How will you honour the Earth Day?
Seema Singh -
Monday, April 20, 2009 10:25 AM
...If you aren't already dismissing it as a media event, with much ink and airtime devoted to it.
No doubt there will be some media hoopla, but due to the elections and IPL matches, I suspect the ‘one-day' green debate will be muted this time.
But I think by now there is consensus, even globally, that climate change is anthropogenic, i.e. man made. So, it's logical that we ask ourselves, and each other, what are we doing, or what we are prepared to do, to stop (or slow) climate change.
This isn't gimmicky. The US National Science Foundation is spending $6 million to study how people make (or will make) decisions that would ultimately impact the environment. Read here what the objectives of this project are and ‘why isn't the brain green'.
Basically, researchers "consider global warming a singular opportunity to study how we react to long-term trade-offs, in the form of sacrifices we might make now in exchange for uncertain climate benefits far off in the future."
Whatever the outcome of this study, on this Earth Day (April 22) what ONE step are you willing to take that would reduce your environmental footprint? Here are some suggestions; some trite, some novel.
1. If there is a ‘Green' candidate in your area, vote for him/her.
2. Replace ALL incandescent light bulbs in your house with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
3. Ride a bicycle to work, walk or just take the public transport -- at least one day in a week.
4. Plant a sapling or donate one to a park, field or any ‘green' agency.
5. Ensure that you and those around you don't keep the tap on while brushing their teeth (you can save up to 4-9 litres per person).
6. Congregate, take part in any green event around you - as the NY Times article above says "Climate change can be easily viewed as a very large ‘commons dilemma'."
7. Vow to use a bucket for cleaning your vehicle, not piped water.
8. Keep the thermostat a few degrees higher this summer (I try to do this in office, but I'm not always successful-- it's daily battle I fight); a few degrees lower in the winter.
9. Carry drinking water from home to avoid buying bottled water.
10. Think five times before you print a document at work place.
If nothing else, go watch Disneynature's movie Earth, which debuts on April 22 in theatres!