Seven Ways to Make Your Life Greener
by In an age when the media is slamming us with information about greenhouse emissions, global warming and tainted food recalls, one can’t help but consider getting involved in bettering the environment and ourselves. There are hundreds of things that can be done to lessen our impact on the planet and improving our own surroundings. Here is a short list of small things that anyone can begin to do in order to make their lives a bit healthier and a bit greener.
Conserve
Take a look at the limited or “man-made” resources you utilize in your everyday life. Which can you conserve?
- Transportation: Carpool; bike; combine trips
- Electricity: Turn off lights; turn down the thermostat; unplug appliances that are used infrequently
- Water: Shorter showers; turn off water while brushing your teeth; collect rainwater for watering gardens/lawns
Buy Organic or Locally
Tied into the above transportation issue, is the idea that many foods found in the nearby grocery store may have traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to make it to the supermarket shelves. Not only is there the costs associated with the fuel that’s been burned to deliver these products there is also concern over the freshness and “purity” of mass-produced foods that enter the food chain.
Here’s a short list of other pros to support organically (O) or locally (L) grown produce:
- Fair Price, Fair Wages (O)
- No pesticides being used, none to be consumed (O)
- Potential health problems due to antibiotic resistant microorganisms (O)
- Support of local agriculture/economy (L)
Reduce
We are always looking for ways to drop a few pounds or shed a few years off our age. Well how about shedding some bad habits of getting too much of something and then just throwing it away as waste. Some prime examples:
- Buying bulk to save a few bucks but not dividing it into portions that can be eaten before it goes bad. (ex. chips, produce, dairy items)
- Eat less meat. Animal rearing for food consumption is responsible for dozens of environmental degradations. According to a 2006 report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.
I could go on about the consequences of aggressive consumption and agriculture. If you’re really into this, there are plenty of sources for more bleak findings. Take an active role in learning more about the effects so you can make an educated decision about your own consumption patterns.
Reuse
I have come to despise such terms as “throwaways” and “disposable”, talk about two dirty little words. All the talk about overflowing landfills and huge expenses on state budgets to have refuse hauled to other states that will receive the garbage (the real lucky ones) is simply astonishing. Their should be a nationwide, make that a worldwide competition to tackle these problems – talk about becoming a world Superpower. We should want to kick some butt! Here are a few ideas that any household/business can master:
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