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Still more things you can do to cut your energy/carbon footprint:
1. Carry a mug to college or work, rather than use disposable cups.2. Choose reusable glass bottles and do not buy aluminium or plastic bottles.
3. Choose products that use minimal packaging, certainly not plastic packaging.
4. Use rechargeable batteries, not disposable ones and start a campaign to ask manufacturers to take back batteries for safe disposal.
5. Use LEDs or compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs.
6. Absolutely do not accept any plastic bags from shops. Carry a cloth bag, or use a back pack.
7. Re-use old envelopes. When you stick a fresh address label on an old envelope you are also passing on a message to someone else to do the same.
8. Write and print on both sides of paper.
9. Sell your newspapers to the local raddiwalla who will usually sell these to a recycling unit. Buy recycled paper only and help create a market for these.
10. Encourage your neighbourhood society to start off vermiculture projects, which involve natural decay by earthworms. The manure obtained is very fertile and can be used for the plants.
11. We absolutely have to reduce the quantity of garbage we force our municipal authorities to handle. It would help immensely if each of us bought fewer things that involved throwing away useless packaging. Do we really need our tea and coffee in plastic cups, or plastic-packaged chips or aluminium. Coke cans or fruit and vegetables in those ridiculous plastic bags? If even 25 per cent of us began composting our kitchen waste in flower pots in verandahs, or gardens, the city would smell better, have fewer stray dogs, cats, rats and crows, and have much healthier children.
12. We desperately need to reduce our own exposure to toxic chemicals. That paint you just used on your walls? Did it contain lead? What about the pest-control service or "killer" sprays you think are helping keep your family healthy? Did you pause to consider that your kids are being exposed to lethal carcinogens, or that just keeping food scraps out of reach could get rid of cockroaches more effectively? How about your local, friendly hospital? Has it stopped dumping hazardous bio-medical waste on the street where you live? And when did you last refuse to take a cab because the guy's vehicle smoked like a message from hell?
13. You do have the power to make your life safer. Exercise that power. And support those who have made it their business to fight toxins.
14. We can't afford to lose even one more tree. Every tree we lose makes our cities and towns hotter (feel a leaf; it stays cool even when the sun beats down on it), noisier (leaves act as sound buffers) and dustier (leaves act as dust collectors). It's that time of year again. Each of us should be scouring the city to search for nooks, crannies and open spaces in which to plant trees. If your see someone hacking down a tree, gather a few people and heckle them till they stop, while a friend calls up a newspaper office, the local police station and the local Municipal Ward Office (always keep such phone numbers handy).
15. Support organisations that you believe are doing good work. It's no use just patting people on the back and asking them to carry on spending their own hard-earned money on making all our lives better. If a lot of us do (or give) a little, a lot gets done. If you can't afford to make donations, donate time. But do something to help lift the load. In the process, you will feel very good about yourself and will be filled with hope for the future.
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The Teenager magazine
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