What You Can Do!

50 Tips to Help Climate Change

The Biggest threat to Climate change is the emission of CO² into the air. Here are some useful tips on how to reduce the release of CO² into the air, cutback on energy use, save money and help save our planet!

1. Car Pool to School or Work or use Public Transportation.
2. Bike or Walk instead of driving somewhere it helps the environment and is great exercise!
3. Buy a Hybrid car when you’re looking for that next big purchase.
4. Use bio-fuels in your car Bio-fuels are produced from crops such as oil seed rape or sugar beet, and burning them produces lower emissions of climate-changing gases.
5. Make sure tires are fully inflated. Under-inflated car tires cause your car to have greater fuel consumption.
6. Change your air filter regularly.
7. Support your small town community by purchasing local and organic foods. This will cut down on energy, money and fuel used to transport products from around the world.
8. Recycle aluminum, by recycling one aluminum drink can is enough energy to run your TV for 3 hours.
9. Turn the thermostat down by just two degrees in the winter and up 2 degrees in the summer can save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year as well as money on your electric bill.
10. Keep your heat off while no one is at home, or set a timer so it shuts off before you leave and right before you come home.
11. Use thicker curtains to keep in heat and close them right before the sun sets.
12. Turn your lights off when leaving a room!
13. Use compact florescent light bulbs. They use less electricity and last much longer!
14. Unplug cell phones and other chargers once electronic devices are fully charged.
15. Keep fridge and freezer doors closed as often as possible. This can also help you to loose those extra pounds put on during the holidays.
16. Pressure cookers and steamers use a lot less energy and also are very healthy method to use while cooking.
17. Only use washing Machine and dish washer when there is a full load.
18. Avoid using dryers as often as possible. During the summer hang the clothes out on a clothes line.
19. Print Wisely! Think twice before clicking the print button while at the office or in class.
20. Make sure all house hold appliances and office equipment is unplugged when not in use. Even if electrical equipment is switched off it still is using energy when plugged in.
21. Use solar panels and other renewable energy sources.
22. Teleconference instead of flying and paying for travel costs.
23. Remember to recycle and try and use more recycled products such as recycled paper.
24. Plant Trees
25. Use Less Hot Water for heating water uses a lot of energy or switch to a tankless water heater. It can save you up to $390 in heating bills per year.
26. Make sure water heater does not exceed 120 degrees and insulate it.
27. Change your shower head to a low flow shower head.
28. Avoid products with a lot of packaging for this will cut down on the amount of garbage you produce per year.
29. Use energy star qualified products such as dishwasher, washing machine, dryer etc.
30. Use a push mower when cutting the grass. This consumes no fossil fuels therefore it does not emit greenhouse gases.
31. Make sure walls are insulated in your home. Making sure lofts and the upper floors of a house are insulated properly will keep the house much warmer during the winter.
32. Switch to windows that are double- pane, this will also help keep the heat in during those cold winter months.
33. Make sure doorways and windows are properly caulked and weatherproofed.
34. Replace old electronics with new energy efficient ones.
35. Buy large size/quantity products to avoid excess packaging.
36. Use reusable grocery bags rather than continuously using the plastic bags at the store.
37. An average American diet contributes about 1.5 tons of green house gasses per year. You can help reduce this by removing meat and dairy products from your diet one day a week.
38. Don’t idle your car. You can also turn off your engine if you are waiting for more than 30 seconds to help cut down on the toxic fuel emissions from your car.
39. Buy a fuel efficient car.
40. Change your air conditioning filter as recommended.
41. Heat your water using your stove rather than a microwave.
42. Install low flow sink faucets in your bathrooms and kitchen areas.
43. Drive less aggressively.
44. Try and drive 10 miles less per week.
45. Use reusable mugs for coffee instead of Styrofoam cups.
46. Use washable dishes and silverware when having a party.
47. Buy some vintage instead of new clothes from the mall.
48. Take showers instead of baths.
49. Buy Carbon offsets for what you can’t reduce.

Resources:

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/50_climate_top_tips.pdf

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/index.html

http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/ http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_actionitems.asp

http://green.yahoo.com/pledge/create

-Amanda Bussett, Ithaca College Student

Smallness...

Did you ever hear about the hypothesis that a butterfly beating its wings could create a storm across the globe? The story goes that should something as small as a butterfly beat its wings at one location on the earth, the small wind that it would create would eventually travel and grow and begin a thunderstorm, or a hurricane, or a tornado somewhere else. This is one of my favorite analogies because it tells of what one small action can impact down the road.

This entire project has been an excellent learning experience. From all of the work that goes into a museum display to all of the things we can do to affect climate change, it has been an eye-opener. It was interesting to learn that many of the things that we can do to work on the climate change problem are things that will save households money in the long run.

