What YOU Can Do Today to Save the Climate
We are rapidly losing the battle to save our planet’s Climate from warming. We are reminded daily that the clock is running out… but the problem seems so huge. What can an individual do? The answer is: We Just Can. If we change 5 to 10 Climate destroying habits, we go a long way toward saving the Climate – and our world. Here are five simple things YOU can do starting today: (And there are hundreds more including marking your calendar for the SPNA Spring Garden Party on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22 from 1-5 pm at Wishbone Park to learn more about saving the climate plus have a good time with your neighbors!)
1. Limit showers to 5 minutes – An average shower lasts 13 minutes. If you limit your daily shower to 5 minutes the water savings is 20 gallons per shower - critical in our drought prone state even after a wet season. As important, heating 1 gallon of water produces 0.18 lbs. of CO2. Taking five-minute showers for the next 30 days would save approximately 108 lbs. of carbon dioxide - more than what two 10-year-old trees can sequester in the same amount of time!
2. Skip that steak - What’s harder on the climate - your BMW or your Big Mac? It’s the Big Mac. The international meat industry contributes 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases. The natural result of “bovine digestion” is methane gas that has 23 times the warming effect as carbon dioxide. Given the amount of energy consumed raising, shipping, and selling livestock, a 16 oz T-Bone is a Hummer on a plate! Becoming a vegetarian reduces your personal carbon footprint by 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year!
3. Say no to plastic – The world is overrun with plastic trash. Make yourself a pact to never, ever, request or accept a plastic bag. Every year more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed and only 3% are recycled. Always carry your own reusable bag. Pick products with minimum plastic packaging. At your favorite restaurant, don’t accept the Styrofoam to-go box. Take your own cup to Starbucks. Check out SustainLA for non-plastic cleaning products – sustainla.com.
Learn More about the Plastic Problem:
The Plastic Problem – PBS News documentary https://youtu.be/1RDc2opwg0I
Plastic Wars – Frontline Documentary https://youtu.be/-dk3NOEgX7o
4. Shut down computer when not using - The average desktop computer - not including the monitor -consumes from 60 to 250 watts a day. A computer in use four hours a day, then turned off the rest of the time would save you $70 per year vs a computer left on 24/7, and it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by83%!
5. Maintain your car – Don’t have an electric car to replace your gas guzzler? Give old Bessy a tune-up to improve gas mileage by 4%. Replacing a clogged air filter adds 10% to your car’s efficiency, and properly inflated tires can add 3% to your mileage. Burning gasoline produces .91 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile. Increasing your car’s mileage from 20 mph to 24 mph can reduce the carbon dioxide produced per mile by 17%. If you drive 10,000 miles this year, you can reduce your car’s Carbon Dioxide emissions by 1,540 lbs.!
If everyone in South Park followed the 5 practices outlined above, we could save millions of tons of carbon dioxide and hundreds of thousands of plastic bags and Starbucks cups in our landfill. We CAN!
By John Nilsson