What are some simple ways to reduce our negative impact on the environment?

Question

Just to get away from the debating for a little bit, I think it would be fun to list some suggestions for small changes we can make to lessen our impact. I'm not talking about major things (or seriously debatable!) things like buying a Hybrid or living off the grid. Just simple every day things that we can easily do. It all adds up.

I'll start..

Bring a reusable mug with you when you get coffee.

Use a water filter instead of buying bottled water.

Line or rack dry clothes instead of using a dryer.

Switch from chemical cleaners to earth friendly products.

Use cloth instead of paper towels and napkins.

Answer 1

usa need much more efficiant public transit. our public transpertion is in some many third world. many other countrys people never be get a car because it is easyer to ride public transports.

Nuclear power...........

dont leave things running or pluged in. for example.

microwaves....they all have clocks and most people leave them on 24/7 it waists electriciy. for what you might only use it 10minutes a day.

Answer 2

Simplest task can better place. Use public transportation or carpool to work and from, recycle-newspaper, cardboard, magizine. Use fish tank to water plants. Dry clothes outside instead dryer. Switch lower light bulbs.

I strongly favor Nuclear Energy as Energy solution.

Answer 3

o.k., here are a few more:

Bring your own re-usable bag or basket, when going to the grocery store instead of getting there plastic bags (Petroleo)

stop buying canned products, get fresh

if you have some space, make a bit of a garden on your land.

Recicle Glas, Plastic, Paper

walk whenever you can, instead of using your car.

Organize a group that can share driving to there jobs, instead of everybody sitting by itself in there own car.

Answer 4

kill yourself, its the only way to savce the planet.lmafao

Answer 5

Stop Farting.

That is just as good as everything else suggested...

Get real...

Answer 6

I have been doing this for years-the grocery bags that you get at Wal-mart, you can either recycle them or reuse them to line garbage cans. It will save you money and you don't have to buy extra plastic. Only drive when you need to.

---switch to rechargeable batteries.

whoever said "buy living christmas trees" is just ignorant.

Answer 7

All good ideas, also recycle aluminum, glass and steel.

Consolidate trips to save gas, shop less often and buy for a longer period. I disagree somewhat about wasted water, unless it is polluted beyond clean up it isn't wasted .

Answer 8

I recycle everything I can and even pick items off from the ground when I see them.

Answer 9

Filter your own water!  OMG...the amount of plastic water bottles we sink into the ground is silly.  There are a ton of water filters on the market where you can easily convert tap water to filtered water.  Check out http://www.freshwatersystems.com for a huge supply of products.  This is where I get mine but a Google or YAHOO search for water filters will show up a ton of sources.  

One of the best things you can do is simply educate people on the impact they are currently having.  Lots of people just don't know.

Answer 10

Recycle, plant trees, replace bulbs with CFL. Carpool, try not to use cars as much.

Answer 11

Wash your bags (like Ziploc) in the sink and reuse them.

Replace your light bulbs with CFLs (They DO save money, I've seen results, and last like, what, 15 times longer?)

TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS WHEN YOU LEAVE THE ROOM! This annoys me SO much, you won't even believe! If you leave 4 lights on in your room, and then go watch TV for 3 hours, do you know how much energy you just wasted??????? Please, people! and turn off your computers at night and when ou at school/work.

Recycle! Do NOT buy bottled water (all goes to landfills!)

Don't take an hour long shower.

Sell your dryer and use a clothes line!

Plant a tree.

use solar/wind/hydroelectric power

Answer 12

A big help to the environment would be if you could download from the Internet all your music and movies and store them on your hard drive.

Buy a digital camera and store all pictures on your hard drive.

Avoid printing information off the Internet. Store it in my documents.

When you have time eat where they have real forks and knives or at home.

It is no longer the fad but run a ceiling fan.

Drink water from the tap. In most cases it is very safe. Ask your water provider for a print out of what is in your water. If in doubt spit it out. Always have emergency water on hand.  For emergency Drinking You can save tap water for a week or more and use it to flush with but you always need a fresh supply. That is also true for bottle water.

Answer 13

the ice is melting around the earth and the earth doesn't have enough white to reflect the sun causing rising temperatures. Builders should be using white roof tops. Also put huge white panels where the ice used to be. Not a small feat ,but can be done.

Answer 14

In Lodi CA they have small garbage containers for regular garbage and great big ones for recyclables.  If you want a big one for garbage it costs you an arm and a leg.  Smart people huh.  Everyone is in the habit of recycling there because if you don't do it right they will not pick your garbage or recycle bin up.  Mmm

Answer 15

Instead of flushing TP down, try reusing it over and over.

Tell trees that you love and and that they are hot and s**y.

Instead of driving a car to work, just stay home, and ****** about environmental causes.

Make your clothes out of sewn together potato skins.

Get upset because a place called "Greenland" is getting greener even though historical records show that the island used to be mostly green.

