In fact, in the past 50 years, the earth’s global temperature has increased by 3%. Pollution caused by the release of carbon dioxide into the air creates a blanket over the atmosphere. Global warming can cause a whole chain of events to rupture ecosystems, weather patterns, and a variety of other factors. We all play a part in our future.
1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reducing your need to buy new products results in a smaller amount of waste. Even if you need to buy, consider buying eco-friendly products. It is the most effective of the three R’s. It simply says cut back from where are you now.
Reuse bottles, plastic containers, and other items bought at the grocery store. Reusing water bottles, yogurt cups, bread ties, and other items is being conscious about what is already out there. It will lessen having to purchase other items that would fulfill the same function. Try to use disposable products into some other form. Just don’t throw them away.
You can recycle almost anything for e.g., paper, bottles, aluminum foils, cans, newspapers. Recycling of these unwanted things is a great earth saving tip. By recycling, you can help in reducing landfills.
2. Reduce Waste
Landfills are the major contributor of methane and other greenhouse gases. When the waste is burnt, it releases toxic gases in the atmosphere, which results in global warming. Reusing and recycling old items can significantly reduce your carbon footprint as it takes far less energy to recycle old items than to produce items from scratch.
3. Upcycle your Furniture
Upcycle tables, furniture, and other outdated items to keep landfills clean. Consider using recycled materials like pallets or repurposing your old furniture instead of buying new ones.
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4. Recycle your Clothes
The average American throws away about 80 pounds of clothing a year. Fast fashion is not only wasteful, but its environmental cost is devastating. A handful of retailers offer recycling programs, while companies like Patagonia will actually purchase, refurbish, and resell your gently worn garments.
5. Bring your own Shopping Bags
Plastic bags are destructive to the environment. They take hundreds of years to break down, contaminate soil and waterways, and cause widespread marine animal deaths. Cities and states around the country have enacted plastic-bag bans or charges on single-use bags to combat the problem. Switch to reusable bags and use them consistently to contribute.
6. Replace Regular Incandescent Light Bulb
Replace regular incandescent light bulb with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. They consume 70% less energy than ordinary bulbs and have a longer lifetime.
7. Buy Energy-Efficient Appliances
Always buy products that are energy efficient as they can help you save a good amount of money on your energy bill. Energy Star certified products are more efficient that can help you to save energy, save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
8. Turn Off the Lights
Duh! If you’re not using a room, there’s no need for the light to be on.
9. Turn off Electronic Devices
Turn off electronic devices when you are moving out for a couple of days or more. Unnecessary usage of electronic appliances will not only save fuel, i.e., coal by which we get electricity but also increase the useful life of your gadgets.
10. Go Solar
Many people have caught the energy-efficient bandwagon of solar energy. Having solar panels installed is something readily possible and available. Incentives and discounts given by government agencies and energy companies make solar energy something to look into.
11. Use Less Hot Water
Buy energy saving geysers and dishwasher for your home. Avoid washing clothes in hot water. Just wash them in cold or warm water. Avoid taking frequent showers and use less hot water. It will help in saving the energy required to produce that energy.
12. Install a Programmable Thermostat
A programmable thermostat doesn’t cost much, and its cost can be recovered from the amount that you save by reducing energy. The easiest and most cost-effective advice is simply adjusting your thermostat up 1 degree down in the winter and up by 1 degree in the summer. Lower your thermostat 2 degrees in the winter. Instead of making your home a burning furnace, try putting on extra layers.
13. Use Clean Fuel
Electric, smart cars, cars that run on vegetable oil, etc…are great examples of using renewable energy. Supporting companies that provide these products will help the rest of the mainstream manufacturing companies convert over.
14. Look for Renewable Fuel Options
If you can’t afford an electric car, buy the cleanest gasoline as possible. When car shopping, look at the benefits of options that provide renewable fuel. Although it may be a pretty penny now, you’re on the ground level of forwarding thinking.
15. Save Energy
When you consume less, less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Setting your thermostat using your smartphone or changing the type of light bulb you use is a great start.
16. Wrap your water heater in an Insulation
By keeping the energy in the water heater condensed, less energy is emitted into the air. This not only helps the earth but your pocketbook as well.
17. Check Your Gas Cap
A loose, cracked, or damaged gas cap allowing gas to escape from your tank as vapor wreaks havoc on the environment. It also wastes fuel and your hard-earned gas money. Turn the gas cap until it clicks a few times.
18. Insulate
Making our homes more efficient can substantially cut the energy needed to heat and cool. Adding insulation, weather stripping, and caulking around your home can reduce energy bills by more than 25%.
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19. Replace Filters on Air Conditioner and Furnace
If you still haven’t, then you are wasting energy but breathing in dirty air. Cleaning a dirty air filter can save several pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
20. Go Green
Using energy star appliances will not only save money but also the amount of energy wasted in your home. Have a look at various ways to go green.
Global warming is detectable even at the ocean floor
21. Download Earth Saving Apps
Apps like Kil-Ur-Watts and Wiser EMS not only help calculate your energy costs but provide tools and ways to save energy and money.
22. Plant a Tree
Planting trees can help much in reducing global warming than any other method. They not only give oxygen but also take in carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis, which is the primary source of global warming.
23. Use Clothesline to Dry Your Clothes
Think of your grandmother when you do this. Most clothes shouldn’t be put in the dryer anyway.
