In an earlier post, we had briefly touched upon some activities that one can do in order to keep one’s home as environment friendly as possible. At that time, we didn’t know the exact carbon emissions due to household activities and had hoped to research it later. Well, now we have come across some interesting statistics at http://www.climatecrisis.net, which I am summarising below.

It is basically 9 simple things ordinary people can do in their day-to-day lives to help combat global warming.

1. Change lights - Replace regular light  bulbs with CFL bulbs. One such move alone will save 150 pounds of Carbon Dioxide in a year.
2. Drive less- One pound of CO2 saved for every mile you don’t drive. We don’t have to cut down on our travel; rather we should use car pooling, bikes or even buses more than usual.
3. Recycle more - Recycle 50% of household waste will save 2400 pounds per year. Not sure whether we can recycle stuff easily in India. Anyone with knowhow on this, please feel free to comment.
4. Check tires frequently - Proper inflation of tires save 3% on mileage. 1 gallon of gasoline saved means 20 pounds of CO2 emissions saved.
5. Use less hot water - It takes a lot of energy to heat hot water. So use less of it by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 emissions saved in a year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds of  CO2 saved in a year)
6. Avoid products with lot of packaging - 1200 pounds of CO2 is saved by cutting garbage by 10%. This probably assumes some garbage disposal mechanism requiring power consumption. Again, unsure whether this is true for India as well.
7. Adjust your thermostat - If you place it 2 degrees from its usual spot, it will save 2000 pounds of CO2 in a year.
8. Plant trees - A single tree will absorb one ton of CO2 from the atmosphere in its lifetime. I know.., that figure seems dissappointingly low compared to the earlier emission figures. And to think, trees are such huge creatures.
9. Turn off electronic devices - Turning off your television, computer etc. when you are not using them will save 1000s of pounds in emssions every year.

There now.. we can’t claim ignorance about what we have to do, so that earth remains habitable.

Err.. hope that didn’t sound too fanatical…