Environmental Awareness & Action

It's amazing what our world has become. Do you ever ponder over the miracles of technology and the amazing inventions of the past century? Have you ever gazed out over the lake and wonder what it looked like 100 years ago? 500 years ago...? Then looked down, and noticed the bottles and plastic lapping gently with the water's waves.. or inhaled deeply to enjoy the smells of nature, only to realize that you can almost feel the smog clogging your lungs?

I am saddened every time I look over our amazing city, and remember that our society is slowly destroying our own future and the future of our children, and our planet.

So in my day-to-day living, I try to do what I can to minimize the damage that I do as an individual. Great things can begin with the action of one, and that could be me. That could be you. That can be all of us, if we can at least try in our own small way.

Below are some of the things that I try to do to reduce my impact on the environment. Please feel free to share your ideas and I will be more than happy to incorporate them into the website and my own life.

Reduce

• Walk (or cycle) & take public transit to minimize car pollution
• Avoid using air conditioning at all, and turning it the warmest setting possible if use is unavoidable
• Bring re-usable cloth bags shopping to reduce the need for plastic bags; say "no" to bags at the store if you already have a bag
• Turn off electronics when not in use, and connect them to power bars that can also be turned off; even when electronics are "off" they are still consuming energy
• Turn off lights when not using the room
• Try www.blackle.com instead of www.google.com - it's the same search engine, but black backgrounds uses less energy than white ones
• Buy environmentally-friendly products
• Avoid using dishwashers, and washing by hand with minimal water consumption; allow to air dry
• Wash clothes in cold water only, and in bigger loads; line-dry if possible
• Use a water filter and re-usable water bottles instead of buying bottled water to reduce plastic production & garbage in landfills (recycle bottles if you must buy bottled water)
• Go "paperless" with bills and banking to reduce paper use
• Print on both sides of paper, and use a smaller font to fit more onto one sheet
• Avoid buying items with excessive packaging
• Use environmentally friendly appliances & faucets

Reuse

• Donate used clothing and furniture instead of throwing it out
• Buy used furniture instead of buying everything new
• Choose products made with recycled materials
• Choose products that are reuseable, such as cloth shopping bags instead of plastic ones
• Reuse plastic bags if you do have some, instead of getting more

Recycle

• Recycle all papers and plastics that are recyclable
• If you are out, and there are not recycling receptacles, bring items home to recycle them

Educating yourself and those around you will help spread the idea that our environment needs help, and we can be the ones to take action.