Ask Liz First » CO2 Emissions

My Step #3 To Combat Climate Change

Liz — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:45:00 +0000

I’m in the process of sharing my personal journey to reduce my personal carbon footprint, on the planet. I was initially inspired by reading the World Environment Day website and their Twelve Steps To Unite To Combat Climate Change.

In June, I addressed Step Number One; which was Commitment , and also, Set Number Two; which was Assess Where You Stand.* Now, it’s time to move onto Step Number 3. This is “where the rubber meets the road”, as they say.

Step Number Three is: Decide And Plan Where You Want To Go

During my assessment* in Step #2, I completed a survey on the website, One Million Acts of Green. In this process, I selected areas called “Acts of Green” that I already have done, and then Pledged to make changes in numerous other Acts. I have a lot of areas that are in the “Pledged” category still, and this is the resource that I can use to work on Step #3; Deciding and planning where I want to go.

Therefore, I will be using my uncompleted Acts of Green (or Pledges), to calculate how I am progressing on my carbon footprint reduction. I plan on referring back to my Pledges at least once a week, and using it as a reminder of things to work on and a place to update my accomplishments.

I’m will be sharing my accomplishments and hurdles, (hopefully there are very few of those), with everyone via this blog. Please feel free to share with the other readers and myself, what areas are more difficult for you to conquer. Maybe together, we can help each other accomplish our common goal in reducing our greenhouse emissions, fighting global warming and just plain being good stewards.

You Don’t Have To Be Irish To Be Green

Liz — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:40:00 +0000

Happy St Patrick’s Day to Everyone !

In honor of this historically green day, I decided to continue sharing ways to lower your Carbon Footprint on this beautiful planet. In Wikipedia, a Carbon Footprint is defined as:

“the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product” (UK Carbon Trust 2008). An individual, nation or organization’s carbon footprint is measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it.

Why would you want to reduce the size of your Carbon Footprint?

Lowering your carbon footprint, is believed to help reduce the affects of Global Warming. Although, there is much controvery about whether Global Warming is really taking place or not, I feel that is pretty much irrelevant to the issue of our carbon footprint.

My thoughts on that is, IT DOESN’T MATTER, either way. Because, the positive actions taken to reduce your carbon footprint and/or positively affect Global Warming, are all good things. Pulling less fuel resources from the planet, reducing electrical consumption, recycling, reducing & reusing, benefits you personally and the planet.

How do you determine what your Carbon Footprint is? There are several online calculators to help you calculate it. There’s one at American Forests website and it is very easy to navigate through. Then, set a goal of how much you’d like to reduce your footprint over the coming year. A realistic goal is 10 percent to start with.

How about sharing this information with some of your friends and having a Green Footprint Challenge? Feel free to post your results and your intended goal, to encourage others who read this post. Let’s work together to stay

GREEN….EVERYDAY !

NOTE: Remember that Earth Hour is only 11 days away.

Save Ourselves – From Ourselves

Liz — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:48:00 +0000

If, you missed the special last week on the Discovery channel, it’s your lucky day!

Earth: The Sequel will be reaired in an encore showing today, March 15th at 11 am ET.

Is Clean Energy In Our Future?

Liz — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:19:00 +0000

Clean energy is the only alternative to a sustainable future for our planet. Watch the Discovery Channel this Wednesday, March 11th at 10 PM ET, for Earth: The Sequel.

Time Change – Spring Forward – Move Forward

Liz — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0000

Yep, it’s time again to change all of our clocks. I must admit that this activity has always been an annoyance to me; going to every timepiece in the house, vehicles, workplace, wristwatches, etc., and changing the time on every solitary one of them. Honestly, if it wouldn’t affect me on a daily basis, I probably would just ignore the whole process for as long as possible. Yet, without taking personal responsibility to complete this process twice a year, my life could be negatively affected in countless ways.

The same holds true with making relatively small, appearing insignificant changes in our daily activities. Changes that could make a positive impact on the environment and our quality of life. How many minor changes can we make in our lives that actually cost us very little, financially, emotionally, physically, and make a positive impact on the planet? That’s the primary purpose for this blog, sharing ways to take better care of ourselves and our planet.

So today, I wanted to show you a product that I personally have not yet tried. It’s called the ecobutton™, and it reminds me a lot of the Smart Strip. Essentially, this button helps you save electricity, every time your computer is going to be left idle. And, if you’re reading this blog entry right now, there’s a 99% chance that you’re sitting at a computer reading it. So, this little gadget could be great for you to use!

The ecobutton™ is illuminated and sits on your table/desk top next to your keyboard. It connects to your computer via a USB cable. There’s also an additional bonus, each time your computer is put into ‘ecomode’ the clever ecobutton™ software records how many carbon units and how much power and money you have saved by using the ecobutton™.

If, this is an resource you choose to try in your small steps to be more environmentally conscious, please post a comment on how you like it. Please consider taking a small step forward in making positive changes for our planet. And don’t forget, Sunday, March 8th, Daylight Savings Time takes place. SPRING FORWARD ONE HOUR !

Change Habits – Reduce Waste

Liz — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:29:00 +0000

No time…like the present, is a well-known saying, as well as: Why put off for tomorrow…what you can do today?, is another one. Well, today I’m sharing some no or low cost suggestions, that you can incorporate into your daily lifestyle. They have the potential of improving your health as well as planet’s.

There’s a large percentage of activities that we can do that are focused on reducing our carbon footprint on the planet, and that also can help us financially, physically and emotionally. An example would be to change the habit of driving to a restaurant or calling in a food order for delivery and instead, walking to a nearby restaurant on your lunch break.

How about changing your habit or creating one, by bringing your own “To-Go” containers, when dining out somewhere? What a great way to reduce the use of those styrofoam containers and such, that are detrimental to our planet’s health.

Here’s another, no-cost, in fact it’s a cost-saver; of taking your own utensils from home to work and reusing them. This change of habit can have a trickle down effect, that probably measures quite high, on reducing the carbon footprint on the planet!

If, you’d like to see how the current resources you use, may be adversely affecting the planet, there’s a great calculator through American Forests. There are also several other online resources to calculate your affect on the planet.

In the famous words of Martin Luther King, Jr: The time is always right to do what is right.