Favorisme contacter Flux RSS
Search :

Take action for the environment

We should never say that we can't do anything about the problems related to the environment

On a planetary scale, several hundreds of tonnes of Co2 are released into the atmosphere each second. The advice that you find on Ecomalin may seem trivial to you, and you may think that it doesn't matter if you don't change your habits anyway.

To this I respond in proper iconoclastic fashion: "It's TRUE". It is indeed true that it will not make ANY difference whether you have a fuel-based or solar-powered heating system; after all, you are not the one who is going to change the course of things and suffer the consequences of global warming like others.

But, it is also TRUE that it doesn't serve any purpose to vote in a presidential election since there has never been a case of a president being elected by a single winning vote. So if we don't vote, it wouldn't change anything. And yet, voting is very important.

Similarly, you might say that it was pointless for employees to go on strike in the 19th century for their social rights. Indeed, many of them sometimes risked their lives to gain rights that they never got to enjoy. As for those who lived at the time of social progress, these rights were granted to everyone, strikers and non-strikers alike. For all that, can you reasonably say that those who fought for their social rights were Utopian fools? NO.

What we must keep in mind is that individually speaking, all our efforts seem ridiculous, but it is through our individual actions that a collective ecological awareness will arise, one that will bring about environmental progress. So even if it doesn't make "any" difference to the climate whether you use an SUV or a bicycle, choose the bicycle (or the Toyota Prius), because whilst it doesn't make any difference at your own level, it would be a lot more harmful if everyone thought the same way.

If you need to feel motivated when doing a good deed for the environment, ask yourself: and what if everyone does the same...?

For example, if you decide to car pool for half of your journeys amounting to 7 500 miles (example if you drive 15 000 miles a year), you would save on 3 750 miles for a car pool of two people. Or, in other words, you will save 150 gallons of fuel ($600) with a 25 MPG car. That seems laughable when you realize that 10 000 gallons of fuel are consumed every second in USA. In one year, you would hardly have saved a sixtieth of a second of the national consumption. I agree that, from an ecological viewpoint, this is ridiculous; but it is very interesting in terms of savings on fuel expenses: $600 is enough for 2 fine meals for two. You will also be using your vehicle less, which means reduced parking expenses.

Now, imagine that just half of the 200 million American drivers act in the same way. 30 billion gallons or 700 million barrels of fuel (1 barrel = 159 liters) would now be saved each year, which is equivalent to nearly 3 months' worth of exports from Saudi Arabia (the greatest oil-exporter in the world) and a $40 billion saving every year. It means 20 times the budget of Harvard University, the best university in the World, or enough to fund the World Food Program and remove world hunger. Amazing!

Based on a simple and modest idea, we could, on a USA scale, save on 2 million barrels a day (the amount of oil exports from mexico).

That is why we must take action morally and talk about ecology to the people around us. If a mere 10 people were to change their behavior thanks to this website, I would be proud to have taken action at my personal level.

And this is only based on the simple idea of car pooling. Ideas like this are a dime a dozen. At random:

Car


-Choose the train or other public transport systems over the car.
-Car pool for half of your journeys (or more).
-Drive more slowly on the freeway.
-Don't use your car for journeys less than 1 km
-Drive smoothly (you could save 15 to 20% on fuel)

Heating


-Heat your house to 17°C
-Don't install north-facing bay windows
-Use double glazing
-Install a clean heating system (e.g. heat pump) or if you have limited income, a condensing boiler
[...]

The goal here is not to provide an exhaustive list of everything that can be done, but to be aware of everything that we can change without actually having to pay any special attention.

Be-ecolo recommends the following website Traduction Ink



Bookmark and Share
Fleche retour bas
You like this website? You can contact us and put this page as your home page