Have you ever read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss? It is a story of the Once-ler, who comes to a forest of Truffula trees and sees the things he can make with them rather than the life that lives there. When he cuts down the first tree, out pops the Lorax, who tries to tell him that the forest is the home of many things and should not be cut down. The Once-ler does not listen, and cuts down more and more of the trees to create a product that sells and sells. The Lorax begins to send the animals of the forest away as the trees are cut down, until the Once-ler finally cuts down the last tree and the Lorax is the only one left. He leaves sadly, but the end of the story leaves the reader with hope that he will come back. The Once-ler has one single Truffula seed left, and he gives it to a boy to plant.

One of my favorite quotes from that book is the following:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

When you think about that quote, it really does sum up everything that we have been trying to convey with this exhibit. Unless we care enough to do something, nothing will happen, because we are the only ones. Throughout this semester, this has hit home again and again. If we were not to do something, who would? Who would go out and start recycling if we won’t? Who would pass resolutions to slow or halt the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? Who would challenge others to do something? Who would start caring enough to go and be a guide to the world if we won’t?

Ghandi said that we must be the change we want to see in the world. So we know what to do now. There really is nothing stopping us. The studies have been done, reviewed, and explained to the world. Experiments have been created, performed, and researched. The tools are in our hands; it’s just time to use them.

So the next time you go to the grocery store, ask if they have reusable bags you can purchase. Think of all the plastic that won’t be used! Think of the space in your home that you’ll have now that you don’t have to deal with the bags hanging around. Think of how much smaller the landfills would be without all that plastic. Going to a workout or a sports game? Reuse a plastic bottle for water (or better yet, get a bottle made to be washed!) instead of buying a bottle when you get there. Need to replace an appliance? Get an EnergyStar certified one! They don’t cost any more, but they save you money on your bills, and therefore cut down on energy consumption. That’s pretty good, two for one. Talk about more bang for your buck. And those light bulbs that your environmentally-conscious friend has been bugging you to change? Do it! And don’t forget to turn out the light when you leave the room. Saves you money and saves energy, too.

We’ve made a pretty good start. So we’re off the starting line, and we’re on the move. Time to catch up to the problems that we’ve watched build and settle in to a faster pace because we’ve got a long race ahead of us. Start small if you have to. It will build in time, until finally we can all start taking those bigger steps together. Almost like a three-legged race. If we don’t start small, often we collapse. But once we’ve got the rhythm, we can speed up and get somewhere.

John Donne wrote that no man is an island. We are all in this together. And if I don’t do a little something and you don’t do a little something, we will have nothing. So the next time you have the chance to do something, whether it be as small as turning out the light when you leave the room or as large as passing legislation to help fix the problem that mankind has created with climate change, do it. We only go through this life once; we may never have the opportunity again.

I’m going to be doing something. Because I can. Because I care.

Will you?

Laura Santamaria- Cornell University Student

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
~William Shakespeare

You Can Make a Difference...

One thing I’ve repetitively found since I’ve started this project and have been sharing my findings with my friends is that many people believe that they can’t make a difference. It made me wonder a lot about how much difference one person can make and if all individual attempts are going to be futile until large corporations find it fiscally beneficial to become environmentally friendly.

Well, a few weeks ago I was at work and was talking to a friend who was nay saying the power of individual choice. I work in a restaurant that is currently using Styrofoam containers to give people their to go food in. By the end of the day it adds up how much is used, and as my friend and I were chatting I thought about the Styrofoam and thought I would say something to the owners to see if we could use something a little more environmentally friendly.

When I asked the owner he said that he was already looking into something else only he was having a hard time getting it from our food distributor. He said that they didn’t offer many environmentally friendly options, but they were planning on soon because of the requests they’ve been getting. I asked him what made him decide to switch and he told me that there were a couple of customers over the past few months that asked if there were something besides the Styrofoam to take their leftovers in. He said that it was the right thing to do for the environment, and also he didn’t want to lose any business because of it. Though it may cost a few more cents to get better containers, the money would be easily compensated by the fact that they wouldn’t lose any customers.

I was really happy to see hear this and I’m glad my friend did too because it showed that just a couple of people can make a change in the practices of a business. Then, after a few businesses start putting pressure on suppliers, the practices of suppliers change. This then presents options to businesses that may not have even considered using less pollutant, recyclable materials.

The few people that mentioned something to one restaurant may not have known that they helped to start such a ripple, but they did and I think that it is a great example of how consumers as individuals in a capitalistic society can affect the practices of larger companies and corporations and help to make noticeable changes in the world.

A few days later my friend told me that she went out and bought reusable grocery bags, inspired no doubt by the few people who simply asked about an alternative to Styrofoam.

-Michael R. Johnson, Cornell University Student