Reduce your carbon emissions
Action for Climate Change has developed this list of the actions you can easily undertake for little or no cost and significantly reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.
The actions are listed in priority order – addressing the areas where households generate the majority of their greenhouse gas emissions.
1. Travel
Cars are the highest source of greenhouse gases from households and account for 34% of the total emissions. To reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, aim to leave your car at home once a week.
2. Water Heating
Hot water is the second highest source of greenhouse gases generated by households.
There are many things you can do for free to decrease your greenhouse gas emissions, these include:
· Wash your clothes with cold water. Cut your bill by using only the cold cycle on your washing machine. Compared to a hot wash, this will save 4 kilograms of greenhouse gas per wash.
· Take shorter showers. Keep your showers to four minutes; you will save up to half a kilogram of greenhouse gas for every minute.
· Lower thermostat. Most hot water systems come with a thermostat and you can get an electrician or plumber to vary the set temperature. It is recommended that you don’t set the thermostat lower than 60ºC. Remember to switch the water heater off if you are going away for more than a few days.
3. Electronic Appliances
Turn electrical appliances off at the wall.
Many appliances use electricity even when they’re not doing anything. When appliances are switched off at the appliance, but left on at the wall, they may use some energy called ‘standby’ power. Typically this is between 1 and 20 watts, with most appliances using less than 5 watts – that’s around 45 kilograms of greenhouse gas each year for each item.
4. Heating and Cooling
Don’t over-heat or over-cool your home. A difference of one degree can reduce energy consumption and greenhouse pollution by up to 10%.
· Set the temperature as low for heating and as high as you can for cooling.
· Only heat or cool the rooms you are using and don’t leave the system running when you are not home.
· Also dress for the weather, put on an extra jumper or cool down in a sarong!
5. Refrigeration
The fridge uses a lot of energy and the older your fridge is, the higher the probability that it will be a big polluter. Simple actions you can make that will save you up to half a tonne of greenhouse gases include:
· If you have a second fridge that is mostly empty, turn it off.
· Set the thermostat correctly. Fresh food compartments should be set at around 3 ºC to 5ºC and freezers should be set between -15ºC and -18ºC.
· When taking things out of the fridge open the door as little as possible.
· Keep the fridges and freezers in a cool, well ventilated spot, away from the oven and sun.
6. Rubbish
On average households produce around 1.14 tonnes of rubbish per year. It’s really easy to reduce your household’s rubbish. Take actions such as:
· Say no to junk mail which will reduce the amount of paper that goes to waste each year.
· Take your own shopping bags.
· Purchasing products with reusable packaging and avoid products that are excessively packaged.
· Recycle everything you can!
· Start composting food scraps.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Going Green on CNN TV .
CNN's global week of special programming, "Going Green: Search for Solutions".
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/news/environment/
CNN's global week of special programming, "Going Green: Search for Solutions".
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/news/environment/
Monday, June 23, 2008
shall we have a feast?
Fuel price hike is what we are facing now. Holders of companies or people running small business are either directly or indirectly being affected. Thus, they might have to cut cost on other expenses or even search for other alternatives to overcome this problem.
On the other hand , as rakyat , we have to face it and accept it, whether reluctantly or happily. Yet, people are still complaining around.
The response of rakyat is generally as below, “beside ‘ feeding’ my car, I have to eat, pay for toll, bill of water, electricity, settle monthly payment(s) ( say perhaps installment of house loan, car, insurance etc). Some other expenses will be for entertaining purpose ( at least for a movie per month), clothing( for some people this is a necessity), etc. Oops, it means WITH A FULL TANK OF FUEL, I HAVE TO EMPTY MY WALLET?! I got nothing more left for savings, don’t even talk about buying mutual funds or other investments that look attractive…” The conclusion is “Tak boleh tahan”(cannot take it).
…For me, the recent fuel price hike is not all bad. After the fuel price hike, some of us are using motorcycles instead of cars. Some might choose car pooling. It is noticeable that people are switching to public transport, especially Lrt or commuter. I am very happy to see this. Other than being economical, people are actually doing good to our environment. With lesser cars outside, we are in a way of reducing the contribution to air pollution and green house effect.
The hike in the price of oil has successfully done what environmentalists have been trying to do for years@ decades : forced the Government as well as the public to seriously consider public transportation options. Shall we have a feast?
On the other hand , as rakyat , we have to face it and accept it, whether reluctantly or happily. Yet, people are still complaining around.
The response of rakyat is generally as below, “beside ‘ feeding’ my car, I have to eat, pay for toll, bill of water, electricity, settle monthly payment(s) ( say perhaps installment of house loan, car, insurance etc). Some other expenses will be for entertaining purpose ( at least for a movie per month), clothing( for some people this is a necessity), etc. Oops, it means WITH A FULL TANK OF FUEL, I HAVE TO EMPTY MY WALLET?! I got nothing more left for savings, don’t even talk about buying mutual funds or other investments that look attractive…” The conclusion is “Tak boleh tahan”(cannot take it).
