How Can I, As A Person, Become More Environmentally Aware?

Question

I know there are probably a million things I can do to be environmentally aware, but I need some suggestions on organisations I can volunteer for and things I can do in my own life to help save the planet.

Answer 1

You can look into environmental clubs in your area, but in the meantime, keep in mind that simple changes in your every day life can have a huge impact. Here are some suggestions that you can start doing immediately to help the state of our planet:
Change your drinking habits…
Polystyrene stays around for several hundred years after you’ve disposed of it. The next time you’re at the coffee machine, try not to drink from a polystyrene cup. Improvise, use a mug, use a vase, use your imagination if you have to.


Be an infrequent flyer…
Pollutants from air travel contribute only 3-4% of all greenhouse gases worldwide, but are the fastest growing source of potential trouble for the Earth’s atmosphere. So next time your boss suggests a business trip, you suggest a video conference.

No butts…
It takes 10 years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade. They’re not only litter, but they also cause many animals to die annually from inadvertently eating them. And isn’t it time you stopped smoking anyway?


Go on a staple diet…
If each one of the UK’s ten million office workers used one less staple a day, nearly 100 tonnes of steel would be saved every year. If you’ve fallen out with anyone at work, imagine the bridge you could build with that.

Just say no…
Each year more than 50 million trees and 75 billion litres of water are used to create more than 7 million tonnes of junk mail, over 40% of which is thrown away unopened. The next time a company sends you any, call them to remove your address from their list.

Go public…
For every mile travelled, public transport uses about one half of the fuel consumed by cars and about a third of that used by sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and light trucks. So what are you waiting for? The bus?

Show your true colours…
Stacked end to end, printer cartridges thrown away in one year would more than circle the planet. But you don’t have to go to the ends of the earth to recycle them.

It’s not fair…
Of the nearly $3.8 trillion of all goods exchanged globally, Fairtrade accounts for less than 1%. It’s enough to make you unhappy. Eat more Fairtrade bananas and you won’t be.

Make the switch…
A computer left running over night uses enough energy to print up to 10,000 copies. Is this the end of overtime as we know it?
Pull together…
If 10% of the world’s mobile phone owners unplugged their phone chargers once the phone is fully charged, it would reduce energy consumption by an amount equivalent to that used by 60,000 European homes. So pull the plug and start saving energy.

Work from home…
Working from home or changing the work schedule and working flexible hours may reduce congestion and therefore improve air quality. Who’d have thought that going to work could be like a breath of fresh air?

Do the write thing…
A typical plastic pen can take up to up to 1,000 years to degrade. So keep on writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing andwriting and writing and writing and writing and…

BEYOND THE CALENDAR:

Leave the car at home. Using one litre of gas produces 2.4 kg of CO2. Bike, roller-blade, take the subway, or take the bus to reduce air pollution and save fuel. If you must drive, travel by the most direct route, consolidate trips by running several errands at once, carpool, and turn off the car while you wait to reduce emissions and conserve gasoline.

Give away your old desktop. Before you toss your old electronics, look for programs that take used equipment for schools and other organizations.

Manage your power at work. During the day use power management features on office equipment to decrease the power used when copiers, printers, computers, etc. are idle or in stand-by mode. And at the end of the day or when equipment isn’t being used, turn it off or unplug it. You can save electricity and money – and maybe gain a bonus in your paycheck!

Slow down and tune up. Save money and CO2 emissions – as well as staying safe - by not speeding. Driving 16 kph slower can decrease gas use by 20%. Just 8 kph less can decrease greenhouse gas emissions in one year by nearly 10 tonnes. Additionally, keeping your tires properly inflated can decrease gas consumption 6%, and keeping your engine tuned can save 15 to 50%!

Skip the raking. Lawns need less fertilizer and less water if you leave grass clippings on the lawn after you mow. And if you use a push mower instead of a power mower, you can get in shape and reduce CO2 emissions by 30 kg per year!

Skip the mowing. Let your lawn grow a little higher and only cut off 1/3 of its height when you do mow. Cutting grass too short can stress the lawn causing it to need more water and fertilizer. Leaving the grass high is healthier for the grass and even helps keep down the weeds. Better yet, skip mowing altogether by landscaping your yard using native plants and low maintenance ground covers that conserve water and don’t require mowing!

