It’s Too Darn Hot
If the thermostats in every house in America were lowered 1 degree Fahrenheit during the winter, the nation would save 230 million barrels of crude oil—enough to fill an oil tanker 400 times. (That’s the amount of oil being imported into the United States from Iraq each year.)
Have you ever thought about what drinking bottled water does to the planet? Here’s a little food for thought.
Americans toss 38 billion water bottles into landfills every year! That’s 2.7 million tons of plastic. Bottles that are incinerated produce toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas entering the air, and ash containing heavy metals enters the soil.
Manufacturing the water bottles necessary to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually. Just think: that is enough energy to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
Each week, in the US alone, we are moving 1 billion bottles of water around in ships, trains, and trucks. That is a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers burning up fossil fuel to deliver water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It is so heavy you cannot fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)
The Alternative? So simple!
None of these alternatives requires you to give up a thing – in fact they are money savers. Yet each one will have an enormous impact on the planet if each of us does our part!
Donna Hoffman is the owner of ezClearwater.com, provider of the highest quality, earth-friendly water purification products for home, office, pool and spa. We are dedicated to sharing products that are “Good to You and Mother Earth Too.”
Did you know that your food travels an average of over 1,500 miles to get to your plate?
A study in Iowa showed that a regional diet (with food grown in a radius of about 100 miles) consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country.
You can support local agriculture–and help reduce green house gases emitted by trucks used to transport food–by supporting your local farms and farmers’ markets.
If you are a business, you can start out by simply offering local fruit or vegetables in your company’s cafeteria and move to offering meat and milk products. You could also encourage your employees to support their local farmers’ market (there are 3,600 of them nationwide).
At home, think about where your food is coming from. Remember it all adds up!
Well, let’s get started. As I said in an earlier post, going green is more about the little things making a huge difference when we all get involved. So, let’s throw a softball up there to show you just how easy going green can be.
As you can see, it doesn’t take alot of changes to make a difference. I am always looking for other ways to save energy or reduce the toll that we are taking on our planet.
Welcome to Your Green Minute (YGM). YGM came about as a result of my looking at things that we as individuals could do in regards to the environment.
You have heard the response of folks when asked the question of: “What are you doing for the environment?” Many times, people feel helpless. that whatever they do really won’t make that much of a difference.
Well, I am here not only to tell you, but to show you that YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! It is collectively that we all make a difference.
I keep going back in my mind to the same concept that Herb Caen who was a famous columist for the San Francisco Examiner wrote about nuclear war;
By ourselves, we can do nothing about stopping a nuclear war. But if we don’t do something ourselves, we don’t have a chance. Together, we can make changes
So Your Green Minute will be showing you how to do the little things that when done collectively can make a huge difference not only in our lives, but in the lives of generations to come.
Your Green Minute will offer regular tips that can come from a variety of sources and media. So, if you have a video, get it to me. If you have some data to add, some info to share, please don’t hesitate to get it to me.
Like I said, we are all in this world together. And although we may lives hundreds, if not thousands of miles apart, we are connected as one.
I look forward to hearing from you.
