Since climate change affects everyone, any green initiative for minimizing the damages should also involve everyone. Each one of us can contribute to make the earth a better place so that the damages done so far do not worsen the living conditions, believes Brian Colombana. The ills of the environment result from our uncontrolled lifestyle as we seek more comfort and indulge in extensive equipment and utilities that cause harmful emissions and damage the climate. For our pleasures, we seldom think about the greater harm that we are causing by adopting a lifestyle that deeply damages the environment and can kill us one day. By making small changes to our lifestyle, we can make the world more eco-friendly that can help compensate for the environmental damage.
Where to start should become clear ongoing through this article.
Stop food waste
Generally, we look at the issue of food waste from an economic perspective because the monetary losses are too evident. However, from a scientific angle, the dangers of food waste are more concerning because it increases the carbon dioxide level in the air. Food waste occurs in the stores as well as homes. Either the food in stores becomes unusable as it crosses the shelf life or spoils before consumption. Americans are the worst offenders as they throw away 40% of the food they buy. Minimize food waste by buying only what you need, donate excess food to a food bank, use waste food for composting and start eating leftovers.
Become a veggie
When you become a veggie, you are drastically cutting down the carbon footprint, says Brian Colombana. His advice is to switch over to a vegetarian diet mainly comprising of plant-based foods. If you cut down on meat consumption, you can reduce the carbon footprint considerably, as found in a study by the University of Oxford. By controlling deforestation due to agriculture and assuming that half the world’s population reduces meat consumption, it can reduce 66 gigatons of carbon emissions.
Use clean energy
It’s time to forget fossil fuels and embrace clean energy available in the form of renewable energy. Installing solar panels at your home can be a way to make a good start. Alternatively, you can buy green energy from various installers and use renewable utilities without installing any hardware at home. Supporting the community initiatives in green energy projects. And the government in popularizing renewable energy is a move in the right direction.
Use LED lighting
Replace incandescent lights with LED lights that consume 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs and 50% less than fluorescent lights. The technology converts electrons to photons and uses electricity to generate light without emitting heat, saving energy. Although the upfront costs of LED lights are more, they last much longer and keep homes cool.
Better home insulation
It’s worth investing in better home insulation as it reduces the use of utilities. And saves energy that translates into cost-saving. Replace older insulation with a new one as it can save more than 35% of energy compared to earlier.
Lower energy consumption means less use of utilities and lower carbon emissions.