Last week the Great NEWS blog post Sustainable Solutions and Suggestions for Earth Day and today offers Great NEWS Subscriber Solutions and Suggestions for Earth Day. This topic could easily fill an entire book with great suggestions and solutions to help all of us celebrate the importance of Earth Day. The more green and sustainable each one of us lives each day the faster we can help restore our troubled planet. This article contains more easy ideas for Subscriber Sustainable Solutions and Suggestions for Earth Day.
To follow up on the theme of being great green gals and great green guys as super supporters of Earth Day we must each look within to see what each one of us can do to make a difference. Once you have the desire and determination to be part of the sustainable solutions instead of the pollution problems it is time to take action.
Saving on Transportation to Changing Habits
The following suggestions are simple solutions that any family or individual can easily implement to help create sustainable solutions for earth day:
Riding the bus, train, tram or tube is a great way to safe fuel and support public mass transportation. There are too many suburban areas and inefficient vehicles on the US roads and highways burning millions of gallons of fuel and producing tons of pollution in our air, land and water systems. The universe provides rewards for efficiency and punishment for inefficient. Do you want the carrot or the stick? When will we wake up and stop the insanity and unnecessary punishment from ecological destruction and environmental pollution?
Riding a bicycle and walking are both great exercise and helps on short trips to prevent pollution and parking problems. Many Asian and European countries are world leaders in human powered mobility. Have you seen the new self propelled and rechargeable bicycle yet? Millions are being sold around theworld.
Locally grown and naturally cultured foods are a great way to eat healthier, reduce energy use and store foods without refrigeration. Sauerkraut, Kim chee, pickles and miso are some of the many examples of super healthy cultured foods that provide many benefits.
Using natural fabrics like bamboo, hemp, linen, silk and wool are great ways to be more ecologically and environmentally friendly. These natural fabrics require no chemicals and less water to produce. Bamboo and hemp grow like weeds without much labor and even in poor soils so they are the super champs of sustainable fabrics. Organic cotton can be another good choice but requires excessive water, machinery and labor.
Build your house with light colors or use reflective finishes and materials to minimize the absorption of heating Ultra violet (UV) rays.
Using local and sustainable materials like adobe, bale, bamboo, clay, rock, tile or wood for floors and walls whenever possible makes great sense.
Use recycled materials and super efficient designs for buildings and homes whenever possible.
Reduce the excessive waste from large homes that require excessive heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. Those high utility bills will continue to increase over time and add up to a fortune over your lifetime.
Architects and builders need to be creative and resourceful when designing apartments, condos, homes and offices. Prairie homes were made with part of the house underground and a sod roof. When we shift from fewer single family homes on larger separate lots that are more isolated and thus depended on cars to more sustainable homes built for consolidated communities with more amenities, greater efficiencies and more community sharing of accessibility to necessities we will discover massive benefits from efficiency design and energy savings.
Waterless urinals in public restrooms are great for saving water. Bio-digesters and composting toilets which capture methane are great ways to reduce the pollution from manure and waste matter which is overloading our waste water treatment facilities and dumping massive waste into our waterways.
Excess water consumption and shortages are some of the biggest risks to our way of life now and will be getting even worse in the future. Agriculture often uses some of the best quality water from springs and wells for animals and irrigation and humans end up drinking someone else’s recycled waste water. The purest water should be for human use and recycled water used for animals and crops.
A Hand Crank Conversion for Off Grid
Having a hand crank juicer or food shredder is a great way to save energy and is very useful when the power goes out. Black and brown outs are predicted to be much more common in the future due to many electric grid deficiencies and issues.
Have a meatless meal on Monday and other days to reduce the global impact from Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFO)
Avoid any GMO corn, soy, canola, cotton and sugar beets since these crops are grown using large amounts of herbicides which are very toxic and have been found to cause birth defects and cancer.
Be sure you fully power off your appliances, coffee pots, computers, lights, surge protectors and TVs when not in use. Phantom electricity wastes a lot more power than most people realize
Avoid gasoline powered edger’s and leaf blowers when possible. Use a rechargeable battery powered one instead.
Use LED lights when feasible. Avoid Compact Florescent Lights (CFL) because they contain mercury. If broken they release a toxic cloud of mercury gas that should be treated as a hazardous material release and requires decontamination for safety reasons. Turn off lights when they are not needed.
Use a hand held rechargeable flashlight or plug in rechargeable flashlight to avoid using normal batteries which usually end up in city landfills.
Look into hand crank chargers or portable solar panels to recharge book readers, cell phones, ipods, ipads and other portable electronic devices. Even using your car chargers while driving to power electronic devices and recharge them as well saves energy.
Have you seen the night lights powered by solar panels?
