CLS eBook 17 - Hot Tips for Recycling Plus 101 Hot Tips to Smash the Greenhouse Effect
Ask Yourself. Am I Present? Awaken the Observer and Come Present to Now.
With great gratitude, appreciation and praise we welcome you to the creation space of self love, courage, inspiration and the peace of mind that comes from gently balancing and lowering your brainwaves.
Listening to this ALPHA wave will assist you in creating a transformative meditative state, that will quiet your mind, relieve tension in your body, soothe your spirit, and help you remember how good it feels to be fully present in this beautiful moment of now.
Listen to this ALPHA brainwave as you study the following lesson.
Recycle!
Good For Our Economy
American companies rely on recycling programs to provide the raw materials they need to make new products.
Creates Jobs
Recycling in the U.S. is a $236 billion a year industry. More than 56,000 recycling and reuse enterprises employ 1.1 million workers nationwide.
Reduces Waste
The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. Most of this garbage goes into to landfills, where it's compacted and buried.
Good For The Environment
Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills.
Saves Energy
Recycling offers significant energy savings over manufacturing with virgin materials. (Manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95% less energy.)
Preserves Landfill Space
No one wants to live next door to a landfill. Recycling preserves existing landfill space.
Prevents Global Warming
In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the unit of measure for greenhouse gases) into the air.
Reduces Water Pollution
Making goods from recycled materials generates far less water pollution than manufacturing from virgin materials.
Protects Wildlife
Using recycled materials reduces the need to damage forests, wetlands, rivers and other places essential to wildlife.
Creates New Demand
Recycling and buying recycled products creates demand for more recycled products, decreasing waste and helping our economy.
101 Hot Tips to Smash the Greenhouse Effect
It’s official. The world’s top scientists now agree that global warming has already started. The United Nations predicts increases in sea level, with floods in some areas, and droughts in others, while hurricanes are becoming more powerful and frequent, as seen with the recent Hurricane Katrina in America. The ice-caps are starting to melt, and glaciers around the world are in rapid retreat.
Millions of people will lose their homes in major climate changes. There will be famine. Agriculture will be severely affected by temperature and rainfall changes, and the spread of diseases. Many wildlife species will become extinct as they will be unable to adapt to the pace of change.
The Greenhouse Effect is a natural process whereby atmospheric gases trap some of the sun’s heat. Over four billion years, this has maintained a relative stable temperature. Now, by artificially increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we are overheating the Earth. The last decade has seen some of the hottest years ever recorded.
The main greenhouse that everyone talks about is carbon dioxide (CO2). It is released when forests are cut down. Rainforests are being destroyed by developing countries who sell timber to repay debts to our banks. They are also cleared for cattle ranches, soya and palm oil plantations, and by poor people seeking land. Our own use of electricity, luxury goods and cars pump out masses of carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels of coal, gas and oil laid down over millions of years.
Methane (CH4) is 30 times as powerful as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and is released by supply pipes, mines, decomposing rubbish, paddy fields, belching cattle, and perhaps most disturbingly, by the ground, as permafrost in the Arctic tundra starts to melt.
Nitrous oxide (NO2) is 150 times as powerful as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and is released by the use of fossil fuels and nitrate fertilizers.
Ozone (O3) is beneficial when high in the atmosphere, where it filters out harmful ultraviolet light. However at lower levels, when produced by vehicle exhausts, it is a harmful pollutant, 300 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. Unfortunately it doesn’t rise up to mend the hole in the ozone layer!
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are artificial gases which are destroying the ozone layer, and are also 10,000 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. They are used in fridges, air-conditioning, plastic foams, medical sterilants, and dry-cleaning and computer solvents, although their use is becoming regulated by international treaties.
So here are some practical tips about things we can all do to reduce our contribution to global warming.
HOME
There’s no place like home, and since it is where we spend much of our lives, it is a good place to start.
Turn it down, leave it out, turn it off! Using less energy is the golden rule.
Heating - Keep heating to a minimum and wear warmer clothes. You will save money as well as energy.
Insulation – Double-glazing, cavity wall insulation, draught-proofing, loft insulation, and lagging hot water tanks and pipes all save energy in the long term.
Lighting – Turn off lights when you leave a room. Use side lamps and low energy bulbs.
Appliances – Avoid buying unnecessary electrical goods and if you do buy them choose energy-efficient ones. When not use, switch them right off rather than leave them on standby.
