You’ve been reading about global warming, feeling the effects of growing pollution in your city, seeing the neighbourhood birds slowly fade away. Yes the environment around each of us is changing and changing fast. But do you know you can do your bit to reduce your carbon footprint? Follow the simple steps below and be a green crusader at least on your home front.
Go green
Plant trees whenever and wherever you can. A single tree can absorb a tonne of carbon dioxide in its lifetime.
Think of the other benefits with it. It could bear fruits or flowers and beautify the place around it; it will give shade and of course give oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide.
If you have space limitation (which most of us do) plant trees in the neighbourhood park and plant simple plants and shrubs around your little gardens. Patches of green can do more wonders than you thought.
Let the sun shine
With a country like ours that has abundant sunlight throughout the year, we can do wonders with solar energy. Agreed the technology is a bit expensive. But in the long term, not only do you do your bit for the environment but also end up saving more than you would over conventional sources.
Use a solar water heater instead of an electric geyser. A 100-litre solar water heater can save around 15 units of electricity every year. What is more, the government gives subsidy on solar heating. In fact try using solar energy for cooking. You will crib a lot less about the rising LPG prices.
Switching off
This is an extremely simple thing to do. It just needs a little bit of thinking rejig. Tune into switching off electronic devices when they are not in use. Simply turning off your television, stereo, computer, fans lights when you are not using them, which will save you thousands of kg of carbon dioxide a year.
Reuse and Recycle
This is the easiest to do and one of the most efficient ways of being environmentally conscious. Recycling and re-using products like paper and bottles goes a long way in saving the environment. Just by reducing your garbage by 25 per cent will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by almost 500 kg of carbon emission a year.
Take bottled water, for example, which has a huge carbon footprint. Just carry your own bottle of water around. Not only will you get safe water but also save the environment. Also, something as simple as using rechargeable batteries.
