Save That Drop

The glaciers that feed the Ganges River will most likely melt away by 2030. After that water is going to be more precious than gold, and more endangered than our tiger population.

Please don’t waste what little water we have left while we wait for the Himalayan glaciers which feed our river systems to disappear rapidly!

Take an audit of your home’s water consumption by reading your water bills. Calculate what 5% less consumption would mean (not just in terms of drops, but Rupees too!) and make this your target for the next month.

Below are some tips to get you started:
• Fix every leak as soon as you discover it. Leaky faucets can add up to unnecessarily wasting liters of water everyday. Some of the leaks are hard to spot, so check your toilet bowls as well.
• Flush only when absolutely necessary. If you can, implement a dual flush system which allows you to have different levels depending on how much waste needs to be flushed away. Or you can manually use a cup/small bucket to keep a check of how much water goes down the drain.
• Wash dishes in a bucket of soapy water instead of letting the tap running.
• Stick to our roots. Take bucket baths instead of showers. You will be amazed how many buckets of water go into a single shower, just to achieve the same goal!
• Search for a water filtration system that does not require you to loose too much water in the process. They are available and may be a bit pricier, but in the end you will gain from reduced water bills.
• There is no need to keep the water running while brushing your teeth. Just wet your brush and fill a glass for mouth rinsing.
--- Source: The Climate Project

Reduce Meat

Reducing our meat intake even by one meal a day, or one day a week, we could make an enormous difference to global emissions. Going vegetarian is good for the environment and even better for your heart! Research shows a highly significant correlation between the consumption of even small amounts of animal-based foods and the increasing prevalence of heart disease.

A major study published in February 2005 reconfirmed the link between meat consumption and heart problems. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, concluded that among the 29,000 participants, those who ate the most meat were also at the greatest risk for heart disease. The researchers also reported that a high intake of protein from vegetable sources like tofu, nuts, and beans lowers our risk of heart disease by 30 percent.

18% of the global greenhouse-gas emissions are emitted by the animal industry. That is more than all the cars in the world together, and a large part of that 18% is nitrous oxide and methane emissions. Both these gases have a far more powerful greenhouse gas effect than carbon dioxide. Burping cows and sheep emit methane while all livestock cause nitrous oxide gases, so cutting down on the meat you eat, is like taking a small step towards mitigating global warming.

In the early 1990s 46 percent of Indians were non-vegetarians. Today, after slightly over a decade, 64 percent of Indians are non-vegetarians. With the per capita income rising, a much larger chunk of the urban population is eating outside home and the preference is for non-vegetarian food. As per the survey, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, in North India 40 percent of the population are non-vegetarians whereas 90 percent of South Indians are non-vegetarians. As the risk of heart diseases continues to rise in India, and as climate change continues to takes its toll, maybe the time has come for Indians to go back to the veggies. --- Source: The Climate Project

Why buy local and organic?

When you go out shopping for food, pick vegetables that are not transported by plane; the same goes for fruit. The most important advice is to eat the food you bring home; don’t throw it away, because that’s a waste of resources. Choosing real food—fresh, whole food—is a way to choose nourishment that’s not only good for your body but good for the planet, too.

World trade in food is a major source of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming. Fossil fuels are used to ship foods long distances. Food trade is growing rapidly. Governments promote trade. Who benefits? Big corporations and big oil.

Walk into any supermarket and you’ll see shelves lined with products bursting with trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup, and additives whose multi-syllabic names can make you go cross-eyed. Each of these ingredients takes tremendous amounts of energy to create and even more energy to import! Kids who are fed a diet of non-chemical foods have fewer traces of chemical residues in their bodies.

Organic foods may also have higher levels of essential nutrients and antioxidants. New research is documenting that organic farms can emit as much as half the carbon dioxide as chemical farms. Organic farms also use much less fossil fuel energy than their conventional counterparts, in many cases as much as one-third less. And organic agriculture can provide a critical carbon sink, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. In fact, 10,000 medium-sized organic farms can store as much carbon in the soil as we would save if we took one million cars off the road. Just one more reason to go organic!

Remember your grandmother’s mealtime lecture to finish the food on your plate because there were starving kids in Africa? That admonition takes on a whole new meaning in our global warming era. So, let’s try to eat only what we need, waste less, and compost our food scraps. --- Source: The Climate Project

In Defence of Small Cars

We have a plethora of small, fuel-efficient cars to choose from in our country. Although public transport is ideal, if you must use a car, we offer some great reasons to choose a green option. You can easily weave through traffic jams and fit into those small space in between the cows and aggressive taxi guy at the intersection. They require significantly less fuel, which will help you keep your finances in check as rising oil prices bring our markets crashing down. They are usually less expensive than bigger cars. If you are fixed on having a luxury model car, than you would be happy to know that Honda’s hybrid option is now in India!

Scared about what will happen to traffic hour once the Tata hits the NANO? Why not take a different approach. Before all the Bajaj bikers scale up to the Nano, why don’t the car owners scale down? This tiny car is fuel-efficient and will be ideal for urban commuting. Feeling extra adventurous? Try the REVA car, which runs on electricity. You can charge it almost every urban petrol station. Plug it in overnight while you sleep, drive in the day, zipping past the Innovas stuck jammed in the heat!

Buying a compact car over an SUV will save you approximately Rs. 30,000/- a year and that’s not including the initial high cost of the SUV! --- Source: The Climate Project