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How To Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Found this article in 'Wiki: How To' site. Easy, everyday things that anyone can do.

http://www.wikihow.com/Reduce-Your-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions

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How To Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions

More and more people are wondering how they can do their part to help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. While change won't happen overnight, here are steps that you can take against a hypothesized cause of global warming.

Around the House

1. Don't use a leaf blower. Instead, get a broom and a shovel. Do it by hand. It will make your place look cleaner and you get a little bit of exercise. Your neighbors will thank you for the noise reduction, too!
2. Buy local produce when you go to the grocery store rather than items trucked in from far away.
3. Plant a tree. Well-placed landscaping cuts energy costs in summer and winter. Whilst alive, the tree will store carbon dioxide that would otherwise be in the atmosphere.
4. Repaint your house with latex paint instead of oil. The paint releases significantly fewer harmful fumes while drying and smells a lot better.
5. Make sure the dishwasher and washing machine are full before running them to save energy and money.
6. Buy energy efficient appliances with the "Energy Star" label.
7. Call your local utility and sign up for renewable energy. If they don’t offer it, ask them why not.
8. Get a home energy audit. Many utilities offer free audits, which may reveal simple ways to cut emissions.
9. Weatherize your home, caulk, and weather-strip your doorways and windows. Not only will this save energy, but it will save you money!
10. Move your thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in the summer.
11. Unplug your cell phone charger and other electronics from the wall when you are not using them. Did you know that even when turned "off" your cell phone chargers, DVD players, and cameras use small amounts of energy?
12. Make sure to turn off lights and other energy-sucking devices when they aren’t being used.
13. Replace your normal light bulbs with fluorescent ones. Compact fluorescent light bulbs are more expensive, but replacing just one light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide. They produce the same amount of light, last 10 times as long, and use a 1/4 of the electricity – reducing your energy consumption AND your electric bill!
14. Take shorter showers.
15. If you're leaving your computer for a while, put it on stand-by. You'll be able to restart it quickly, and it'll take less energy than shutting it down and then restarting it.
16. Before turning the heating on, put on thick socks and a sweater.
17. Consider changing your diet. Both the burning of fossil fuels during food production and non-carbon dioxide emissions associated with livestock and animal waste contribute to the problem. Cutting down on just a few eggs or hamburgers each week is an easy way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.


Transportation

1. Buy a bike. With gas prices so high, it will pay for itself. Ride it to work, or take a joy ride. Everyone benefits when you ride a bike. You help conserve our limited oil resources, you are not polluting, and you are exercising.
2. Walk around the corner rather than drive. It may be convenient to drive, but let's face it, it probably takes longer than walking would, and emits pollutants to boot.
3. For longer trips, take public transportation or carpool. These options may take a little longer, but you can read, listen to headphones, work on computer or craft projects, or talk to people instead of having to stare straight ahead for the length of your commute. There are many carpool and rideshare websites on the internet for both regular and one-time trips. Try craigslist.org for your one-time trips. Your city government might also facilitate carpool trips.
4. Consolidate your trips. If you must drive to do laundry, shopping, etc., plan to do all weekly errands on one day. You can get everything you need in one trip, saving you money and time. Also, it's more fuel efficient to start a car if it's already warmed up.
5. Use less gas. The gas you pump into your car or SUV is derived from fossil fuels which, when burnt, release a good share of greenhouse gases into the air. Read the Related wikiHow on How to Save Money on Gas. Consider purchasing a hybrid car, or one that can run on biodiesel.


At the Cash Register

1. Buy only post-consumer recycled paper products, including toilet paper and tissues. The paper industry is the third greatest contributor to global warming emissions.
2. Don’t buy from companies that refuse to make post-consumer paper! Producing new paper, glass, and metal products from recycled materials saves 70% to 90% of the energy and pollution that results from products made from virgin materials.
3. Buy certified wood to support sustainably managed forests.
4. Tell the companies you invest in that you care about global warming and you will pull your investments if they don’t address the issue. Don’t like a company’s stance on global warming? Go to shareholder meetings and speak up!


In Your Community

1. Learn everything you can about global warming. What is it? How does global warming work? Why is it happening? What are the causes? What are the critics saying? Remember, knowledge is power.
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the dangers of global warming.
3. Call a local radio talk show to tell them you care about global warming or to question a skeptic.
4. Join a national or local environmental group that is fighting the climate crisis everyday so their membership numbers swell and their voice can't be ignored.
5. E-mail relevant articles to your friends and family to get them up to speed about global warming.
6. See "An Inconvenient Truth" and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
7. Write to your local council to ask for recycling collection. If they write back with a negative reply, give the letter to your local paper.
8. Support and advocate alternative energy sources such as wind or solar that don't emit CO2 gases.


Tips

* Before turning on any electrical, oil or gas-powered machine, think: "Is there another way to do this task?" Be creative!
* To better keep track of your greenhouse gas emissions use a greenhouse gas calculator.

July 26, 2006 | 3:34 AM Comments  0 comments

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Connection to people, connection to the world
Related to country: Lebanon


I've just found out today that I actually know someone who's trapped in Lebanon at the moment. o_O He's a friend of mine, and although we've only met twice before since I first met him in Australia last year it's kinda shocking to think of him and his family there and facing all that...some of the news coverage that they show is pretty horific...I hope they're all right jeez...

It's kind of surreal to think that something so far away and foreign (to me) has an affect on me here in lil' ol' Aotearoa.

Makes me think...the more people that you know around the world, the more chance that you'll be affected personally by anything that happens in the world...it'll have that 'extra' impact on you because you know someone from that part of the world...and it becomes your 'business', your loss.

Wow...that's nearly the whole Pacific covered for me...o_O

Automatically though, it already should be right?

I don't know. I'm just rambling here...

Rerenga

July 20, 2006 | 2:07 AM Comments  1 comments

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Not ready to make nice

Who'dve thought I'd be into a Dixie Chicks song?

Anyways, when I first heard it, I thought it wasn't that bad. But when I heard the story behind it? Hah. Now it's one of my favourite songs up there with 'Dear Mr. President' by Pink.

Jeez some people are just...so taken in...that they forget to think for themselves...

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

- Rerenga

July 4, 2006 | 1:35 AM Comments  0 comments

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