What are some simple ways to reduce our negative impact on the environment?

Question

Just to get away from the debating for a little bit, I think it would be fun to list some suggestions for small changes we can make to lessen our impact. I'm not talking about major things (or seriously debatable!) things like buying a Hybrid or living off the grid. Just simple every day things that we can easily do. It all adds up.

I'll start..

Bring a reusable mug with you when you get coffee.
Use a water filter instead of buying bottled water.
Line or rack dry clothes instead of using a dryer.
Switch from chemical cleaners to earth friendly products.
Use cloth instead of paper towels and napkins.

Answer 1

Very small way -

I sew gift bags with old fabrics (or fabric from old shirts/skirts, etc) and use them instead of gift wrap. The recipient then has something they can re-use, rather than buying more gift paper.

They take about 15 minutes to make with a sewing machine, or maybe 45 by hand.

Answer 2

Try walking and bicycling more to save gas and wear and tear on your car. People really drive more than they have to. Leaving your car running outside the 7-11 only two blocks away from where you live isn't good exercise and just makes your car easier to steal so simply leave it at home.
Keep lights turned off when you're not in a room.
Turn off your personal computer when you aren't using it including any speakers,monitor,printer,etc you have hooked up to it. If it's a computer that has to be on a lot like at your work for example, even turning off the monitor can make a difference. There are so many things a person can do if they care enough about the environment to do it and it's not hard at all.

Answer 3

Do not have children. Zero. Zip.

The population explosion was detailed in the sixties in a book called "The Population Bomb". We have pretty much ignored this book in favor of economic growth. Its predictions are pretty much arriving.

Reducing your impact on the environment is GOOD. But, the tactic is limited in its efficacy. Less is good, but none is still too much. The current population could reduce its environmental impact by one half, and we would still be in trouble. The population that is developing will make it even worse. How many record warm temperatures wil it take to convince you?

Just like in that silly movie, those who think will not proliferate, while those who do not think, will. The population will crush the planet and its economic systems soon. Conservation will postpone the inevitable. Nothing more.

Sit back and watch as the plague of human consumption engulfs the planet. Read the magazines and try your best. Reduce your "carbon footprint". But, it's too late.

We seek to reduce the rate at which we INCREASE our demands on energy and petroleum, when what we NEED to do is reduce the rate at we which birth those who consume. Excuse me, we need to eliminate those who consume.

We are encouraged by global economic growth, and stare blindly at the lights (like a deer does) of the approaching juggernaut of overpopulation. Six billion. In forty years, nine billion.

Good luck. I hope you the best. Not politics, reformation, technology nor determination will save you.

Slow down? OK! Eventually, the Chinese will catch on, but, by then, Africa will be fully developed. While the businessmen who do the developing will be smiling, the carbon growth will have gone all to hell.

Have kids! It's OK! Tell them to expect the worst as they grow up. This is OK in Iraq, and Bosnia, and Afganistan, and ?????

DO NOT have children. Hope for your best. Good luck.

OR, explain to your chilfren. Your choice.

Of course, IF we stopped having children [this WILL NOT happen], then there will be no young providers for the rapidly aging population. Too bad. That is me.

Answer 4

Population control- stop at two kids or adopt!
turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth
get a Nalgene bottle and stop using plastic water bottles
get reusable shopping bags
recycle everything you can!
switch to swirly light bulbs
get a new fuel cell vehicle- hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on earth
by items that have already been recycled (my backpack is made from 12 two-liter bottles and my toilet paper and paper towels are 100% post consumer recycled)
shop at thrift stores
compost (or get some dogs to be your garbage disposal)

Answer 5

Dont flush the toilet every time you tinkle... It can wait three or four tinkles.

Shut off the water whilst brushing your teeth... I hate it when people run the water while brushing their teeth.

Do not leave your car running for 5 minutes while you run in for milk.

Take a cup into the coffee shop

Ask your coffee shop to use real spoons and not the throw away plastic or wooden sticks.

Buy toys made by local artists at the Christmas craft show. Not the ecstasy laced lead painted chemical time bon-bon from China.

Do not drive on you r next holiday...Walk. Take the family on 300 mile hike to the mountains.

Buy long lasting bulbs....Last 100X as long as normal ones. 100X people. For only three time s the price.

Save a tree. Eat a beaver.

Answer 6

A big help to the environment would be if you could download from the Internet all your music and movies and store them on your hard drive.
Buy a digital camera and store all pictures on your hard drive.
Avoid printing information off the Internet. Store it in my documents.
When you have time eat where they have real forks and knives or at home.
It is no longer the fad but run a ceiling fan.
Drink water from the tap. In most cases it is very safe. Ask your water provider for a print out of what is in your water. If in doubt spit it out. Always have emergency water on hand. For emergency Drinking You can save tap water for a week or more and use it to flush with but you always need a fresh supply. That is also true for bottle water.

Answer 7

To save electricity:-Turn off the lights when you leave the room.Adjust your thermostat to a cooler temp. in winter and higher in summer.-Change your incandescent light bulbs to energy saving spiral fluorescents. Electricity in the U.S. is mostly produced by coal-fired power plants. The carbon dioxide they emit is the major greenhouse gas in the earth's atmosphere

-Ask if you really need all that stuff. Every product you consume requires energy for it's manufacturing and shipping.
-Remember to reuse, reduce and recycle

-Encourage renewable energy. Tell your state legislators to create laws requiring that a certain percentage of future electricity must come from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power. -Contact your congressional leaders and tell them to support the Kyoto protocol and the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309)

-Grow trees, a vegetable garden, make a cistern to water it or buy a rain barrel. Make your organic waste into compost and use it instead of store bought fertilizers.- Plant sedum, to substitute for grass, low growing, no mowing, little watering.Carbon Dioxide using. Oxygen producing.
-Carbon Dioxide is the major cause of global warming. The energy from the sun can't escape as it should because the CO2 is increasing. If we don't do what we individually can it will only worsen.

Spread the word . Tell all your friends what all on this site are doing and encourage them to follow our lead.

Answer 8

Cutting our internet usage. Maybe we can shorten the time we spent on, for example, Yahoo! Answers from the usual 3 hrs to just 2 hours a day. We all know that most of the electricity we use comes from coal, which produces negative results in our environment.

Answer 9

We established our NPO - Sviva Israel precisely to answer your question. Many of us want to reduce our ecological footprint but are unsure of how to do so (or even what an ecological footprint is!)

In a survey we recently conducted between schoolkids in New York and Jerusalem, we found that while 75% of the New Yorkers recycle their drinking bottles, 75% of the Israeli kids reuse them. If you think about it, reusing our resources is far more protective of the environment than recycling. So, try to reuse your bottles as long as possible (within reason).

Our Sustainable Living section at www.svivaisrael.org (in the How you can Help part of our website) lists simple, practical and easy ways to reduce water, energy consumption, garbage etc.

Answer 10

Great question and great suggestions. I think just buying a car that increases your gas mileage by 50% can make a huge difference. If the average driver gets 15 miles to the gallon and everyone increased that to 22 miles per gallon it would eliminate our dependence on imported oil and be very good for the environment.