Prevent Global Warming and Help Save the World!

March 14, 2010 By Sherri Stockman Leave a Comment

GreenHQ’s Top Ten Ways to Prevent Global Warming

1) Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. There are many styles available now to blend with your decor.

2) Turn your thermostat up in the summer, and down in the winter. You don’t have to get really radical, but you’ll probably be healthier, and you’ll save on your fuel bill.

3) Eat local and organic. Trucking your food back and forth across the country (or the world) makes absolutely no sense. Fresh produce tastes better, it’s more nutritious, it’s usually less expensive, and it supports your local economy.

4) Drive a fuel-efficient vehicle. The technology for electric and hybrid cars is already here, but if this isn’t an option for you, at least get make sure your car gets over 25 mpg.

5) Use public transportation, ride a bicycle, or walk instead of taking your car, when possible.

6) Use a clothesline to dry your clothes – weather permitting. You get exercise and that wonderful fresh smell!

7) Recycle, and buy goods that are made with recycled materials. Avoid disposables.

8 ) Replace older appliances with newer, more efficient ones.

9) Unplug (or use a power strip you can turn on and off) your electronics when you’re not using them. Phantom loads are a big waste.

10) Use renewable energy. Your electric company can switch you to Green Energy for a few extra cents per kilowatt.

BONUS ENTRY:
Plant something. In your yard, or even in your apartment, plants absorb and filter out harmful greenhouse gases.

For more ways to prevent global warming, visit the Union of Concerned Scientists website.

Still unsure how to start preventing Global Warming?
Check out this Global Warming Action Kit. It’s cool.

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Eat Local to Prevent Global Warming

February 5, 2010 By Sherri Stockman Leave a Comment
Community supported agriculture
Image by yksin via Flickr

“Eat Local” has been in the news of late.

Many are longing for the feeling of community they miss by living in an anonymous city. Others have learned the carbon footprint of their groceries is too large for their own comfort.

And Macrobiotic principles state that foods grown in your own region are much healthier for your body.

It may be difficult to eat local out of your supermarket, however. Modern society has gotten spoiled to eating out of season, so foods are imported from the other side of the world, then taken back and forth across country for distribution.

Another reason to eat local is so you can know the condition and freshness of your food. The USDA has been lowering Organic Standards due to pressure from the Big Ag lobby, so even if it’s labeled “Organic,” you can’t really know for sure if that produce is free of harmful (and global warming) petro-chemicals.

If you know the farmers and their methods, you can be assured your food is pure.

So what about becoming a localvore?

According to www.Localvore.co.uk,”…in the same vein that a carnivore is a being who eats meat, and a herbivore is one who eats plants, a localvore is a person who eats only locally-grown and produced food.”

I support the idea, and yet I have a hard time giving up coffee, and chocolate, and salt, and fresh ginger. I would really miss cinnamon, and salmon, too.

My compromise is to grow a few things myself, shop with local farmers, and then fill in the rest at my local health food store. That way, I can be assured that my food is as local as possible, clean, and if it has been imported, it’s Fair Trade.

Look for locally grown and produced foods at small health food stores and “Mom and Pop” groceries.

Choose local farmers’ markets, produce stands, and community supported agriculture over supermarket foods.

Even if you don’t become a complete localvore, you can still eat local.

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