Earth Day a fine time to pick up eco-friendly habits

April 15, 2007

Earth Day is coming up and I was wondering if you can advise me on ways I can help the environment. I drive a fuel-efficient car and have insulated my house so I use less energy, but I know there are other things I could be doing.

While there are a couple of different stories surrounding the creation of Earth Day, it was first celebrated in 1970 and essentially sprang out of a concern for the environment and political turmoil of the 1960s. While celebrated in many parts of the world on the vernal equinox (March 21), in the United States we celebrate Earth Day on April 22, although events may occur during the week leading up to Earth Day.

While some of the problems that led to the creation of Earth Day have abated, other, more serious problems have risen in the over three decades since it was first celebrated.

Water pollution and shortages, increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ever increasing solid waste should give us all cause for concern. Yet it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. Sometimes just changing the way we do things can have a significant impact on the environment.

Compiled below is a list of things that we can do to help ease our impact on the environment.

• Change your habits. Shut off lights when not in use, stop running the water when shaving or brushing your teeth.
• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. If every household in the United States replaced a burned-out incandescent bulb with an energy-efficient CFL bulb, it would prevent more than 13 billion pounds of CO ² from entering the atmosphere - the equivalent of taking more than a million cars off the road for a whole year.
• Weatherize your home. Adding insulation and sealing your home against drafts will help lower heating and cooling costs and conserve on resources.
• Ride the bus, walk or carpool to work one or more days per week. Your car emits as much CO ² into the atmosphere as your entire house. By limiting the use of your car or maximizing its passenger per mile quotient, you can help reduce emissions. Not driving one day per week can take one ton of CO ² out of the atmosphere every year.
• Buy fuel-efficient vehicles. They decrease energy use and reduce pollution and CO ² emissions. Increased demand for fuel-efficient cars will encourage manufacturers to produce more of them. Fuel-­efficient cars will be worth more than less-efficient cars as the price of fuel increases.
• When buying new products that use energy, look for the Energy Star label or buy the most efficient product available.
• Buy green power. Renewable or green power is generated from nonpolluting resources like hydro, wind and solar, that does not increase CO ² levels in the atmosphere.
• Buying a new home or business? Ask for Energy Star or LEED certification to insure that it meets the highest energy and environmental standards.
• Calculate your carbon consumption at www.greentagsusa.org/GreenTags/calculator_intro.cfm and purchase offsets to compensate for what you can not reduce.
• Plant a tree. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.
• Use native plants and trees in your landscaping. If possible, leave mature trees in place. Mature trees convert 10 times as much carbon dioxide to oxygen as new trees. Native species require less water and fertilizer and are more resistant to disease than nonnative species.
• Minimize the amount of hard surface (concrete, asphalt) around your home to reduce run off. Hard surfaces prevent rainwater from reaching soils and replenishing underground aquifers. Run-off increases erosion and concentrates pollutants that destroy aquatic species.
• Buy locally produced products. Locally grown or produced products stimulate the local economy and minimize the amount of energy needed for transportation.
• Recycle and buy recycled products or products that contain recycled material. One way to decrease the stress on the environment is to reuse materials that have already been extracted from it. Buying recycled products creates a market for products made from the materials you recycle.

There are a multitude of often very simple things you can do, that when combined with the actions of others, can have a big impact on the environment. Consider adding some of the items above to the things you're already doing to protect our environment.

Remember, Earth Day is on April 22. I encourage you to get out and participate in one of the many Earth Day events coming up this week.