Climate Change - 1

On Sunday 22nd July, Oprah had former Vice President Al Gore on board as guest. What Al Gore had to say was shocking & eye opening to me. "Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point-of-no-return, beyond which it's much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future," Gore says.
While other planets are either much too hot or much too cold, Earth is just right for life.As humans add pollution like carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air, the Earth's atmosphere becomes thicker. The thicker atmosphere traps more of the reflected radiation, raising overall temperature. This process is what we call "global warming." Other major factors adding to global warming, include the burning of coal, oil, gasoline and forests.

Do visit the link http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200612/20061205/slide_20061205_350_101.jhtml
to read about the entire show. Infact Al Gore has written a book 'An Inconvenient Truth', and also now has a DVD documentary; I am sure they are good sources of information.
When I saw the show I was scared & shocked, I even thought 'Oh my Gosh...what a fearful future we have for our children', and thought about all the animals that they may not see for real, they may witness the submerging of some cities, & worst still we along with them will have to witness 'climate change refugees'....what a world we have for them :(
But then again I remembered what my mother always says...she says that let fear propel you further to seek what you can do to make things better. So I gathered myself & sat down to do some reading & research and want to share the knowledge with you all.

Here are some things that we can do as our bit for saving our Earth:

• Instead of regular aluminum foil or plastic wrap, purchase recycled aluminum foil. It uses just 1/20th of the energy needed to produce regular foil.
• Look for items without extensive packaging. Most food packaging material uses some petroleum-based plastic. Look for minimally or unpackaged items instead. Experiment with bringing your own packaging or buying in bulk. Purchase brands that use bio-based instead of petroleum-based plastic. Recycle or reuse packaging materials you end up having to buy.
• Bring a cloth bag to the grocery store instead of using its plastic bags. An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. That's 1 million bags used per minute. These bags will clog landfills, create litter, choke streams and harm marine wildlife, like whales, seals and sea turtles.
• Buy local and organic.Buying seasonal, locally produced food helps in a number of ways. Most food travels 1,500 miles from "farm to fork." But buying local food drastically reduces the energy spent on food shipping. Local goods also tend to use minimal packaging, are fresher and come in more varieties. The best way to track down local food is at your local farmers markets or fresh markets. Farmers who grow produce organically use less fossil fuel and release fewer greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Organic farming is better for the land, for the farmers, and for the consumers.
• Change the light fixtures in your home to 'energy saving' options available. Switch off the main supply to any of your electrical appliances as even if the appliance is 'OFF' it still drawn in power. Use the dishwasher only if you are going to have a full load, for a few items one can do it with hands. Do your laundry weekly, when you can use the machine at full load.
• Use your own water bottle to carry water when going out. It takes almost 5 litres of water to make one, 1 litre bottle of water. If you are buying a re-usable plastic bottle, use one which is grade-2/4/5 plastic. This information is on the bottom of the bottle.
• We a lot of chemicals in our homes by way of cleaning products. These are known to cause respiratory illnesses & allergies. There are some well known companies that make organic cleaning products, they are: Method, Mrs. Meyers, Seventh Generation & Shaklee. The truth about cleaning is that it should not have a toxic smell; clean is just clean.

Things that are not recyclable: Styrofoam peanuts used in packing, broken glass, light bulbs, ceramics, Styrofoam, Pyrex, some yogurt containers, aerosol cans, soiled boxes and anything covered in wax paper are not recyclable. One way to stop these items from entering land-fills is returning Styrofoam peanuts to packaging companies and bringing your own containers to restaurants when you're ordering take-out.

For more information, I suggest keeping a regular vigil on the following web sites. http://www.algore.com/, www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen, http://www.treehugger.com/. My friend Ranjeeta also has a very good write up about the issue, you can read it at: http://www.thepizzazzy.com/free-speech/the-whole-green-business. This is just the beginning of a very vast topic, I shall cover more details in later posts. So do keep visiting.