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GREEN! FACTS and TIPS |
Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) |
Do you know what this is? It's a compact fluorescent light bulb. They are better than regular light bulbs because they are more efficient (use less energy) and last up to 9 years longer! In fact, if every kid in America exchanged one regular light bulb for one of these, it would save enough electricity to light up 15 million homes for an entire year! It would have the effect of taking 14 million cars off the road! (The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming, see "Resource"s) The Main branch of the NYC Public Library System switched to CFLs on Oct. 4, 2007 replacing 5,311 regular light bulbs. This will save the library about $142,000/year (NYPost) as well as reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 million pounds and power consumption by 1.4 million kilowatt hours each year (NYTimes.com) |
Tip #2: Aluminum Cans and Recycling Them We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year in the Unites States. At that rate, the people living in our town of Closter, NJ use 2,319,187 cans per year or 6354 per day or 265 an hour!!! That's about how many cans are in this mural! |
The good news is that Americans recycled enough aluminum cans last year to reach up to the moon and back 8 times! Unfortunately, that's only a little more than half of the cans we used, so 38 billion cans were still thrown in the garbage and ended up in landfills where they will stay as cans for another 500 years. To put that in perspective, imagine that the pilgrims had soda at the first Thanksgiving and left a can on the ground - you could find that same can today. The next time you have a soda, think about this - recycling just one can saves enough energy to run a t.v. for 3 hours. (facts from various websites, check our "Resources") And there's no limit to how many times a can could be recycled, so… |
Tip #3: Phantom Power You've all seen these, right? They are chargers for things like cell phones, mp3 players, games and cameras. Have you ever noticed how warm the black box of a charger is when it has been plugged in? That's because it is holding energy. Even when you unplug your device from the charger, if left in the wall, the charger will continue to collect energy in the box. But when it has no more room, some of this energy will leak out to make room for more electricity coming from the outlet. Over time, this can add up to A LOT of energy wasted. On average, it accounts for 10% of your parents' electric bill. (Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming) That means that 10 cents of every dollar on the bill is paying for something you'll never use. This phenomenon is called Phantom Power. Here's what you can do: unplug all those chargers when not in use… Since wasted energy is not limited to chargers, talk to your parents about appliances you can unplug, like hair dryers and electric toothbrushes, toasters and microwaves, printers and dvd players. You can also use surge protectors to plug things into. When you shut these off, power is completely turned off from anything plugged into it. One last bit of advice: the next time you are done using your computer put it into sleep mode instead of using a screen saver with a 3D design. Screen savers might look cool but it is better to cool off planet earth! So remember to shut off and unplug. |
Tip #4: GREEN! Definitions Do you really know what 'BEING GREEN' is all about? Does it mean you look like Shrek? (We actually love Shrek, he lives in a swamp and reuses a lot of stuff, so he's pretty eco friendly!) Being GREEN means that you are aware of how your actions affect the earth and that you want to play a positive role in helping to clean up the environment by reducing, reusing and recycling things you use every day. What about 'footprints'? We are not just talking about what you leave behind while walking on a beach. 'Ecological Footprints: 'Ecological' refers to how humans interact with their environment - using up natural resources like water and trees. Since a footprint is the impression you leave on the ground, an 'ecological footprint' is the impression you leave on the environment after living in it. So you want to leave a small footprint, not a big one. You may also hear the term "Carbon footprint", which refers to how much carbon we put into our atmosphere after using energy from gas and oil - for things like driving cars and heating homes. There are many things you can do to reduce the size of your footprint. When possible, ride a bike or walk instead of using a car. Turn off water when you brush your teeth. Shut the lights off when you leave the room. If we all make little change, it will add up quickly and our environment will be a better place for us and all the animals and plants that live here with us. |