Sunday November 30, 2008, 12:47 pm
Buy organic food. Organic food is natural food free from pesticides, fertilizers, heavy metals and genetically modified components. Buying organic food supports farmers, food security and perhaps most importantly, gives the finger to Frankenfood manufacturers like Monsanto.

Conserve water. Limit your shower to a few minutes and don’t take baths. Turn off the tap when you are brushing your teeth. According to New Internationalist Magazine, the average resident in Gambia uses 4.5 litres of water per day and the average American uses about 500 litres a day. Currently, more than 1.1 billion people are without access to clean water — think of them when you are enjoying your 20-minute shower.

For a family of four, a round-trip transatlantic flight creates as much greenhouse gas as driving for a year.
—The Sierra Club

Eat less meat. North Americans love their meat so much that some of the population consumes it three times a day. Compassionate World Farming explains, “Meat is the most resource costly form of food because livestock wastes most of the energy and protein value of their feed in digestion and bodily maintenance”. It takes more than 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef, 40 times more water than it takes to produce a pound of potatoes. Even eating one meat free meal a week makes a contribution to reducing greenhouse gases.

Fly less. Yup, this is a big one. I think we need to ask ourselves, do we really need to fly to New York for a one-day business meeting or take the whole family to Hawaii for five days at Christmas? The David Suzuki Foundation explains that flying is the most CO2-intensive mode of transportation per kilometer. The Sierra Club’s Green Life website makes the comparison, “For a family of four, a round-trip transatlantic flight creates as much greenhouse gas as driving for a year”.

Give bottled water the boot. Take the Think Outside the Bottle pledge to drink tap water instead of bottled water. Their campaign estimates that meeting Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of oil last year – enough fuel to operate more than 1 million US cars for one year – and generates more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Each year an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide.

Install a laundry line. Remember the laundry line? Well Grandma was on to something; she knew it made sense to use —what has been dubbed the most energy efficient appliance on the planet— the humble laundry line. Stopglobalwarming.org reports line drying your clothes in the spring and summer can prevent an estimated 700 lbs of carbon dioxide (per household) from releasing into the atmosphere.

Refuse to use plastic bags. Do you really need another one? Each year an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. Plastic bags are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. It takes more than 1000 years for one plastic bag to break down in the landfill. Think of those factoids the next time you reach for yet another plastic bag.

Speak up. Believe it or not, we are on the cusp of an environmental revolution, now is the time to get involved, make changes in your home, ask for changes at your office or school and demand changes from your government. If your politicians aren’t listening, it may be time to consider running for office. Use your voice; at times it is all we have.

Stop unnecessary vehicle idling. Natural Resources Canada unequivocally states that a mere ten seconds is how long vehicles should be left idling while stationary. Most common reasons for idling are picking up/dropping off children at school, talking to a friend, doing a quick errand, waiting in a drive through line-up and waiting at a ferry terminal. Reducing unnecessary vehicle idling is one thing we can immediately do to reduce greenhouse gases.

Use non-toxic, non-petroleum based cleaning products. Oil, oil, everywhere and not always on the label. Eliminate oil-based products from your life. Seventh Generation, manufacturers of non-petroleum based cleaning products, explain “If every household in the USA replaced just one bottle of 25oz petroleum based dishwashing liquid with their vegetable based product, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 4,600 US homes for a year”.

Sunday November 30, 2008, 4:29 pm
Wanna save the Earth? GO VEGAN!! It's that simple. When is Al going to acknowledge this truth? With all due respect to his hard work, he is still missing an important issue.

Sunday November 30, 2008, 6:47 pm
The truth is, Nicole, big Al isn't interested in the truth. That's why he used the hockey stick graph, pictures of melting ice that were taken in the warmth of summer and refuses to acknowledge the medieval warm period as being warmer than today.

Sunday November 30, 2008, 8:50 pm
NOTED THANK-YOU

Sunday November 30, 2008, 11:15 pm
I agree- thanks

Monday December 1, 2008, 9:12 am
We've got the UN Climate Conference on Dec 6th. Let's hope we can make progress. Japan is making sure their people are trained on recycling. Other countries should do the same.
Thank you Al Gore.

Monday December 1, 2008, 3:08 pm
Thank you Marieemma

Tuesday December 2, 2008, 5:04 am
Look who's talking now...
Al Gore and the Kyoto Protocol:
http://highdesertwanderer.com/archives/109

Leading by example - the very hardest thing to do,
That's what I think anyway - how about You?

Tuesday December 2, 2008, 2:47 pm
Noted, thanks.