There's a beautiful Native American Proverb that says 'We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors,we borrow it from our children'.I live my life mindful of this,atleast I try to and sometimes take it a little extreme too.Since I believe in leading by example I'm going to tell you about a few things I do to reduce my carbon footprint,I'm sure you can do that too.
1. RECYCLE- I know recycle,most must be doing that,but in India there are no rules as such,one has to take the initiative themselves and so it becomes easy to develop a lax attitude towards separating our garbage according to the materials but recycling helps a lot and prevents wastage.For more on this please read here
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/recycling.html
2.EAT LOCAL,SEASONAL,ORGANIC FOOD- I make it a point to eat local,seasonal,organic food,thank God that nowadays organic food is easily available,I buy all my pulses,beans,rice,wheat flour,spices organic.Fruits and vegetables not yet,but will soon.Though I love Kiwi fruit and Dragon fruit I never buy those,I buy only Shimla apples,I know that is not local too but it's closer to home than the American varieties that flood the market all year around.Those apples are not good,the nutrients are lost and the taste too suffers because of storage,refrigeration and forced ripening and the carbon footprint that these imported foods leave is massive,so much is spent on transportation of these imported foods,fossil fuel,a valuable natural resource is spent in bringing these foods to us,not to mention the storage and refrigeration costs,refrigeration which again uses electricity,frozen foods I learnt leave the highest carbon footprint followed by canned,plastic,glass and cardboard packaged foods.For more on this please read here
http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-miles
3.COOK SMARTLY- This is important too since in most of our households we use LPG to cook which again is fossil fuel,a non renewable natural resource,when something is non-renewable and is a natural resource it has to be used sparingly.I use pressure cooker to cook most of my food.I cook meat,rice even vegetables in the pressure cooker,valuable nutrients are not lost much because it takes less time to cook.I've learnt that using a stove top whenever possible is best to reduce one's carbon footprint,microwave comes next,oven apparently uses the most energy so use sparingly and reduce preheating,also using electric kettles to boil water is the most energy efficient way of boiling water.It's best to use devices that can cook multiple foods at one time(for this again pressure cookers I highly recommend).
4.NO AIRCONDITIONERS- My most extreme step this is,because I live on the top most floor of the building and it's so hot that all my candles get deformed,out of shape,those melt without lighting,haha but yet I will never,well hopefully never,ever use an airconditioning unit,there are many other reasons why I'm so adamant about not using one,but I guess I'll write another post for that,I want the focus on energy saving today.Do you have any idea why cities are so hot now more than ever? That's because everybody is using an airconditioner in Summer,these units make the air outside hotter while keeping it cool indoors,so the temperature outside automatically rises and since it gets so hot one has to end up using an airconditioner,that's the irony of it.Now if you're someone who is not as mentally strong as me and can't not let the heat get to you then you need to read the following link to know all about using your airconditioning unit efficiently which in turn will save energy. http://ecoseed.org/living-green/17394-its-no-sweat-raise-your-ac-while-lowering-your-carbon-footprint
5.USE TWO-WHEELERS WHENEVER POSSIBLE,FOUR WHEELERS ONLY WHEN MORE THAN THREE PEOPLE ARE TRAVELLING- that says it all,besides with the kind of traffic these days two-wheelers save time too and who knows that better than me.
There are many more things which I do but since you're already tired of so much reading,maybe next time.Do remember you cannot afford to not be mindful of the carbon footprint you're leaving because your kids will have to pay the price for your indulgences.Cheers to a green future for our babies.Peace.
*The artwork is my son's drawing on a whiteboard,I edited it for effect(ain't my son amazing...mothers..sorry).
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©Seema Tabassum 2015
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