Save the Earth. Do Your Thang!

There was this enormous sense of guilt eating me up after I watched “The Inconvenient Truth” early last April. Why? It was because beginning April, I ditched the train and started to drive to work. There you go, I’m one of those SOBs who consciously killing the earth softly by emitting more green house gases by driving, and wasting the scarce natural resource (read: fossil fuel) by driving alone. But the enormous guilt shrunk and finally vanished after awhile. That didn’t take too long.

Then came 7th July. As I sat in front of the tube watching the Live Earth concerts across the world, that guilt thing reappeared out of nowhere. I felt terrible. Terrible! Terrible! Terrible!

I don’t think I can, or want go back to public transport, yet. I know there must be some other things that I can do to offset that almost criminal offense (to the environment) of driving to work. So far these are what I got and, proud to say have been practicing.

Go organic. I buy organic produce now. No pesticide, no herbicide and no harmful chemicals. That, to me, translate into less contaminants and pollution to the soil and water. Organic farming cannot replace commercial farming, but I believe when the buying drops, commercial farming produce that is, the killing of the soil and water will too.

Go easy on E. E for electricity. As much as possible, I only switch on one light at night. I figure since I live alone and can’t possibly be in 2 separate rooms of my condo at any one time, why switch on the hallway light when I’m in the kitchen? Also I use energy saving bulbs. When I stay at a hotel, I used to leave all the lights on when I leave the room. Now, when I leave the room, lights out.

I switch off my mobile phone and MacBook chargers when I done charging them. I got this from watching one of the public announcements during the Live Earth concert. Apparently the chargers still draw electricity if you leave it on after you finish charging.

Recycle. You wouldn’t know how easy and effortless it is until you start. I now recycle cans, plastic bottles or containers, glass bottles and milk cartons. They are separated in boxes in the kitchen and I send them to the depot during my grocery run. Of course I recycle paper in the office. One more thing, do not print unnecessarily.

BYOB. Bring your own bags. Not booze. Notice how many plastic bags you got after every grocery run. Plastic takes forever to degrade. Therefore the more we use, the more they produce and the faster they fill up the landfill. So in your next shopping outing, not just grocery shopping, bring your own bags, even if they are plastic bags. At least you reuse them. I bought 2 grocery bags (made of cloth) and sometimes bring my own cart to for grocery shopping. I even decline using paper bags whenever possible, like getting a muffin to go from Starbucks.

I know I’ve been doing all these for no more than a month but I feel so much better now. Yes I know the driving thing is extremely evil and I’m working at giving it up or trying to car pool at least.

There are tones of things, small little things that we can do for a healthier earth for our kids and their kids and their kids’ kids. Find you thang. Do your thang. Do it today. Do it now. Remember, tomorrow is too late. (I read it somewhere.)