You may have seen it someplace but if not, I want to remind you that this upcoming Friday April 22 is Earth Day, the day that the whole world tries to show its support for the environment. Here's how you can do your bit!
Park the car
If at all possible, avoid driving. Talk to coworkers; see if you can hook up a quick car pool. Pull out the bicycle, tune it, and ride it. Take public transportation. Your 10-mile drive to
work may seem like a very small pollutant but let me bring you back down to earth. Every gallon of gasoline your car burns adds 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the environment (here's the source); 22.38 pounds if you drive a diesel. If you need a metric conversion, this means that for every liter of gasoline you create 2.37 kilos of CO2, and 2.69 kilos if you drive with diesel. 6 pounds of precious gasoline (the actual weight of a gallon of gasoline) become more than triple their weight in air pollution, how scary is that? Please, think of this, and find a way.
Unplug
I mentioned it in my last blog post, but for different reasons: turn things off, and unplug
others. Computers, appliances that you aren’t using, turn them off and do not leave them on standby mode. Unplug chargers when not using them, they keep consuming at the same rate as when you charge your phones and tablets. And watch your air conditioning and heating at night and when you go out. You can tone them down. These measures not only save you money in energy costs, by reducing your energy consumption you help the environment, immensely.
Plant a tree, inspire others
It sounds silly but yes, plant a tree. One thing that I have always remembered from my first Earth day is that for every tree that we cut we need to plant 4 to replace it. Buy a common tree, and plant it, in your yard, on your street, someplace where it will not be cut down any time soon. You will be very proud of yourself when you’re done, believe me. And get others involved. Tell them that you plan on planting a tree and ask if any others want to help: neighbors, coworkers, relatives. You will find that people are very willing to follow other people’s leadership on doing something good.
Plant anything
If you want to be a savvy consumer about this, consider growing your own herbs and lettuce
at home. Those tasty lettuces that you can buy nowadays at the grocery store with their little pot, guess what: you can plant them in a pot, stick them on a sunny spot and continue growing them. If you buy several (you can even buy several varieties!), every time you want to make a salad, take off the outer leaves of all of them and there you go, a salad that keeps growing for you. A word of the wise: when lettuce grows an inner steam that leads to flowering, you will need to stop, as the leaves will turn very bitter then.
You can do the same thing with fresh herbs: thyme, oregano, rosemary and basil are low-maintenance plants that will give you fresh herbs all summer long and if, fall comes and they start withering, cut them down, dry them and use the leaves all winter long. You can always start again next spring.
Help actively
If you are the volunteering type, being kind to our planet is one of the best causes anyone
can think of. Look for organizations in your area that are dedicated to the environment, and contact them to help. Volunteering is something you do at your own pace and with your own time, costs nothing, and feels outright good.
Join others
And if none of the ideas that I have given have any appeal to you, then please consider joining others. Look online for earth day activities near you that day, and join them. Get out, and do something good for yourself and our planet. One of life’s greatest sources of pleasure is engaging in something meaningful that is greater than us.
Happy Earth Day.
No comments :
Post a Comment