Drive a fuel-efficient car. Driving a car that gets 12.5 km/litre instead of 8.5 km/litre can save 900 litres of gas and 2 tonnes of CO2 in just one year of driving (assuming about 24000 km of driving annually).

Turning the thermostat up just 1.5 degrees Celsius in summer and down 1.5 degrees in winter can save over 400 kg of CO2 emissions every year. Use a fan instead of air conditioning to keep cool. And if you’re cold, put on a sweater before you turn up the heat.

Start a trend. Every person can make a difference. Save energy, save money and share planet-saving tips with others. You’ll be amazed at how the world changes around you.

Buy local. Those exotic and out-of-season fruits and vegetables cost fuel, energy, and packaging to get to you. A kiwi fruit flown from New Zealand to the UK creates 5 times its own weight in CO2 emissions.

Buy products in reusable and recyclable packages. Choose products that use less packaging and packaging which can be recycled or reused. Better yet, buy products that are themselves made of recycled content and can be reused and recycled.

Use less water. Turn off the tap while you soap up, brush your teeth, or shave. A leaky faucet can waste more than 100 litres of water a month. Use rainwater or graywater to water the plants. Get out of the shower a minute earlier and save 500 litres of water a month. A family of four showering 5 minutes a day uses 2600 litres of water a week – the equivalent of a 3 year supply of drinking water for just one person. Just by installing aerator faucets and low-flow showerheads, the same family could save 1000 litres a week.

Lights out. Simply turning off unneeded lights in a building can reduce the energy used for lighting by up to 45%.

Fight energy vampires. Don’t just turn the TV off, unplug it. If it has a remote control to turn it back ‘on,’ it’s not really ‘off.’ In an average home, nearly 75% of the electricity used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched ‘off.’ Those blinking lights on your VCR mean energy is being used, even if the machine is 'off.'

Really turn it off. The power-saving sleep mode uses 60 to 80 percent less energy than full-power mode, but unplugging or turning off your inactive computer uses 100% less energy than full-power mode. Turning off your computer every night saves energy, extends the computer’s life, and cuts down on computer failures.

Change a light. Find the 5 lights you use most and replace the traditional bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs use 1/3 or less energy than a traditional bulb and can last 6-15 times as long. After this simple change, your next electricity bill should be ‘enlightening.

Bring a lunch box. You can reduce the amount of packaging you throw in the garbage by packing food items in reusable containers.

Bag it! Use a reusable cloth bag on your next shopping trip. When 10% of all Kmart customers in Australia said “no” to plastic bags, over 5 million plastic bags were removed from the waste stream. If you get plastic bags at the market, re-use them on your next shopping trip or in your home, and when you’re finished with the bags see if your community or market recycles them.

Talk to your plants. Talking produces CO2 which your plants use to grow. In exchange, some plants can remove up to 87% of toxic indoor air in just 24 hours and one plant can provide clean air for 9 square meters of space. For example, 15 to 20 ivy and spider plants can refresh all the air in a 160 square meter home.

Plant a tree – two for one. Trees absorb CO2, clean the air, and produce oxygen. A tree can absorb as much as 360 kg of CO2 a year, removing an average of 4.5 kg of other air pollutants too. Two trees can produce 240 kg of oxygen a year – enough for one person to breathe easy.

Beautify the landscape. Besides improving property values, placing trees around your home can reduce energy use in the summer by as much as 50% and winter heating bills by 25%.

Recycle that soda can. A TV set can run for 3 hours on the energy saved by recycling just one drink can.

Mind the gap. 15 families filling their kettle with only as much water as they need when boiling water, could save one tonne of CO2 emissions in a year.

If every UK home recycled just half their rubbish, the UK’s annual CO2 emissions could be reduced by six million tones.

Join the pool! If just once a week, everyone who regularly drives to work alone got a lift with someone else, traffic could be reduced by 12% - 15%!