…For me, the recent fuel price hike is not all bad. After the fuel price hike, some of us are using motorcycles instead of cars. Some might choose car pooling. It is noticeable that people are switching to public transport, especially Lrt or commuter. I am very happy to see this. Other than being economical, people are actually doing good to our environment. With lesser cars outside, we are in a way of reducing the contribution to air pollution and green house effect.
The hike in the price of oil has successfully done what environmentalists have been trying to do for years@ decades : forced the Government as well as the public to seriously consider public transportation options. Shall we have a feast?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
FROM EGO TO ECO-FEW STEPS TO A GREENER LIFE
LOOKING FOR TIPS FOR SIMPLE ECO-LIVING?...there are some as below...
Update
You can buy low energy lamps anywhere. They last much more longer that they are no more expensive than the old ones.
Turn it off
Lights in empty rooms, computers you aren’t using, televisions blaring into the void…all you have to do is press a button.
Full loads
Don’t run a load of laundry or dishes until the machine is full.
Brush dry
Do you really have to run the water while you brush your teeth?
STOP AND THINK
stop and think , do you really need it??
write to your favourite brands
write to them telling that you want organic cotton and sustainable materials and you're not buying anymore until they switch.
Unplug your phone charger
take an initiative to unplug your hp charger after changing (so as to save electricity).
Encore!
Recycle, recycle and recycle…
Update
You can buy low energy lamps anywhere. They last much more longer that they are no more expensive than the old ones.
Turn it off
Lights in empty rooms, computers you aren’t using, televisions blaring into the void…all you have to do is press a button.
Full loads
Don’t run a load of laundry or dishes until the machine is full.
Brush dry
Do you really have to run the water while you brush your teeth?
STOP AND THINK
stop and think , do you really need it??
write to your favourite brands
write to them telling that you want organic cotton and sustainable materials and you're not buying anymore until they switch.
Unplug your phone charger
take an initiative to unplug your hp charger after changing (so as to save electricity).
Encore!
Recycle, recycle and recycle…
WHO CARES?
Environmentally friendly consumption and ethical shopping are hot topics. But we still drive our cars and bottles in the rubbish bin. H&M Magazine looks at the difference between what we do and what we say we do.
WORDS madelaine levy
Did you drive to work this morning too? Did breakfast include a mango from opposite side of the earth? Were you listening to pirated music during the drive? Once you got to work, did you book a city break for next autumn? Or did you decide against it because you just came back from a holiday in a faraway country where working condition in the tourist industry were a little dodgy?
Why? didn’t you read that newspaper that you threw in the rubbish instead of the recycling bin? Did you miss the latest news about melting glaciers? Did you miss the story on the fair- trade tourism? Or musician’s manifesto against file-sharing? Of course you did but still…
If you missed the green, consumption-critical, fair trade memo in the recent years, well that’s not so good. But in your defence, you’re not alone. Far from it.
Many powerful forces are currently pushing us to change our lives. In the media, from the political rostrum, even in adverts and marketing material, we keep hearing the same message we’re destroying the earth. People are starving because of war and injustice, not because of a shortage of food. Musicians and filmmakers need to be able to make a living. It’s responsibility of everyone- both industry and individual.
When the archaeologists of the future read today newspapers, policy documents and non-fiction book, they will see an image of a 21st century person who is an anxious, aware, responsible, tolerant activist. That’s what they will see, right up until they dig into our mountains of refuse and burrow deeper into our databases.Because the fact is that surprisingly many people do exactly what you do- think committed ( environmentally friendly, fair, tolerant, etc.) but actually in a way that directly contradicts their own principles. The transportation sector already accounts for 19 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions, yet the auto industry keep growing. The meat industry already accounts for 11 percent of human-caused emission of greenhouse gases, yet the most utopian scientists expect us all to vegetarian in the foreseeable future.
In a recent study of the travel industry, 14 percent of respondents said they would consider paying the emission credits- but 50 percent were prepared to pay extra for more leg room.
So what’s wrong with us? Why do we do this? Don’t we care that the earth is breaking down? Don’t we want musicians to be able to make a living? Do we like it that working conditions in certain industries are subpar?
Maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem. According to Ewa Piwowoz-hjort, a Stockholm psychologist, such contradictory behavior may result from our tendency to shy away from things that seem frightening or ominous. We defend ourselves by holding information at arm’s length or thinking, ‘it won’t happen to me.’ She compares it to smoking. Everyone knows it’s bad for you, wet many still smoke.
Many studies have shown that there is a difference between attitude and behaviour. Changing behaviour usually takes more than just information. We have to process the information somehow, make it our own. That raises our motivation and probability of change.
