Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

photo by Carrie Thomas

As a child I was taught the three R's of Environmental conscientiousness.

Today I'm going to focus on the first R: Reduce


Carbonfootprint.com defines the carbon footprint as

"a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases we produce. It is measured in units of carbon dioxide."

You can go to their website to calculate your own footprint. They also list ways that you can reduce the negative impact your habits may have on this planet.

I am lucky to live in a city where I rarely need to take a car and where public transportation and walking, rollerblading or biking are the main forms of transport.
Unfortunately that is not the case with most American cities. Reducing the amount you drive, carpooling and buying hybrid or energy efficient cars with good gas mileage are a few things you can do if you live in a car heavy area. If you don't need to drive, You can walk or ride a bike. It's good for your health and the environment.


We recently switched all the lights in our apartment to compact fluorescent lights. CFLs as they are called use 60-80% less energy than their incandescent counterparts.
They cost a little bit more than regular bulbs but last for up to 6 years of use. You will be doing your part to help reduce energy consumption by simply changing a light bulb. An added benefit is the money you will save on your electric bills.

One habit I inherited from my father is that I turn off lights in rooms where light is not needed. If I am not in the kitchen, the light is off. I turn it on when I need to cook or do dishes and then turn the light off. This simple habit of turning lights off when you leave rooms will reduce your energy consumption and save you money. This can also be applied to electronic devices. Turning off computers, unplugging cellphones and not leaving stereos on when you are not playing music are all little things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Unplug everything connected to the wall. Reach out your hands and unplug it all.

Finally, I'd like to mention plastic bags and hearken back to my plastic obsession. I carry a messenger bag and if I can fit my purchases into that bag, then in they go. If you don't need a plastic bag, then don't take one. Get into the habit of taking your own bags with you to the supermarket. Most grocery stores give you a discount for every bag you bring in. I save all my plastic bags and take them with me to the grocery store. It saves money on groceries and makes me feel a little better about doing my part. These may seem like little things, but with 300 million people in this country using one less bag per day, that is a reduction of 109.5 BILLION bags per year.

Happy EarthdayFree Download

Happy Earth Day. I prefer to keep it upbeat even though Anderson Cooper
is right that our planet is in peril.
Click here to download a free demo of plastic bottles. This is my gift to you on Earth Day.
This song was inspired by the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. I used to cross the canal on my way to the recording studio. The water is so polluted that it reflects purple and green shimmers of light and gives off a sulpher smell. If there are fish in this water, they are not what one might call normal and are definitely not edible. It saddens me to see our planet destroyed at such an alarming rate.

We have worked to fight factory pollution in this country only to allow companies to move those factories to China where the problem of pollution is much like the conditions of Europe during the industrial revolution. I watched a program where farmers in china were putting plants in greenhouses because the air pollution is so horrible that the plants were dying if exposed to the air.

The ice caps are melting. The Ozone Layer is being destroyed.
It's time for each of us to make a difference in our own lives. Small acts of conscienciousness can make a huge difference. I hope to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. It takes effort but we can and should get involved. This week I will be highlighting little things that you can do in your own life to be a good steward of this planet.

HOSED...deception and destruction

When I was 14 years old, I stopped drinking sweetened carbonated beverages and switched to drinking only water and juice. I remember pulling into a convenience store with my family on a road trip and buying a bottle of water. At that time, the bottled water craze had not exploded into the plastic peddling monster that it is today.

My father made fun of me, saying that it was a rip off to buy bottled water.

"You know there's just some guy in the back with a hose filling up those bottles with water."

I rolled my eyes and unscrewed the cap to my bottle of Evian, which comes from a pristine French spring, thank you very much.

It is funny to read a headline years later about Coca-Cola selling tap water under the name Dasani and while Pepsi is selling tapwater under the name Aquafina.

An estimated 25% of bottled water is nothing more than tap water, sometimes filtered, sometimes not.

The environmental impact of the bottled water craze is a whole other can of worms. Once you get me started on this, I could keep going for days. I will share a few obvious points and direct you to an article for some more information, but I recommend you educate yourself and try to phase out your bottled water consumption as part of an environmentally concious lifestyle.

--Most bottled water is not recycled. It piles up in landfill
--Plastic production is dependent on oil, a non-renewable resource. Dependency on oil is not only disasterous to the environmet but is half the reason we are blowing up innocent women and children in Iraq.

Think of the children...the children.

hang on, maybe I have a picture
of a very sad feed the children style child I can use for this part.