Unbottle the stored energy. A typical plastic water bottle can take 1,000 years to biodegrade. The amount of energy saved from recycling one plastic bottle can power a 60-watt lightbulb for 6 hours. The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can power a TV for 20 minutes.

Recycle again – and again, and again! A piece of paper can be recycled 4 to 6 times before its fibres break down. Every year Americans throw away enough office paper to cover the entire country of Belgium.

Lights out! Light pollution disrupts the biological rhythms of nocturnal animals. You can help by turning off unnecessary lights. In 2002, the Czech Republic enacted the world’s first national law against light pollution.

Don’t flush - recycle! Whether you change your car oil at home or go to the local garage, make sure your used oil is being disposed of properly. Oil flushed down household, municipal and industrial drains is the largest source of ocean oil pollution, releasing over 1,300,000,000 litres of oil annually.

Don’t turn over a new leaf… use both sides of the paper and recycle when you're done. Paper requires a surprising amount of energy and wood to produce and much of it ends up in waste piles all too soon. The average office employee can use as much as 10,000 sheets of paper a year, creating a stack of used paper over a meter high. Printing first drafts, faxes, e-mails, and other items on the back side of previously used paper as well as making double-sided copies can significantly reduce office paper use and is even more efficient than simply recycling.

Don’t print that. Recycling 1 tonne of paper saves:
-- 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil
-- 4,100 kilowatts of energy. Enough to power a home for 5 months.
-- 2.4 cubic meters of landfill space
-- 25 kg of air pollution

Charge it. Re-charge your batteries. Batteries make us mobile. They run games, machines, and tools,… then end up leaking toxic chemicals into the earth. Rechargeable batteries require less toxic chemicals to make and do not end up in waste dumps so quickly. And whatever you use, recycle. Check on local recycling and safe disposal programs for everything from the batteries in your mobile phone to the batteries in your car.

Volunteer! Giving some of your time, even if you only have a few hours, is a great way to do something positive for the planet, learn about environmental issues, and meet new friends.

Where’s the beef? About 18,000 litres of water are saved for every half kilogram of beef we don’t eat. That’s more water than we use in 200 five minute showers.

Reduce, reuse, recycle and compost! In general, nothing in a landfill decomposes - from plastic bags to hot dogs. The conditions needed for decomposition – the right temperature, the right balance of carbon/nitrogen/oxygen, etc. – do not occur in a closed system, which most landfills are. If you can keep something out of a landfill – do.

Keep it cool. Take care of your fridge and you take care of the planet. Save easy money just by raising the temperature in your fridge half a degree Celsius. Place the fridge in a cool spot (away from the stove and sunny spots). Keep the door closed and make sure the seals on the door are working. Twice a year, a quick dusting of the condenser coils in the back saves electricity too.

Watch what you eat. Belches and farts are made up of gases like CO2 and methane – the first and second-most abundant greenhouse gases. About a fifth of the world’s methane emissions come from livestock. Scientists have developed a vaccine to help cows control their ‘emissions’. You can just cut down on the beans tonight.

Close the curtains at night. Blinds and curtains over windows help keep heat from escaping.

Keep some water in your fridge and skip the wait for it to cool down while you run the tap.

Cover up. Using lids when you cook can reduce the energy needed by up to 90%.

Water, water everywhere…. Give your plants a drink at night instead - so the heat of the day won’t evaporate the water.

Answer 2

I know that on the website 'meetup.com' you might be able to find clubs that deal with 'green issues' in your city/town. You could also look for clubs on the internet. Are you in school? If you are, there is probably an environmental group (I was a part of that at my university). I know in some communities, within a city, there are environment meetings, where community members get together and discuss ways to be more environmentally conscious. You might want to call your city information line.

Good luck!

Answer 3

clean the park
rake leaves
bike instead of drive a car
dont smoke
clean litter
start a local enviroment team
turn a dump into a garden
thats 7 ideas rightr there.hope they help!

Answer 4

Try watching the Al Gore "movie", An Inconvenient Truth. It will give you some ideas.

Answer 5

No, I like to think that I'm still in the process of "becoming" the person I want to be.

Answer 6

Try these websites:

http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home
www.wwf.org

Answer 7

become an animal... you'll see