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Things all of us can do right now to help the planet. |
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We all hear about things like global warming, oil spills, gas prices, and air pollution plastered all over the news. But how many of us actually pay attention? Well, since nothing is being done, it looks like the devestating destruction of our planet is inevitable. But it doesn't have to be.
Here's a list of ten things we can do right now to help our planet and ourselves.
1. If you drive, make sure to check the air in your tires regularly. Tires that are inflated properly can improve gas mileage by up to 3%. Doesn't seem like it's worth it? If you drive as much as the average American, about 12,000 miles per year, you can save more than 16 gallons of gas every year.
2. Share. When you go to the movies, share your popcorn with a friend instead of buying multiple bags. Not only will you save money, but you'll save packaging too. If just half of the people shared their popcorn, we could save packaging and waste for more than 2 and a half billion quart-sized servings.
3. If you work, share a ride. If the average commuter carpooled every day, they would save 500 gallons of gas and 550 pounds of poisonous exhaust each year. And you'll make new friends.
4. How many of us actually use a phone book when we have the internet on demand? Chances are, not many of us. So, call your phone company to stop the delivery of your phone book. Telephone books alone make up 10% of the waste at dump sites If you do still use your phone book, at least make sure to recycle your old ones.
5. While you take care of your phone books, get rid of your junk mail, too. There are websites where you can get placed on a no-mailing list. It usually only costs a dollar, but that's not a big price for the one and a half trees-worth of junk mail that gets sent to one home anually. If you wanna do the math to see how many trees are wasted in one year to every home in America, maybe that'll make a clearer perspective.
6. If you use an ATM, or you go to a store and know you're not going to need a receipt, then don't take one! If everyone in the U.S. didn't take a receipt just from the ATM, it would save a roll of paper long enough to circle the equator 15 times.
7. Replace burnt out incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. If everyone in America replaced just 5 light bulbs, we'd keep one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the air (That's the stuff that makes global warming).
8. Everybody has to wash their clothes. Use a warm-cold cycle on your washing machine instead of a hot-hot cycle. You''l save 90% of energy used, and, if everyone in the country did it,we would save 100,000 barrels of oil a day.
9. Save some water for the fish! Go to a commercial car wash instead of washing your car yourself. Commercial car washes use up to 100 less gallons of water. If everyone who washed their own car went to a professional car wash just once, 8.7 billion gallons of water could be saved and 12 billion gallons of polluted water could be diverted from rivers, streams, and lakes.
10. Stay home if you feel like it, and if you get an at-home job, even better. Telecommuting prevents more than 35 billion vehicle miles travelled each yearand saves almost 2 billion gallons of gas.
Surprising, huh? Just trying one of these tips could help the earth- so why not?
Thanks for reading and look out for more posts coming soon.
Later, dudes.
cho911
Hungry for more? Read The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time.
Me Ke Aloha Pumehana 
 cho911 · Sun Aug 26, 2007 @ 07:32pm · 3 Comments |
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