on ‘the cause’, there are other money-saving activities that will change your carbon footprint.
If we want to start making green choices, eating less meat can make a big difference to our carbon footprint because a vegetarian will save about 3,000 pounds of CO2 each year compared to a meat eater.
Simply increasing the vegetarian meals we eat will make a huge difference to our carbon footprint. For example, eating poultry instead of beef can make a difference, since poultry farmers’ production produces fewer greenhouse gases than beef.
If you’re convinced you can make a difference, then other decisions you make around the home, aside from a compost and food garden, will make a difference. For example, using natural sunlight to dry your clothes instead of using a tumble dryer will reduce your family’s carbon footprint and save you money, leaving your clothes smelling fresh. In winter you can use a folding clothesline inside. Delicate clothes like lingerie will last longer compared to machine drying.
In conclusion, making any effort to be more environmentally conscious and ‘think green’ is that we can make a difference because the difference has already started to happen. Help save the planet and ‘go green’ with just a 5 minute contribution we can reduce our carbon debt and help save the world.