For Sarah Rabia, a trend analyst at The Future Laboratory in London, the difference between what we ought to do and what actually do is always a matter of time. we simply haven’t started yet.
I wouldn’t say it is a longer process than most people think generally. The trickle down from opinion-formers to the mass market can take years. At the moment being green is very fashionable, very expensive and very media-driven but this will change. It will stop being fashionable and serious work can begin.
Ever since she appeared in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling the tipping point, Sheene Iyengar has been one of the United States’ best-known social psychologists. Her research shows how group pressure influence our choices. In the telephone interview from her office in New York, she says New York didn’t need a smoking ban. If smokers were portrayed sufficiently negatively, everyone would quit:
-what works is measuring people’s performance and making it visible to others. If you come up with a way making it obvious to everyone in the street which households aren’t sorting their waste, and making that a very shameful thing, people will recycle more.
This is where celebrities come in. celebrities are busy trying to change our attitudes. A recent example is Leornado DiCarpio. In the 11th Hour, a documentary he produced and narrates, he shows how serious the state of environment is.
Many of us will probably find it easier –and much sexier –to recycle cans and bottles if we can do it with the image of Leo in mind.
In the seventies, saving the forests was cool. In the nineties, it was trendy to be an activist. Conscientious consumption trends come and go. Regarding all of it as hype- a bubble of interest that will eventually pop-may be a way of justifying buying bottles water or downloading a series from a file-sharing site.
And it’s expensive to consume with an untroubled conscience, too. not to mention complicated, -if I buy organic fair-trade fruit that has been shipped by air from Argentina to Sweden, am I doing a good thing or not?
And what about fashion? A few years ago, designers and celebrities suddenly started protesting against furs. Walking around with dead body around your neck was totally wrong. Now the fashion industry is managing to make even more money selling furs produced in ‘humane’ methods.
All of this can be a reason for doing nothing at all. But it’s not much of an excuse. The experts agree that this time the commitment is going to last.
Three of four trend analysts interviewed for a Bon Magazine article earlier this year believed the eco-trend would last. Sarah Rabia of The Future Laboratory believes the authorities will soon get involved.
-recycling will eventually become mandatory. And I can see tax breaks for people who consume less. Bradley Quinn is a fashion writer and author who wrote a UN report on textile and disaster aid. He doesn’t believe in empty slogan, but he is sure that a fashion is well on its way to a fundamental transformation.
The trend will last, because sustainability has taken hold n architecture product design, travel and food. For example, one of the fastest growing fashion in US is green clothes for children.
For this book ultramaterials, Quinn interviewed people at the companies operating behind the scenes.
-the companies the fashion industry buys dyes and processes from are now producing sustainable products.
The fashion manufacturers may never change the way they produce, but companies like DuPont will make sure that the manufacturers only have green chemicals to use. Once the old products are taken off the market, fashion will become green by default.
So there’s good news from the experts. We are not so lazy, evil and stupid after all. We’re just a little lacking in motivation and a little slow off the starting line. But good reasons exist to consume and live with awareness of the needs of the environment, animals and other people. This time, it looks like the trend will last. That means we will end up having all the time, information and help we need. And a genuine chance to improve the lives of ourselves and others.
WORDS madelaine levy
Did you drive to work this morning too? Did breakfast include a mango from opposite side of the earth? Were you listening to pirated music during the drive? Once you got to work, did you book a city break for next autumn? Or did you decide against it because you just came back from a holiday in a faraway country where working condition in the tourist industry were a little dodgy?
Why? didn’t you read that newspaper that you threw in the rubbish instead of the recycling bin? Did you miss the latest news about melting glaciers? Did you miss the story on the fair- trade tourism? Or musician’s manifesto against file-sharing? Of course you did but still…
If you missed the green, consumption-critical, fair trade memo in the recent years, well that’s not so good. But in your defence, you’re not alone. Far from it.
Many powerful forces are currently pushing us to change our lives. In the media, from the political rostrum, even in adverts and marketing material, we keep hearing the same message we’re destroying the earth. People are starving because of war and injustice, not because of a shortage of food. Musicians and filmmakers need to be able to make a living. It’s responsibility of everyone- both industry and individual.
When the archaeologists of the future read today newspapers, policy documents and non-fiction book, they will see an image of a 21st century person who is an anxious, aware, responsible, tolerant activist. That’s what they will see, right up until they dig into our mountains of refuse and burrow deeper into our databases.Because the fact is that surprisingly many people do exactly what you do- think committed ( environmentally friendly, fair, tolerant, etc.) but actually in a way that directly contradicts their own principles. The transportation sector already accounts for 19 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions, yet the auto industry keep growing. The meat industry already accounts for 11 percent of human-caused emission of greenhouse gases, yet the most utopian scientists expect us all to vegetarian in the foreseeable future.