Answer 16

Get off yahooanswers and take a walk.   Most of us waste way too much time on here.

Answer 17

use floresent lighbulbs instead of usall ones is simples and never hurts

Answer 18

Great suggestions. Let's think long term; stop breeding. Think about this. We have a finite quantity of resources; to what effect will unlimited breeding have on this?

Answer 19

add some dry ice then cap. Dont forget to run like h**l.

Answer 20

Do not have children.  Zero. Zip.

The population explosion was detailed in the sixties in a book called "The Population Bomb".  We have pretty much ignored this book in favor of economic growth.  Its predictions are pretty much arriving.  

Reducing your impact on the environment is GOOD.  But, the tactic is limited in its efficacy.  Less is good, but none is still too much.  The current population could reduce its environmental impact by one half, and we would still be in trouble.  The population that is developing will make it even worse.  How many record warm temperatures wil it take to convince you?  

Just like in that silly movie, those who think will not proliferate, while those who do not think, will.  The population will crush the planet and its economic systems soon.  Conservation will postpone the inevitable.  Nothing more.

Sit back and watch as the plague of human consumption engulfs the planet.  Read the magazines and try your best.  Reduce your "carbon footprint".  But, it's too late.

We seek to reduce the rate at which we INCREASE our demands on energy and petroleum, when what we NEED to do is reduce the rate at we which birth those who consume.  Excuse me, we need to eliminate those who consume.

We are encouraged by global economic growth, and stare blindly at the lights (like a deer does) of the approaching juggernaut of overpopulation.  Six billion.  In forty years, nine billion.

Good luck.  I hope you the best.  Not politics, reformation, technology nor determination will save you.

Slow down?  OK! Eventually, the Chinese will catch on, but, by then, Africa will be fully developed.  While the businessmen who do the developing will be smiling, the carbon growth will have gone all to h**l.

Have kids!  It's OK!  Tell them to expect the worst as they grow up.  This is OK in Iraq, and Bosnia, and Afganistan, and ?????

DO NOT have children.   Hope for your best.  Good luck.

OR, explain to your chilfren.  Your choice.

Of course, IF we stopped having children [this WILL NOT happen], then there will be no young providers for the rapidly aging population.  Too bad.  That is me.

Answer 21

use paper bags instead of plastic, walk to the supermarket instead of driving,  and bring a collapsing cart for groceries, eat less meat & dairy products, and more vegtables, fruit, nuts, reducing animal waste.

Use one high energy appliance at a time. (i.e. mirowave, self cleaning oven etc.) you pay extra for "load demand" which mean starting more appliances at the same time cost extra.

Answer 22

dont read the answers above.

only mine will save the planet.

invent a new virus(better than AIDS) to kill everyone on this planet. thats the only way to save us!

Answer 23

Buying a hybrid isn't  too simple, there's a lot of work invovled in making all that money.......

Try to drive less-walk and ride your bike a little more. It will save you money, and make the air more plesurable to breathe.

Answer 24

Buy organic whenever possible (its better for the ground AND your body!).

Refuse bags when you go shopping, bring your own bags with you.

Buy products with minimal packaging.

Answer 25

Very small way -

I sew gift bags with old fabrics (or fabric from old shirts/skirts, etc) and use them instead of gift wrap.  The recipient then has something they can re-use, rather than buying more gift paper.  

They take about 15 minutes to make with a sewing machine, or maybe 45 by hand.

Answer 26

Change your car oil without an oil pan so the oil will go back to the ground , remember oil came form the earth why not return it to the earth?

Answer 27

become a vegetarian, only go to the hairdressers once every 7 weeks, use bicarb and washing soda instead of dishwasher powder, dry clothes in the sun (kills germs too) shower not bath, (only shower once a day) have a rainwater butt to catch your rain, walk everywhere, or cycle, eat less, only use recyclable paper products (loo roll), clean off makeup with almond or other fine oil, , use bicarb, salt and lemon to clean your teeth, swithch off tap when you are cleaning your teeth, only fill the kettle with enough water to boil what you need, recycle, recycle recycle or re use eveerything, dont accept plastic bags, store freezer stuff in cotton bags, decant plastic held liquids into glass, compost your rubbish or get a wormery, switch off lights, tvs, stereos when you leave a room, put all computers on one long extension plug you can switch off at night to stop  stand by running, want me to go on?

Answer 28

by recycling.

by using lightbulbs with low wats.

by planting trees in your yard, to give oxygen back to the earth.

only wach full loads of clothes.

turning the water of while your brushing your teeth.

these are just some of the ways.

i hope this helps you =)

Answer 29

no one will ever change anything just let it be

Answer 30

I have these wonderful cloth mess bags that I use when I go grocery shopping.  They hold quite a bit.  They eliminate the need to use plastic or paper bags.

Answer 31

Wash, brush your teeth, and shampoo your hair in the shower at the same time.

Carpool--asking Americans to walk is just too much.

Turn off your lights/electronics sometimes.