Looking Out My Back Door

Hurricanes, Global Warming and Leonardo DiCaprio

This has been the busiest Atlantic hurricane season since the 1930s (I think the precise year is 1933). Yesterday's "Oprah" focused on global warming. Her guests, actor/environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio and Princeton professor Dr. Oppenheimer, provided several scary facts about how we in the U.S., who make up five percent of the world's population, produce 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. Dr. Oppenheimer said that in the course of the last thousand or so years, the most dramatic change/activity in the earth's temperature has taken place in the last fifty years. Hmm. Any connection between the last busy Atlantic hurricane system and the current one? A difference of 72 years or so? The show served as a wake-up call, even for someone like me, who has (until now) been only semi-concerned at best with recycling and the environment. (Combined with the personal experiences of some friends and relatives who have suffered mightily at the hands of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, what I learned yesterday has made me decide to make a few changes, all on behalf of the environment.)

Like Oprah, I'm not going to run out and buy a hybrid automobile, but there are some other steps I can and will take. Replacing regular light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs is the first (I already replaced my outdoor light with the more eco-friendly version). Eschewing styrofoam products is next. I already get double use out of supermarket plastic bags (ideal for disposing of used cat litter), so I'm not going to bring my own to market, but there were other ideas presented, some practical, some less so (unless you have a huge income and can afford to build an eco-friendly home). More do-able are things like bringing a garment bag to the drycleaners and having your cleaned items placed in that, rather than in plastic bags. Using toilet paper made from recycled paper (not for the sensitive!). Unplugging electric plugs when not using the appliance in question (unless it has a clock or other settings that need juice), as they suck up energy even when not in use. One item in particular: your cell phone charger. Yep, mine is still plugged in even as I write this, but I'll unplug it when I get home. Computers? When you're not on 'em, unpl

Okay, let's not get too crazy...but if everyone replaced the five most used lightbulbs in their home with the fluorescent type, the energy savings -- and subsequent ecological damage -- is significant. You can get the actual numbers at Oprah.com. Pretty amazing...not to mention scary.

posted by Hopster @ 11:04 AM