Earth Hour’s Over :: What Else Are We Doing?

Tweet This is the second year Earth Hour has come around and it is heartening to see so many people participating and talking about it. Like many environmentalist say, this act won’t really make an impact on reducing the earth’s carbon footprint and is more a means to awareness.

Now that Earth Hour is over, I’m hoping the awareness can translate to more action.

The hard question we need to ask now is what else are we doing besides turning off your lights for an hour.

If this one hour is all we going to do, then we’re really just paying lip-serving in the fight against global warming and making sure future generations have a decent place to live.

Here are some simple things that I think can be done and it’d really be nice to see people make efforts like these.

Bring Your Own Woven, Cloth or Recyclable Bag When You Shop
I always have a couple of these in my car and at the office. I also have a few nice trendy looking cloth bags, one a light messenger sling, that I use when I hit the town to shop. When I travel overseas, I bring one of the larger hardier canvas bags so I can throw all my purchases in.

Haven’t you noticed how many bags and wrappers we throw away as we pack our shopping into our luggage when we come home. Or how many plastic bags there are in your drawer which have only been used once?

Using recyclable bags is really simple to do and it really just takes a bit of remembering to get into the habit of. Plus it’s easier on your hands and back when you use these larger and easier to carry bags.

It really pains me to see animals suffering as a result of thoughtless disposal of plastic bags so I ask how many animals caught in plastic bags or how many more dead animals do we have to see before it sinks in that we shouldn’t be using plastic bags. How about more of us following the examples of countries like China, India and Australia which have banned plastic bags

Crush And Compact What You Throw Away
I learnt this during my three years flying with SQ. Onboard an aircraft, you only have so much space. When we have flights with full passenger loads the amount of waste disposed is unbelievable. All crew are taught to flat fold things like wrappers, boxes, crush tins, use hot-water to shrink the space a plastic bottle takes up and other tricks to compact waste.

What else do we do when we’ve run out of space for trash on a 13 hour flight with 344 passengers? Stomp and jump on the existing waste. We actually can recover about 20%-30% of space.

Next time you throw something away, make the effort of flattening the drink carton, cardboard box or plastic bottle. It will go some way to saving space in landfills which are running out of space for all our trash.

Lower Usage Of Your Air-Conditioning & Use The Fan
Yes it is hot but have you noticed how chilly it gets in the wee hours of the morning? I try to sleep without the A/C whenever possible and when it’s too hot, I set the A/C timer to go off at about 2.30am. I have a small tower fan circulating the air and that provides a pretty pleasant breeze through the night. I know most nights at about 4am-5am, I actually need to pull the covers over me ’cause it gets that cold in both Singapore and Malaysia.

I’ve also visited many friends who have the A/C running in different rooms of the house that they’re not using. With my good friends I go around turning these off and grumble a little. Those who’ve made the effort to turn on the A/C only in rooms they’re in have said their electricity bills have dropped.

These two acts not only saves money but your skin doesn’t dry out as much and it goes a way towards one staying youthful looking.

Eat Less Meat :: Go Meatless on Monday or One Day Of The Week
You’ll find lot’s of articles about how “present meat consumption in industrialized countries is unsustainable.”

See:
- BBC: Hungry World ‘Must Eat Less Meat’
- Guardian UK :: Meat Production ‘Beefs Up Emissions’
- WSD-CD Climate Blog :: Getting to the Meat of Climate Change

Yet most people are loathed to cut meat out of their diet.

Well, how about reducing meat intake by declaring one day of the week meatless?

This will make you realise how much meat you eat and how little vegetables & fruits make up your diet. After doing this for a few weeks, many people start eating more fruits, vegetables and getting a healthier mix of foods on other days.

I’m vegetarian 99% of the time but there are moments I take just a little fish or meat to remind myself what it tastes like or if I have cravings. The one thing I was really surprised about is how much longer things in my fridge last without meat and how much better I feel after two plus years of almost no meat or fish. A large part of me is driven by vanity and people have said my skin glows a little more now and I do look like I’ve lost a few years and I attribute this to my diet change.

Time To Not Just Complain
We’re all complaining about the weather getting hotter or colder and more erratic. I think its time we go beyond one time activities like turning off our lights for one hour and move on to greater efforts that will have a positive effect our planet.

These are just four simple things we can do. Even doing one is better than not doing anything.