bloggerdude2005
Favorite Answer
A few things, any of which can help:
-Instead of taking lots of small car trips to stores, take one trip and buy most of what you need at one time. That not only reduces the number of times you drive to the store, but it improves fuel efficiency. Cars have the lowest fuel efficiency on small trips, and that is exactly the distance most people drive. The stop and go pattern of traffic reduces efficiency, causing our cars to burn more fuel per mile. More fuel per mile, more pollution too.
-Try to take a few friends along on trips, so that they don't have to take their own cars. Two cars pollute twice as much as one.
-Use electricity more efficiently. Believe it or not, simply installing a more efficient electrical appliance or light bulb in your house helps the environment. How? Well, most electricity comes from burining fossil fuels. The more electricity we demand, the more is burned, and the more is polluted. So if you use appliances that use less electricity, you are reducing the demand for eectrical companies to burn fuels and pollute.
-Make your house energy-efficient. Set the thermostat toa reasonable level and keep it there. It takes a lot more energy to heat a house from a low temperature than to heat it by one or two degrees. Windows lose a lot of heat in winter. In summer, heat from outside forces pepople to splurge on air conditioner bills. Planting trees helps keep homes cool in the summer because they provide shade. Windows with great insulation help keep heat in during winter. These things all reduce energy waste, and energy waste causes more electricity- and fossil fuels- to be consumed.
-Consider buying a hybrid car, which uses less fossil fuels that are the biggest polluters. Some people argue that hybrid or electrical cars don't improve air pollution because they require a lot of electricity, and that electricity comes from burning fossil fuels anyway. That may be true, but the companies that produce electricity produce much less pollution than cars do per each Watt of power. A car is a miniature powerplant which pollutes much more than an electrical powerplant per Watt (that's how we measure electrical power).
Dr_Babs
Prevent pollution and fight against waste are 2 different things but serve the same purpose in the grand scheme of things ...
A lot of ideas have been mentionned - here are some real simple ones too !
- I would suggest placing a 1 L or 1.5 L plastic bottle in your toilet tank (the part where the water is stored) - this will save 1L (or 1.5 !) of water every time you flush.
- Don't forget to turn the water off when you're brushing your teeth
- Don't wash your car every week !
- Showers instead of baths
- Save electricity - no lights on when not in the room ! Turn your car off when you're idle more than 30 sec - that's how long it takes for the stop-restart to be more energy efficient than just leaving it on.
Thumbs up for knowing that fighting against waste and pollution is one person at a time ! If everyone saves say 2L of water a day in a town of 1 million people ... that's nearly 1 billion L saved a year.
Check this out for more tips
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/
Haku Belmont
To Prevent Pollution? Here's an idea coming out within a couple of years: next time you need a car, purchase a Hydrogen Car. They're small, Cheap, and basically run on water.
Anonymous
Thumbs up for knowing that fighting against waste and pollution is one person at a time ! If everyone saves say 2L of water a day in a town of 1 million people ... that's nearly 1 billion L saved a year.
bob_sacaman0
This is part of my answer to those boycott the oil companies chain letters that used to go around. Works for pollution, too...
From easiest, to hardest.
1. Don't idol needlessly: In the drive-through; waiting to pick up or drop off someone; leaving the kids in the car to watch a DVD while you run inside. If it's more than 30 seconds, turn it off.
2. Don't drive aggressively. If the light ahead is red, coast up there, no need to have one peddle on the floor at all times. In rush hour, you don't have to be right on someone rear, it wastes your gas and causes the domino effect of "stop and go traffic". Accelerate more slowly, you don't save much time and
it's a huge waste. Leave two minutes early so you don't have to drive like an idiot, a minute or two is about all you save.
3. Open the windows, turn off the air. This is especially for those of you who wait for someone or something while idling with the air on. Roll down the windows, you'll live.
4. Walk, bike, bus, train wherever and whenever you can.
5. Don't buy SUV's or other gas guzzlers. How many times do you pack it to capacity and use all that space. How much would you save on payments, gas, insurance, etc., if you bought a smaller car and rented a van/truck when needed. Buy a hybrid or a smaller car.
6. Live near your work. Work near your home.