carbon-neutral | Comprehending the Climate Crisis: Everything You Need to Know about Global Warming and How to Stop It

Patients often ask me, “How can I lose weight so I can be healthier?” If I had the universal answer that worked for everyone, I’d be a very rich man. But there are a number of suggestions that help. Most of these are well-known: increase physical activity, cut out excess calories, eat healthier foods, and the list goes on. But one point I emphasize consistently is that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and weight loss isn’t going to happen overnight. People have to take baby steps in their approach, and make small changes at a time. If enthusiasm leads to a dramatic overhaul of an entire lifestyle, I can pretty much guarantee that the changes won’t stick. But if small adjustments are made one at a time, people have a much better chance at sticking to them long-term.

What does any of this have to do with living green? Well, experience has shown that if people make dramatic changes, even if the zeal and enthusiasm is there to support them, human nature being what it is, these changes typically slip back into the old patterns of behaviour with no success achieved. But if people make small adjustments, a little at a time, each little benefit adds up and the overall result can be substantial, and much easier to stick to permanently.

Here’s a list of eight simple things that you can do around the house – small changes that will lead to a greener lifestyle. No one change is too onerous, and if each one is taken one at a time over the coming months, it will be much easier to stick with them. Since some of them have a little extra cost to them, it also makes it easier on the pocketbook if the changes are made gradually. And you can be proud knowing that what you’re doing is healthy for the environment, because your carbon footprint will be substantially reduced.

Install low-flow shower heads. These reduce the amount of water you use during a shower, and since that water is heated, you save on how much energy you use to heat that water.
Replace all light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs when they burn out. The days of incandescent bulbs are over. Every standard light bulb in your house should eventually be a CFB. They cost more up front, but use much less energy and last much longer, so in the long run, they’re a good value. And your electricity bill will drop.
Use a programmable thermostat. When people are sleeping, and when people are away during the day at school or work, it makes little sense to heat the home to its normally comfortable temperature. But it’s also impractical to be adjusting the thermostat up and down twice a day. It’s much easier to program a thermostat to do all of the adjustments for you. You can save a lot of energy heating your home by keeping the temp lower when no one is around to need it.
Walk and bike more instead of always driving. Most people who live in urban settings can do a lot more getting around by their own energy rather than starting up the car. And since exercise is so beneficial to heart-health, it has double benefit. Perhaps your regular activity routine can incorporate trips to the grocery store, walks with the dog or visits to a friend’s house. It’s amazing how often we decide to hop in the car because we think our lives are too busy to afford the extra minutes it would take to get their on our own power.
Eat one less meal of meat a week. Consider having Meatless Mondays become a part of your weekly schedule. Since cattle generate their own emissions of methane, the less beef we eat the less emissions. In North America, we tend to eat more meat than we need to anyway. So this green choice is also another heart-healthy one: less meat, more fruits, vegetables and fiber are the recipe. And of course, make sure you’re buying local, from farmers’ markets and local produce in your grocery store. That way there’s less fuel used to get those goods to you.
Eliminate bottled water. It’s expensive and creates a lot of waste to recycle or, more typically, simply get thrown out. If you buy a filter for your water at home, you can have all the clean drinking water you want without needing to have all that plastic as part of it. And when you go to work or the gym, simply take your own water in a reusable container rather than buy a bottle.
Hold onto electronic items longer. Just because the latest smart phone has come out doesn’t mean you need to replace the one you have, frequently less than a year old anyway! Newer may be exciting, but it’s a lot of unnecessary waste if we always want to have the latest gadget available. Wait until a replacement is truly needed and make sure you properly dispose of your e-waste when you finally do replace the old one.
Have a home energy audit. For a few hundred dollars, you can learn exactly where you’re wasting energy, and such simple measures as caulking windows and sealing doors can more than pay for itself. There are often government rebates available if you make changes based on the audit as well.

Try to make a few of these simple home adjustments in the coming year. Each little step makes a difference, and when added together, you will make a significant impact on your carbon footprint!

As the year draws to a close and 2012 is about to begin, people are making New Year’s Resolutions. Most of them are meant to make people feel better about themselves, like losing weight, starting an exercise program, and quitting smoking. And truth be told, most of those resolutions aren’t kept. So maybe it’s time that people use their New Year’s Resolutions to make the planet better. Maybe they’ll have better success at holding onto them if they’re easy enough to adopt and, of course, they still get to feel better about themselves.

I’ve come up with ten simple measures that you can adopt. Some can be part of the routine in your daily life, and some are measures you might only need to do once, but these should still be important considerations.

Get a home audit. You only need to do this once but the money is well spent. You can identify places where you’re wasting energy and, therefore, money—such as leaky faucets, or doors and windows where heat is escaping. Although this costs you up front, it will save in the long run and sometimes you can get a rebate from the government if you make changes based on the auditor’s suggestions.
Become more efficient at home. This one particular topic is huge, and most components are easy to adopt. People tend to know about the importance of replacing light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and turning off lights when they leave a room. But they may not have thought of getting motion sensors in rooms that will automatically turn lights on and off for you or the benefits of unplugging electronic items when not in use to minimize electricity drain. And nobody should be without a programmable thermostat these days.
Shop for groceries with reusable bags. Even if your grocery store charges you a nickel for every bag you take home, you should feel guilty if you come home with any. Bringing your own bags to stores where you make your purchases minimizes the waste of plastic bags which are made from petroleum products and take way too many years to decompose.
Get hybrid or electric cars with your future vehicle purchases. They cost a bit more up front but depending on your driving habits, especially with the starts and stops associated with city driving, you can save a bundle in fuel costs and minimize your emissions. If you can afford it, every new car should be something beyond a simple gas guzzler.
Aggressively recycle and compost. It takes very little time to separate plastic, glass, tin, and paper. But since it minimizes waste generated by using new materials, it’s much better for the environment.
Use the dishwasher and washer / dryer with full loads only. It’s about the same energy used to run a load no matter how much is in it, so if the dishwasher is only half full, that’s a lot of wasted electricity. Most family routines can adapt to this suggestion without much hassle. Don’t make certain nights of the week laundry night to suit your schedule; make it so that these appliances don’t run until they’re full.
Purchase green electricity and natural gas. If you have greener sources of electricity and natural gas that generate less emissions than conventional utility companies and you can afford them, you should make the switch. Home use of electricity and natural gas is a huge source of greenhouse gases. If we were all able to make such a change, that would have a significant impact on helping the environment. Bullfrog Power in Canada is one place to look.
Purchase carbon offsets. No matter how much change we can make, most of us travel by plane on occasion and by car as part of our daily routine. Since those activities generate emissions, if you can negate those by making donations to companies and projects that offset your emissions with activities such as planting trees, you can go a long way toward living a zero-carbon lifestyle.
Buy local. Not only does it help your local economy to buy produce and meat from local farmers and butchers, but the emissions you save by avoiding the need to transport those items from great distances is also significant. You likely don’t need lamb from New Zealand for your dinner or Brazilian teak for your flooring to enhance your life. Local foods and other materials can do the job just fine, and you can use them with pride knowing you didn’t generate substantial emissions simply to get them into your home.
Precycle. If you can make a purchase with less material and less packaging, then do it. The less you have to put into recycling, the better. In this modern era of digital music downloads and ebooks, make sure you think twice before getting a hard copy of anything.

If you can adopt even a few of these suggestions into your family routine, you can make a big difference to your carbon footprint. And you won’t have to feel guilty about letting another set of New Year’s Resolutions fall by the wayside.