Renee and Stefan: All I want for Christmas is to be carbon neutral

18 November 2007

All I want for Christmas is to be carbon neutral

What I want for Christmas this year is to be carbon neutral. I've cut down on many carbon creating behaviors in my life over the past 2 years. Living in Switzerland makes it easy. But seriously, we have a problem on our hands and we are all responsible for dealing with it. On 17 November 2007 the U.N. reported that Urgent action is needed on 'severe' climate change. We need to curb emissions now by up to 90% in order to stop from sending the climate into a state of unknown imbalance. That means we are ALL responsible for making changes in our lives to change the fate of our climate. Remember the ozone hole? It too was slowed with human actions - but we must start now and take impactful steps.

STEP 1:
Think a little more carefully about your daily actions and you'll be amazed how much carbon output you can cut. Some ideas you can adopt today:

Driving:
- Consolidate your driving - stop driving for unnecessary reasons. Do you really need to drive all that way to meet your needs? Think it through before you get behind the wheel. Some perspective as to why curbing driving is # 1 on my list.
- Hybrids are hoaxes - they are only about as efficient as a diesel engine. Instead buy/drive a diesel car and then use biodiesel to lower the emissions even more.
- Biodiesel is made of plants that, while growing, absorb carbon. So not only does Biodiesel actually release less carbon than gasoline when burned but it also absorbed carbon when it was growing/created. That's why it makes sense.

Energy Consumption:
- Switch to clean energy for your home - choose water, wind and solar power instead. Yes, it does cost much more, but all that energy you use will NOT be pouring more climate-harming carbon into the world.
- Replace at least all your frequently used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones. You'll save considerable energy costs, too.
- Put all your standby electronics on a power strip & then turn off the power strip when you don't need those things to be on. We do this with our media center: TV, DVD player, battery rechargers & laptop.

Shopping:
- Reuse things: plastic & paper bags...why get 4 new ones the next time you go to the grocery store? Reuse containers, ziplock bags, plastic bottles - whatever is sturdy enough to have a second life - give it one!
- Refill things: Why must we buy a whole new bottle of soap, toothpaste, any other regularly consumed item? Are there any products that you can refill instead of buying more packaging? Check your local co-op if there's nothing mainstream that suits you.
- Watch what you buy - all packaging took energy to create it and it will take even more energy to destroy it or even recycle it. Cut down on packaging! Refuse to buy products that are over packaged.
- Think hard about if you really need disposable products.
- Next time you need batteries:
1) DO NOT THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE. Batteries are extremely toxic to the environment and can leech into water systems - 1 battery can contaminate the amount of water you drink in your entire lifetime. Recycling them is best, bringing them to the hazardous waste center is next best.
2) Invest in rechargeable batteries - AVOID Nickel-Cadmium and OPT FOR Nickel Metal-Hydride - they are much more eco-friendly, and also more robust (less memory effect).

STEP 2:
- Internalize the concept that anything that uses energy = carbon created.
- Consider this: anything that is refined (not in it's raw state) took energy to make it that way (unless it was handmade of course). Your daily purchases, burning fuel, leaving things plugged in on standby = more, continuous carbon output. Once you internalize this, you can see quite easily that there are alternatives and savings that can be made with every daily action we take.

STEP 2.5:
- Get over yourself and your lifestyle. You don't need to drive the latest, hottest SUV and use that beauty product that costs 85 USD per 8oz plastic container. Think about how your ego is getting in the way of the future of our earth. Being humble and slowing climate change will both be better for your children anyway ;-)

STEP 3:
- Become carbon neutral. Of course we will always need energy, packaging, waste. But after you take the time to reduce it, you can offset the carbon you create. My two favorite organizations right now are:
TerraPass.com
TreeFlights.com (ordering isn't so obvious, you have to click on "plant my tree in ... ")
- Add your ideas to this blog! We all can benefit from practical suggestions - please share anything else with me that you've found to work.

We shouldn't have to go backwards to make these concepts work. Though we do need to get smart quickly about how we use and abuse our resources. All I want for Christmas this year is to be carbon neutral. And it will start all over again next year. But according to the experts we don't have a lot of time to try and get this right. So we must get started now.

Oh, and keep sending me those email updates on you & electronic pics of all your cute children! They've been part of my inspiration for this blog if you couldn't tell.
Hugs from Switzerland,
Renee

Labels: carbon, carbon neutral, christmas, climate change

posted by Renee at 18:26

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