What legacy are we going to leave for our children? Just think about it. We inherited a lovely, gre...
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What legacy are we going to leave for our children? Just think about it. We inherited a lovely, green world from our grandfathers but will our grandchildren be able to thank us for passing it on to them – unpolluted, unharmed and safe?
I just came across an interesting article which shows the way to a greener earth. These are some of the things we can all do and pitch in our little effort to make the world a safer place. It is time we heeded to the cry of Mother Nature and earth, which is over-burdened by callous human beings. Please spread the word around. Teach your children and educate as many people as possible about the steps they could take in healing the ailing world.
Global carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 approached a staggering 32 billion tons. For a safer world, the following need to be done immediately:
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Turn food into fuel: Are corn husks better than corn for producing energy? Ethanol is the alternative fuel that could finally wean the world from its expensive oil habit and turn off millions of tons of carbon emissions that go with it.
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Get blueprints for a green house: Control heat, air and moisture leakage by sealing windows and doors. Insulate the garage, attic and basement with natural, nontoxic materials like reclaimed blue jeans. Protect windows from sunrays with large overhangs and double- pane glass. Emphasize natural cross ventilation.
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Change your light-bulbs: The hottest thing in household energy savings is the compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL), a funny-looking swirl that fits into standard sockets. CFLS cost three to five times as much as conventional incandescent bulbs yet use one-quarter of the electricity and last years longer.
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Ditch the mansion: Oversize houses aren’t just architecturally offensive; they also generally require more energy to heat and cool than smaller ones even after you have factored in efficient appliances.
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Hang a clothes line: Wash your clothes in warm water instead of hot; launder big loads instead of many smaller ones. New machines use as little as a fourth of the energy of older laundry machines. When clean, dry your clothes the natural way by hanging them on a line rather than loading them in a dryer.
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Take another look at vintage clothes: Not buying a shirt the second time around means you avoid consuming all the energy used in producing and shipping a new one and, therefore, the carbon emissions assodated with it.
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Work close to home: Sitting in gridlock wastes your time and the planet’s fuel. The solution: move your home next to the office. Or take the bus.
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Pay your bills online: Eliminate your paper trail and pay bills online. Save trees.
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Open a window: Open a window instead of running the AC. Adjust the thermostat a couple of degrees higher in the summer and lower in the winter. Insulate your walls and ceilings. Use the dishwasher only when it’s full. Install low-flow showerheads. Wash your clothes in warm or cold water. Turn down the thermostat on the water heater. At the end of the year, don’t be surprised if your house feels lighter. It just lost 4,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide.
Source: www.time.com
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Tanushri,
Easier said than done.
How does one balance environment concerns?
Maximum energy today is used by business - the neon signs, the lighted billboards that glows in astonishing colours throughout the night. Most of the offices are lighted throughout the day as the workers work in the absence of natural light. ACs run for at least fourteen hours in most offices. I am not even talking of the computers, the printers, the scanners, the faxes......
More vehicles in India at least are simply there because of an acute shortage of reasonable public transport. Where time is the key and great demand is on everybody to perform efficiently, no one can afford to wait endlessly for a bus that has no guarantee of its time.
But your concerns are genuine. There is no doubt about that. Leave alone the children (I dread to think the conditions of the earth when they grow up) but look what we have managed to do with ourselves. In less than the time it takes an adolescent to grow to an adult, we have left the earth in shambles.
All in the name of progress.
A very timely post. I am not sure how many are doing something genuine about it, instead of paying lip service.
Apurba
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