2007: What Will You Do?

Could You Go Green in 2007? Could You Make Just the Slightest Difference in Our Environment in 2007? emoticon
Laura Thieme, December 30 2006

  1. Unplug! - Turn off electronic devices you’re not using - computers, laptops, cell phone chargers, nightlights - excerpt from Lime.com - Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!  http://www.lime.com/node/4337 -

  2. http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/ - Replace Your LightBulbs with Compact Florescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) - You will contribute 300 less pounds of carbon dioxide per year.  If everyone did this in the U.S. - we’d save over 90 billion pounds of CO2.
  3. Plant trees - lots of them.  Get involved in Arbor Day in your area.  Sponsor events - come on - search marketers have three bucks to spare - that’s right - only $3 per tree - and you can gift them.  Get involved in your Arbor Day, coming up in April 2007.
  4. Buy organic and locally grown foods - Organic soil captures and stores CO2 at much higher levels than regular soil.  The average meal travels 1200 miles to get to your dinner plate.  Consider less frozen foods - fresh food and buy from your farmer’s market.
  5. Learn more about the Antarctica and the ice shelves, melting and their future effect on your life.  Global sea levels could rise 20 feet affecting that coastal home you own or visit once a year in Florida, New York, California or Oregon. 
  6. Learn more about the penguins - this is real.  B-15 breaking off changed their path from 15 nautical miles to 80 nautical miles.  Imagine going 15 miles to get food.  I go a few feet to my kitchen.  A mile to the grocery store.  A couple of miles to the local farmers market or to Whole Foods, perhaps a couple more.  Imagine walking 80 nautical miles (what is a nautical mile) to get food only to bring it back, if you survive the trek, and find you can’t get to your chicks - the path is blocked - or you are trapped and freeze to death. 
    • National Geographic - lesson on Emperor Penuins
  7. Tune into Environmental News around the world
  8. Get your car tuned up and keep your tires inflated - Every gallon of gas represents 20 pounds of CO2.  Schedule your 2007 car tune up today, check the tires, and pledge to drive a little less.  Especially those of you who have company cars!  Just because you’re not paying for the gas, doesn’t mean someone else isn’t.  Do you really need to run errands every night or could you group them together?  Could you occassionally walk somewhere?
  9. Buy a hybrid, Fly Less - I’m going to possibly make the switch in 2007 to a hybrid.  I’ve been a loyal Rav4 owner for many years.  But no possibility of a Rav4 going hybrid according to Toyota in the very near future.  Highlander or Camry perhaps.  I’m a SUV girl myself, but perhaps a Highlander or another brand - gasp….  With regard to flying less, I could possibly do this.  But I’ve just made gold status on AA.  Shucks.  Perhaps we could also suggest a phone teleconference, or even remember the video conferences in the 90’s, and not always request an in-person meeting.
  10. Spread the word - about the environment, the penguins (we do seem to like the fuzzy chicks - and compassion in this form is acceptable), the Arctic ice masses breaking off, changes in pole temperatures at both the North and South Poles, and global warming trends.  Learn and then talk about it.  Make a difference in 2007.