Light color vehicles such as white, silver, sand, gold and beige are much less inclined to heat up excessively in the summer than a dark colored one such as black, brown, dark green, or blue. Dark vehicles get hotter and take more AC to cool down which reduces fuel efficiency. It all adds up to a lot of wasted fuel when multiplied by millions of dark vehicles.
Big trucks, pickup trucks, SUV’s are mostly exempt from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fuel efficiency standards and therefore continue to be much less fuel efficient than other vehicles. Closed pickup truck tailgates act like a giant parachute resisting the aerodynamic air flow and wasting fuel in the process.
Diesel engines create minute particulate pollution which has been found to be very harmful to humans. It also lasts longer in the air.
Did you know that most cruise ships, fishing boats, military vessels and transport ships dump their trash and waste at sea? This is totally unacceptable.
Have you checked out the new human powered vehicles which can transport up to 4 adults and give the passengers the benefits of exercise as they power the self propelled crank system.
Avoid electric powered exercise equipment such as stair steppers, and treadmills which are very high risk for causing injuries and waste electricity while you exercise and then when they sit idol. Gyms waste a lot of electricity for air conditioners to cool the facility from all the heat generated by the electric equipment.
When you travel at night you can easily see all the wasted electricity in the cities from billboards, buildings, signs, street lighting and stores. Our creator gave us day and night for a reason and it seems unlikely it was intended for us to waste energy trying to turn the night back into day with excess lighting. Light pollution is a real problem and people are staying up late at night and harming their health in the process.
Have you ever been in a grocery store or giant warehouse store that felt like a refrigerator? Many stores have wide open doors and open coolers and refrigeration units without doors that crank out cold air day and night. Oversized packaging of items usually takes up more space than is needed and this causes excess energy wastage. Bulky packaging is a massive waste of energy through out the whole product cycle.
Many homes in the US are poorly constructed and too big for sustainable living. They require large Air Conditioning (AC) and heating units which require a lot of energy to run. These same homes often allow the unit to run day and night to keep the air too cool or too warm even when no one is home during the day. The simple solution is smaller and more efficient homes that are equipped with programmable smart thermostats set for lifestyle and zone usage. Homes can be designed and equipped for zone cooling or heating as needed versus the entire house.
Big refrigerators, freezers and clothes dryers also consume a lot of energy and can really heat up homes in the warmer months which requires even more cooling. Attics and AC ducting often become very hot and cause hot air to enter the house or office before the cool air is delivered. Who in their sane mind would design a house with ducting in the attic where it is very inefficient?
Railroads are much more efficient for hauling freight yet in the US the majority of goods travel by tractor trailer rigs on highways and waste a lot of fuel. Buying local would save a lot of energy and using trains for people and goods would save lots of fuel and money. Overnight shipping and short jet trips waste a lot of fuel. Buses and trains are much more cost and fuel efficient.
Plastic bags and bottles waste fossil fuel and often end up in landfills or polluting the environment. Use recycled and reusable bags and non plastic bottles instead. All aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass containers should have a return deposit to encourage, reinforce and reward recycling.
Remember to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose. Every little bit multiplied by billions of people adds up to massive energy savings.
Using Common Sense
Common sense Subscriber Solutions and Suggestions for Earth Day and every day help us realize it is all a matter of mindset. Many people are being brainwashed to be over consumers. While it can seem extra difficult to start being more green and sustainable it is much easier when you see, hear and fell the damage being done to our precious air, land and water resources we all depend on for our quality of life.
We must focus on cooperation and collaboration instead of excess competition and consumption. We can learn from the countries that have taken a global leadership role. It is obvious that the US and many other countries must increase their commitment to being much more green and sustainable in all areas of life. When we commit to Sustainable Solutions and Suggestions for Earth Day we can do anything necessary to save our planet.
Earth Day and every day is the perfect day to focus on solutions and suggestions for social consciousness and sustainable living. How many more solutions and suggestions can you design and put into action? How will you celebrate Earth Day and help spread this extremely vital message? Thanks to all the readers for each and every baby step or big step you take toward protecting our world from furhter harm and restoring our ecosystems for future generations. You are greatly appreciated.
Mastery Action Plan
The Story of Stuff is a short documentary style video suitable for the entire family. It really shares a profound message about the complexity of our choices and the consequences of those choices. After the video would be a great time to discuss with the family the key points and then decide on the family consciousness, identity and values that are most important. Then it is easier when it comes to walking the talk and being congruent.
To watch now, click > The Story of Stuff Movie
Watch the Movie
[youtube url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM]
Be sure to share it on Facebook, Google + and other social media sites to help spread the great news.
Our next Great NEWS blog post will share: Health and Beauty Suggestions for Spring
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