In a recent study of the travel industry, 14 percent of respondents said they would consider paying the emission credits- but 50 percent were prepared to pay extra for more leg room.
So what’s wrong with us? Why do we do this? Don’t we care that the earth is breaking down? Don’t we want musicians to be able to make a living? Do we like it that working conditions in certain industries are subpar?
Maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem. According to Ewa Piwowoz-hjort, a Stockholm psychologist, such contradictory behavior may result from our tendency to shy away from things that seem frightening or ominous. We defend ourselves by holding information at arm’s length or thinking, ‘it won’t happen to me.’ She compares it to smoking. Everyone knows it’s bad for you, wet many still smoke.
Many studies have shown that there is a difference between attitude and behaviour. Changing behaviour usually takes more than just information. We have to process the information somehow, make it our own. That raises our motivation and probability of change.
For Sarah Rabia, a trend analyst at The Future Laboratory in London, the difference between what we ought to do and what actually do is always a matter of time. we simply haven’t started yet.
I wouldn’t say it is a longer process than most people think generally. The trickle down from opinion-formers to the mass market can take years. At the moment being green is very fashionable, very expensive and very media-driven but this will change. It will stop being fashionable and serious work can begin.
Ever since she appeared in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling the tipping point, Sheene Iyengar has been one of the United States’ best-known social psychologists. Her research shows how group pressure influence our choices. In the telephone interview from her office in New York, she says New York didn’t need a smoking ban. If smokers were portrayed sufficiently negatively, everyone would quit:
-what works is measuring people’s performance and making it visible to others. If you come up with a way making it obvious to everyone in the street which households aren’t sorting their waste, and making that a very shameful thing, people will recycle more.
This is where celebrities come in. celebrities are busy trying to change our attitudes. A recent example is Leornado DiCarpio. In the 11th Hour, a documentary he produced and narrates, he shows how serious the state of environment is.
Many of us will probably find it easier –and much sexier –to recycle cans and bottles if we can do it with the image of Leo in mind.
In the seventies, saving the forests was cool. In the nineties, it was trendy to be an activist. Conscientious consumption trends come and go. Regarding all of it as hype- a bubble of interest that will eventually pop-may be a way of justifying buying bottles water or downloading a series from a file-sharing site.
And it’s expensive to consume with an untroubled conscience, too. not to mention complicated, -if I buy organic fair-trade fruit that has been shipped by air from Argentina to Sweden, am I doing a good thing or not?
And what about fashion? A few years ago, designers and celebrities suddenly started protesting against furs. Walking around with dead body around your neck was totally wrong. Now the fashion industry is managing to make even more money selling furs produced in ‘humane’ methods.
All of this can be a reason for doing nothing at all. But it’s not much of an excuse. The experts agree that this time the commitment is going to last.
Three of four trend analysts interviewed for a Bon Magazine article earlier this year believed the eco-trend would last. Sarah Rabia of The Future Laboratory believes the authorities will soon get involved.
-recycling will eventually become mandatory. And I can see tax breaks for people who consume less. Bradley Quinn is a fashion writer and author who wrote a UN report on textile and disaster aid. He doesn’t believe in empty slogan, but he is sure that a fashion is well on its way to a fundamental transformation.
The trend will last, because sustainability has taken hold n architecture product design, travel and food. For example, one of the fastest growing fashion in US is green clothes for children.
For this book ultramaterials, Quinn interviewed people at the companies operating behind the scenes.
-the companies the fashion industry buys dyes and processes from are now producing sustainable products.
The fashion manufacturers may never change the way they produce, but companies like DuPont will make sure that the manufacturers only have green chemicals to use. Once the old products are taken off the market, fashion will become green by default.
So there’s good news from the experts. We are not so lazy, evil and stupid after all. We’re just a little lacking in motivation and a little slow off the starting line. But good reasons exist to consume and live with awareness of the needs of the environment, animals and other people. This time, it looks like the trend will last. That means we will end up having all the time, information and help we need. And a genuine chance to improve the lives of ourselves and others.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Top spinning
Wonder why,it comes to times I feel helpless ,hopeless...
I can't catch what am i thinking,it's vague.
It's just a feeling of unsecured,depressed or even upset.
for no reason? or for too many reasons?? It's vague too.
I am not good at expressing it , perhaps i call it emotional...
At this moment I find myself is just a top, spinning around the same place. hoping some one else to stop me from spinning...
If no one comes, it's fine.
After all, I am just a top.
I can't catch what am i thinking,it's vague.
It's just a feeling of unsecured,depressed or even upset.
for no reason? or for too many reasons?? It's vague too.
I am not good at expressing it , perhaps i call it emotional...
At this moment I find myself is just a top, spinning around the same place. hoping some one else to stop me from spinning...
If no one comes, it's fine.
After all, I am just a top.
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