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NINE EASY WAYS YOU CAN HELP SAVE THE PLANET
By Leigh Felesky
According to a recent Globe and Mail poll, four out of five Canadians say they've seen climate change first hand. Whether it's devastated trees in Stanley Park, melting icecaps in Greenland or January golfers in P.E.I., Canadians are taking notice of the environment. Many agree that no single act will solve the problem. We need government, we need industry and, perhaps most importantly, we need everyday Canadians to drive the green agenda. So, if you haven't gone green yet, now's the time. Here are nine easy steps to help restore the planet.
Some electronics such as cell phone chargers and TVs still draw power even when they're turned off, according to the David Suzuki Foundation. To avoid this, get a power bar and turn the switch off when not in use. Also, if your computer monitor doesn't power down automatically after a specific period of inactivity, set it to do so. This saves more energy than using screensavers, which keep your computer running at full speed, says Suzuki.
Choose energy efficient appliances
Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party and former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, one of the oldest grassroots environmental organizations with chapters across North America, says she makes her energy efficient improvements one step at a time, as she can afford them. Her most recent upgrade was her fridge, and it's paying for itself through electricity savings. According to Suzuki, replacing a 10-year-old refrigerator with a new EnergyStar-approved model saves enough energy per year to light up your entire home for three months. Get more appliance efficiency information at Natural Resources Canada.
"There is no such thing as throwing something 'away'," says Gagan Leekha, Grassroots and Development Coordinator of the Sierra Club, British Columbia Chapter. "All of our garbage ends up in our soil, water and air – and this inevitably affects our health."
Practice the three R's: reduce, reuse, recycle – but reducing is the most important, says Leekha. "Decrease the amount of garbage(especially packaging)that you bring into your home, so you have less to put out on your curb every week." Plus, she says, think before you buy. Consider where the product came from, what the environmental cost was to make and transport it, and what kind of packaging was used. When you add up those factors, buying local makes the most sense almost every time. An apple, for example, that is grown in New Zealand travels 12,000 more kilometres to reach our kitchen tables than an apple grown close to home. The result is more than 50 times the amount of environmentally harmful greenhouse gas emissions released into the air.
(Sourced from www.Chatelaine.com)
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