{"id":286,"date":"2007-11-13T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2007-11-13T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/11\/13\/personal_impacts\/"},"modified":"2007-11-13T17:00:07","modified_gmt":"2007-11-13T21:00:07","slug":"personal_impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/11\/13\/personal_impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Impact: Does It Really Matter What You Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever been on weight-loss diet, gone to a function with delicious-looking desserts, and told yourself, &quot;One cookie isn&#8217;t going to make me fat&quot;? One cookie may not make you fat, but how many &quot;cookie moments&quot; occur during your day, your week? If your answer is always that this one little cookie can&#8217;t hurt, you will not lose weight.<\/p>\n<p>Conserving energy is sort of like going on a group diet where every person, dozens of times a day, has a &quot;cookie moment&quot;. Does it really matter if I leave on the lights in my home when I go out? Does it really matter if I don&#8217;t recycle this container? Does it really matter if I keep my chargers plugged in when not in use?<\/p>\n<p>The short answer is yes, it matters. There are a <a href=\"http:\/\/green.yahoo.com\/pledge\/create\">myriad of things you can do<\/a> to conserve energy and fight global warming. Each action by itself is small and painless, but taken together the effect can be huge. Here&#8217;s a list of easy things you can do that will make a big difference.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>Most of the electricity in this country comes from coal-fired plants that emit huge amounts of carbon<\/b>, so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn off the light when you leave a room, and turn off all the lights when you leave your home.<\/li>\n<li>Change your bulbs to <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/03\/06\/lightbulbs\/\">compact fluorescents<\/a> (now &#8211; don&#8217;t wait for the old bulbs to burn out).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.physorg.com\/news112964068.html\">Don&#8217;t leave chargers plugged in<\/a> when not in use. They suck up electricity just sitting there.<\/li>\n<li>Buy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.energystar.gov\/\">energy-efficient appliances<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Turn off your computer at night rather than leaving it in stand-by mode.<\/li>\n<li>Many appliances, such as televisions, can&#8217;t be completely turned off except by unplugging them. <a href=\"http:\/\/standby.lbl.gov\/\">Appliances in stand-by mode<\/a> account for 5 percent of the electricity used in the U.S. To turn them off completely, use a power strip.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Paper comes from trees, which suck up carbon<\/b>, so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Buy recycled paper products. Visit our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.environmentaldefense.org\/papercalculator\/\">Paper Calculator<\/a> to learn more about why this helps.<\/li>\n<li>Use only the paper towels and toilet paper that you need.<\/li>\n<li>Only print out emails and articles when you really need to.<\/li>\n<li>Recycle paper &#8211; newspapers, magazines, scratch paper, junk mail, everything you can. You can cancel unwanted catalogs at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catalogchoice.org\/\">Catalog Choice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<li>Bring a reusable shopping bag with you to the store.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/03\/20\/eco-labeling\/\">Manufacturing<\/a> products of any kind uses energy and creates emissions<\/b>, so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t buy things you don&#8217;t need and won&#8217;t use.<\/li>\n<li>Borrow from your local library instead of buying books you&#8217;ll read only once.<\/li>\n<li>Give away or recycle what you no longer want. Give old eyeglasses to your local eyeglass store &#8211; they can pass them onto people in need. Bring your old cell phone back to the cell phone store for recycling. Give away old appliances, computers, clothes, etc. <a href=\"http:\/\/earth911.org\/recycling\/\">Earth 911<\/a> can help you find recycling resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>It takes a significant amount of <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/11\/07\/water_and_energy\/\">electricity to supply municipal water<\/a><\/b>, so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Take showers instead of baths, and don&#8217;t linger in the shower.<\/li>\n<li>Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t run dish washers and clothes washers half full.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t water your lawn unnecessarily.<\/li>\n<li>Fix leaky faucets, and install low-flow faucets and shower heads.<\/li>\n<li>Check out more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epa.gov\/region01\/eco\/drinkwater\/water_conservation_residents.html\">water conservation tips<\/a> from the EPA.\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Heating and cooling use a lot of electricity<\/b>, so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure your house is adequately insulated. If snow melts quickly off your roof, you need more insulation in the attic.<\/li>\n<li>Wrap your water heater in insulation.<\/li>\n<li>Wash clothes in cold water &#8211; they will still be clean, and they&#8217;ll last longer, too.<\/li>\n<li>Line-dry clothes if you can, instead of using a clothes dryer.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your thermostat down in winter and up in summer &#8211; don&#8217;t overheat or overcool your home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Cars are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions<\/b>, so:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Group your errands so you only drive into town once for all the things you need to buy and do.<\/li>\n<li>Have your car tuned regularly, and check tire pressure. An<br \/>\nuntuned engine burns more gas, as do cars with underpressurized tires.<\/li>\n<li>When buying a new car, buy the vehicle with the best mileage that meets your needs.<\/li>\n<li>Walk, bike, or use public transportation instead of driving whenever possible. If you have to drive, carpool where possible.<\/li>\n<li>See our previous post for more <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/03\/13\/cleaner_driving\/\">tips for cleaner driving<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re willing to go to greater lengths, that&#8217;s wonderful. See &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/noimpactman.typepad.com\/blog\/\">No Impact Man<\/a>&quot; for how a New Yorker completely eliminated his carbon footprint. Many homeowners are finding that lowered costs and state subsidies are making <a href=\"http:\/\/www.affordable-solar.com\/\">solar panels<\/a> much more affordable. But you don&#8217;t have to do the hard stuff to make a difference. Every little bit counts.<\/p>\n<p>You can find <a href=\"http:\/\/fightglobalwarming.com\/page.cfm?tagID=135\">more tips and ideas<\/a> on our Fight Global Warming Web site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense. Have you ever been on weight-loss diet, gone to a function with delicious-looking desserts, and told yourself, &quot;One cookie isn&#8217;t going to make me fat&quot;? One cookie may not make you fat, but how many &quot;cookie moments&quot; occur during your &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Personal Impact: Does It Really Matter What You Do? - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/11\/13\/personal_impacts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Personal Impact: Does It Really Matter What You Do? - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense. 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