24. Plant your own Vegetable Garden
It doesn’t get more local than getting fresh vegetables from your backyard.
25. Start Composting
Transforming food scraps and lawn clippings into fresh, nutrient-rich soil gives home gardens a boost. Roughly 20 to 30% of what we normally throw out can be composted. And the process offers huge benefits like saving money on shipping organic waste to landfills and generates energy from methane.
26. Conserve Water
This is a tired tip, but ever so important. If we added up the water wasted by the millions of Americans brushing their teeth, we could provide water to more than 23 nations with unclean drinking water. Remember, it takes energy to draw and filter water from underground.
Taking a quick 5-minute shower will greatly conserve energy. The type of shower head used will also aid in combating global warming. Take showers instead of baths. Showers use less water than baths by 25%, over the course of a year, that’s hundreds of gallons saved.
27. Eat Less Hamburger
Besides carbon dioxide, methane introduced into the air contributes to global warming. With meat consumed by the seconds, the number of cows breathing out methane is a huge contributor, thanks to our carnivorous diet and the billion-dollar meat industry.
28. Reduce Food Waste
Whether it’s left on your plate or rotting in your fridge, wasted food is a big problem. In the U.S., the wastage accounts for 38 million tons a year, according to the EPA. However, small changes to your routine can make a big difference. Save food, and apply smarter ways about storage and preservation.
29. Don’t Drink Bottled Water
Landfills already contain more than 2 million tons of plastic bottles. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture water bottles every year, and those bottles take more than 1,000 years to biodegrade. Have one reusable water bottle to make a big difference.
30. Take Lunch in a Tupperware
Each time you throw away that brown paper sack, more brown paper sacks are being produced in a factory as we speak.
31. Eat Naturally
Not only do the health benefits speak wonders for those who eat naturally, but it cuts down the energy costs used by factories who produce processed food.
32. Remove your Lawn
That “little” patch of green in front of your home looks beautiful, but lawns require extra water, gas-powered equipment, and fertilizer that pollutes waterways. Less grass equals less gas.
33. Use a Kitchen Cloth Instead of Paper Towels
Paper towels produce nothing but wasted energy—think of factory pollution, as well as tree consumption.
34. Reuse Towels
Hang towels to dry, instead of popping them back in the wash after a few uses.
35. Avoid Products With Lot of Packaging
Just don’t buy products with a lot of packaging. When you buy such products, you will end up throwing the waste material in the garbage, which then will help in filling landfill sites and pollute the environment. Also, discourage others from buying such products.
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36. Tune Your Car Regularly
Regular maintenance will help your car function properly and emit less carbon dioxide.
37. Check Your Tires
Make sure your tires are properly inflated when you drive. If not, then your vehicle might consume more fuel, which in turn release more CO2 in the atmosphere. Keep your engine properly tuned and drive less aggressively. Aggressive driving and frequent applying of brakes hampers the engine and can even lower the mileage of your car.
38. Stop Idling Your Car
It might be freezing outside, but unless your car is buried in snow, start your car as usual. It may take longer to warm up, but the world isn’t just about you.
39. Drive Less or Carpool
By driving less, you are not only saving fuel but also helping in reducing global warming. Also, look out for other possibilities, e.g., carpooling. If you have colleagues who live in the same area, then you can combine trips.
If you need to go to a local market, then either walk or go by cycle. Both of them are a great form of exercise. The biggest pollution emitting fumes are caused by oil and gasoline. Therefore, cutting down consumption is a huge step to reducing energy wastes.
40. Take Public Transit
Public transportation helps reduce gridlock and carbon emissions. Many city dwellers incorrectly assume that buses and trains take longer. So give transit a try. These days public transport is made much comfortable and speedy. It may just exceed your expectations.
41. Buy Carbon Offsets when you Fly
Limit your flights, or give up flying altogether, would be best. Even downsizing from business class to economy cuts down your carbon usage, if you can manage without the legroom.
42. Ride Your Bike
Not only is bike riding healthy, but it also reduces the amount of CO2 released into the air. Walking is another easy way to reduce global warming.
43. Work From Home at least a day a Week
Studies show that 45 percent of the U.S. workforce has a job that suits for full-time or part-time telecommuting. Working a few days each month from home means one less commuter on the road contributing to greenhouse gases.
44. Get Home Energy Audit Done
Call a home energy audit company and get an audit done for the home that will help you to identify areas that consume a lot of energy and are not energy efficient at all.
45. Become Part of the Global Warming Community
Connecting with others will help you become more conscious of the impact we all have. The Climate Change National Forum and Global Humanitarian Forum are great avenues to know the latest facts, statistics, and efforts in making a difference.
46. Celebrate Arbor Day and Earth day
Although most of us hear about these days in passing, see what the buzz is all about. Plant a tree, pick up trash, or join a forum.
47. Become Aware of Your Contribution
With technology within your fingertips, finding information about protecting the environment is everywhere. To help emit less CO2, the first step is being aware of how much you can contribute.
48. Spread the Awareness
Always try your best to educate people about global warming and its causes and after-effects. Tell them how they can contribute their part by saving energy that will be good for the environment. Gather opportunities and establish programs that will help you to share information with friends, relatives, and neighbors.
By being just a little more mindful, we all can play our part in combating global warming. These easy tips will help preserve the planet for future generations. Scientists won’t have to defy the space-time continuum to keep life on planet earth from continuing.