Washing – Showers use less water than baths. Soak stained clothes before you wash them, and avoid using a tumble drier – hang them out – it’s free! Only iron when absolutely necessary. Wash up rather than use a dishwasher, and rinse with cold water.
Food – Salads and raw food save energy and are healthy.
Hot Air – Reduce meat consumption. Livestock produce massive amounts of methane, and use up valuable protein and land. Cut down on rice too. Paddy fields also produce a lot of methane.
Eat in season – Buy local food that is in season. “Food miles” from transporting exotic foods around the planet are wasteful.
Cooking – Sharing meals saves energy and makes friends! Don’t boil more water than you need, and use the minimum number of rings possible. Most vegetables can be cooked in together.
Breakfast – Have cereal or bread rather than toast.
Drinks – cut down on hot drinks and drink tap water. It’s much healthier.
Grow your own – This saves energy used in transport, and also saves money, particularly if you prefer organic food.
Gardening – start your own compost heap. This helps with recycling, and can replace peat. The transport of peat uses energy, as does its extraction, which destroys wildlife habitats.
Money matters – Find out more about ethical investment, to make sure that your savings, loans, pension and insurance policies are with companies that use your money responsibly.
WORK
Not everyone works, but those that do are in the front line of the struggle to limit global warming.
Be a waste watcher – As at home, turn off unwanted lights, and turn down the heat. Just a few waste watchers in a large building can save a lot of energy. Some firms even have “Environmental Champions” for this purpose.
Save waste and recycle. Encourage the use of recycled paper, preferably made from post-consumer waste. Try and get your employer to recycle as much as possible.
Transport – Encourage car-sharing and the use of a car pool. Better still, company bikes are the new fashion, and public transport is far less polluting than a car.
Purchasing – Don’t buy furniture or other goods made from tropical hardwoods from the rainforests.
Trade unions – get your representative to encourage sound practices in your workplace and nationally.
Eco-groups – Try setting up your own environmental group at work to spread the message, get new ideas, and make friends.
Audits – See if you can persuade your employer to carry out an environmental audit. This highlights areas for improvement, and encourages awareness.
TRAVEL
Go slow! The first rule of environmentally sound travel is to slow down, not just when driving but in our whole lifestyles.
Travel less – Half the problem is that we travel too much. It may broaden the mind but it uses a lot of energy, pollutes, and can destroy wildlife, cultures and communities.
Shanks’ pony – walking is the most environment-friendly form of travel and its healthy exercise too.
Beasts of burden - Still used in many parts of the world, vehicles drawn by animals are also “green” providing the animals are cared for.
Bike-it – Cycling is healthy, fun and pollution-free.
Go green, go public – If you have a long way to go or the weather is bad, trains and buses keep many potential car drivers off the roads, and cut pollution and congestion.
Mad Car Disease – highly contagious. Cars are a major source of greenhouse gases. Even with unleaded petrol and a catalytic converter, they give off vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Electric vehicles simply shift the point of pollution from the exhaust to the power station chimney. Cars are a luxury the planet cannot afford and are not essential to life!
Slow down- if you do use a car, choose an economic small one, fit radial tyres at the correct pressure, and drive slowly.
Car-sharing – Join a car-sharing club, or start your own.
Lorries – No-one wants juggernauts roaring through their town. Buying local produce is the best way to reduce their number.
Airplanes – These are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution. Avoid flying altogether if you possibly can.
LEISURE
Sport – most sports are healthy, fun and fine. A few, like motor sports and jet skis, are harmful to the environment.
Expose yourself to nature! Try bird-watching, or tree planting with your local environmental group.
Walking – enjoy the countryside and wildlife you are helping to save.
Dig for Victory! Vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide. Start a wildlife garden by planting native shrubs and trees. Vegetable gardening can provide cheap organic produce on your doorstep.
RECYCLING
The recycling challenge – see how little rubbish you can throw out each week.
Refuse – The key to winning the challenge is to buy less in the first place. This also saves money! Cut out unnecessary luxuries like bottled water.
Paper – only buy recycled paper, preferably made from post-consumer waste, and recycle the paper you throw out.
Glass – use a bottle bank.
Travel – Remember that driving to the recycling point defeats the point of recycling, which is mainly to save energy. Campaign for local facilities or doorstep collection if you do not already have it.
Fridges and other white goods – always choose the most energy-efficient appliance and dispose of the old one responsibly at the end of its life. Council now extract the CFC gases from old fridges.
Cans – where these need to be separated into steel and aluminium, this can be one with a magnet, and the aluminium ones are particularly good to recycle as it takes huge amount of energy to produce aluminium.
Batteries- Most batteries contain highly toxic chemicals and use far more energy than using mains electricity. Avoid buying them.
Plastic - the manufacture of plastic goods uses a lot of energy, and they are not usually biodegradable. Look for alternatives.
Bags- save old plastic bags and re-use or recycle them.
Compost – if you have a garden, start a compost heap to recycle biodegradable material.
Junk mail – Cancel much of your junk mail by writing to the Mailing Preference ervice (MPS) DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SS. Put a sticker on your door saying: “No free newspapers or circulars please.”
Packaging – refuse to buy over-packaged PLASTIC goods.
Refills – support shops that offer a refill service.
COMMUNITY ACTION
Support your local community – traveling less saves energy and binds communities together.
Libraries - It’s far better to borrow books than for every household to have to have a copy.
Laundretes – Same again. We don’t all need a washer-drier, and they are a great place to catch up on gossip.
Meals – Sharing meals with friends, relatives and neighbors saves energy, and brings people closer.
Car-pooling – Join a car-share club, or start your own to save waste and money. Car owners waste huge sums of money every year as our cars depreciate.
Local is best – Buying local produce at your local shop saves energy on transport.
Think globally, act locally – support your local environmental groups, meet like-minded people and exchange ideas.
Barter - Some areas have Local Employment and Trading Schemes (LETS) based on bartering, which help provide employment and services.
Sharing – Set up a community register of people with goods and equipment they are willing to loan out, rather than everyone having to buy their own.
Self-sufficiency – The most sustainable low-energy means of production is for local communities to provide for their own needs rather than participate in a global market.
Traffic – Motor traffic destroys communities. Picket busy roads with your local environmental group with banners and placards to persuade others to use public transport too.
Common interests – Saving the global environment can unite communities. The greenhouse effect can only be controlled if we work together.
RAIN FORESTS
Get active! – Join a rain forest action group or start your own. Rain forest destruction is one of the major factors in global warming, as the trees release vast amounts of carbon dioxide when they are burnt or cleared, and are then no longer around to absorb the gas.
Petition – Support petitions to the Government and United Nations calling on them to help stop rain forest destruction.
Donate – send a donation to the World Wide Fund for Nature, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth or another group campaigning to save the remaining rain forests.
Letters – write to the Government, the World Bank, and the United Nations about your concern.
Fund-raising – Sponsored litter collecting can raise money and serve a useful purpose.
Educate – Learn more about the rain forests and pass on the information to others.
Hardwood – Don’t buy anything made from tropical hardwood from the rainforests unless properly certified. Better still, buy things made from local timber that hasn’t been transported around the world.
Boycott – support boycotts called against shops selling rainforest timber from unsustainable sources, and don’t employ builders who use them.
Beef – Cattle ranching is a major reason for rainforests being cleared in South America.
Picket – try joining a picket of shops involved in rain forest exploitation.
POLITICS
Roots – tackle the root causes of global warming. The big decisions on structural change are taken by Governments and Multi-nationals.
Population – a controversial area, but population growth is a major factor in global warming. The answer is education and voluntary family planning.
Energy – vote for whichever party favors most renewable energy (solar, tidal, wind, and biomass). These sources do not contribute to global warming.
Research – support more research into environmental protection.
Education – If we are to save the world, everyone needs to be better informed about the tough choices to be made, and why they are needed.
Transport – Vote for the party offering most support for public transport rather than roads.
Carbon Tax – Any government serious about reducing global warming will introduce a tax on fossil fuels, and possibly a carbon rationing scheme.
Councilors – On local issues turn the heat up on your councilor!
The World Bank – The source of many loans for projects that have destroyed the rainforests. Write and complain.
British banks – many banks have made loans to developing countries which are paid back by the logging and destruction of the rainforests. Write and ask them to write off the debt. If you don’t like the answer, move your account and let them know why. The Co-operative Bank is the most ethical of our banks.
Vote – Make politicians realize that the environment is the number one issue.
Investment – find out more about where your pension, saving and insurance money are invested, and move your money if you are not satisfied, letting them know why.
Protest – Join protests and peaceful demonstrations. Picket and boycott businesses that are slow to change.
Spread the word. Spread the message to schools, clubs, work, friends, relatives, neighbors, visitors, churches, offices and factories.
Remember – Together we can limit global warming if we start now, and work together .