Earth Day: Love Your Mother (Disclaimer: 'Vanity Fair' aptly named) Now Do Good

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http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060417fege09
Best of the Best: Fifty Ways to Help Save the Planet
1. LIGHTBULBS MATTER Switch from traditional incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (C.F.L.). If every American household replaced one regular lightbulb with a C.F.L., the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road. A 30-watt C.F.L. produces about as much light as an ordinary 100-watt bulb. Although the initial price is higher, C.F.L.'s can last 12 times as long. C.F.L.'s are available at most home-improvement stores and at bulbs.com.
2. DITCH PLASTIC BAGS Californians Against Waste (cawrecycles.org), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, estimates that Americans use 84 billion plastic bags annually, a considerable contribution to the 500 billion to one trillion used worldwide. Made from polyethylene, plastic bags are not biodegradable and are making their way into our oceans and waterways. According to recent studies, the oceans are full of tiny fragments of plastic that are beginning to work their way up the food chain. Invest in stronger, re-usable bags, and avoid plastic bags whenever possible.
4. FORGET PRE-HEATING Ignore cookbooks! It is usually unnecessary to pre-heat your oven before cooking, except when baking bread or pastries. Just turn on the oven at the same time you put the dish in. During cooking, rather than opening the oven door to check on your food, just look at it through the oven window. Why? Opening the oven door results in a significant loss of energy.
7. HANG UP YOUR DRYER It goes without saying—clothes dryers are huge energy gluttons. Hints to reduce energy use: Clean the lint filter after each load (improves air circulation). Use the cool-down cycle (allows clothes to finish drying from the residual heat inside). Better yet, abandon your dryer and buy some drying racks, if you don't have a clothesline. Generally, clothes dry overnight.
9. GREEN PAINT Most paint is made from petrochemicals, and its manufacturing process can create 10 times its own weight in toxic waste. It also releases volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.'s) that threaten public health. (V.O.C.'s are solvents that rapidly evaporate, allowing paint to dry quickly.) They cause photochemical reactions in the atmosphere, leading to ground-level smog that can cause eye and skin irritation, lung and breathing problems, headaches, nausea, and nervous-system and kidney damage. The best alternative? Natural paints. Manufactured using plant oils, natural paints pose far fewer health risks, are breathable, and in some cases are 100 percent biodegradable. Remember: Never throw your paint away. Check out Earth 911's "Paint Wise" section for re-use programs in your community; earth911.org.
13. FOOD MILES MATTER Food is traveling farther than ever. Once upon a time people ate seasonally—artichokes in the winter, cherries in June. Now you can buy most fruits and vegetables practically year-round. The average American meal contains ingredients produced in at least five other countries. The transportation of food and agricultural products constitutes more than 20 percent of total commodity transport within the U.S. To help reduce CO2 emissions (released from trucks, airplanes, and cargo ships), it's best to buy food that's in season, organic, and grown locally. Go to ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets to find the farmers' market nearest you.
24. AVOID DISPOSABLE GOODS Institute a mug policy in your office. Americans throw away some 25 billion polystyrene cups every year, most of which end up in landfills. Refill your water bottles once or twice, and make your coffee in a ceramic mug. If you bring in cutlery from home, you will also cut down on those pesky plastic forks, knives, and spoons.
25. GROW YOUR OWN GARDEN In 1826, J. C. Loudon wrote in An Encyclopaedia of Gardening, "For all things produced in a garden, whether salads or fruits, a poor man that has one of his own will eat better than a rich man that has none." To start a vegetable garden costs nothing but a few packs of seeds and rudimentary garden implements, and it saves enormous amounts of money, to say nothing of the food miles and the packaging that go into supplying you with fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course, a vegetable garden is only productive for part of the year, but it is amazing how long that growing season lasts and how much you can produce from one small patch.
26. BUY RECYCLED PRODUCTS There has to be a market for products made with recycled goods. Support this movement by purchasing recycled goods—you will save virgin materials, conserve energy, and reduce landfill waste. Recycled paper products include toilet paper (which is no longer scratchy, like it used to be), copy paper, paper towels, and tissues. Look for garbage bags and bin liners labeled "recycled plastic," and buy recycled toner cartridges for your fax machines and printers.
27. PLANE BETTER Air travel is currently responsible for 3.5 percent of the global-warming gases from all human activity and is growing fast. Cargo transport by air is increasing by about 7 percent annually and passenger air travel is up in the last few years by between 4 and 7 percent. The impact of air travel is enormous; a round-trip between New York and Los Angeles emits one ton of CO2 per passenger. (To determine CO2 emissions for your next flight, go to co2.org.) Try to limit the number of flights you take. If you're traveling within a country, why not take a train? (Air travel releases at least three times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than rail travel does.) If you're planning a business trip, consider whether a video linkup or a conference call will suffice.
30. STANDBY NO LONGER Electricity "leaks" are no laughing matter. Televisions, video and DVD players, cable boxes, and other electronic equipment found in nearly every American home are wasting huge amounts of energy. When these devices are left on standby (the equivalent of "sleep" mode for computers) they use about 40 percent of their full running power. Every year, the energy wasted in this way is the equivalent of the annual output of 26 power plants. To avoid the drain of these "energy vampires," plug them into a power strip and turn it off when they are not in use.
31. TURN OFF YOUR CHARGERS Most cell-phone chargers continue to draw electricity even when the phone isn't plugged into it. If your cell-phone charger averages five watts per hour and is plugged in all the time, that means a total of more than 40 kilowatt-hours every year, or about 93 pounds of CO2. The same problem applies to your other electronic equipment—your laptop, iPod, digital camera, and BlackBerry. Unplug all your chargers when they are not in use.
32. RECYCLE YOUR BATTERIES Although the number of electrical gadgets that use disposable batteries is on the decline, each person in the U.S. discards eight batteries per year. Overall, Americans purchase nearly three billion batteries annually, and about 179,000 tons of those end up in the garbage. Batteries have a high concentration of metals, which if not disposed of properly can seep into the ground when the casing erodes. Avoid disposable batteries by using your outlets whenever possible. If you can't do without batteries, use rechargeable and recycled ones. You should also have your batteries collected and recycled. Go to rebat.com for a list of companies that participate in battery reclamation.
33. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU LEAVE AT NIGHT While computers do require a power surge when you first turn them on, they don't need enormous amounts of electricity to function for lengthy periods. Also, you can set your computer on "sleep" mode, which uses about three watts per hour, if you are going to be away from your desk for more than 15 minutes.
34. GET INVOLVED Recycling at home doesn't get you off the hook at work. If your office doesn't recycle, or recycles only paper, find out why. If you work in a small office, call your local authority to discover what recycling equipment and services are available. These may include storage containers and compacters as well as collection. If you work in a larger office, ask your building-services coordinator why there are no recycling facilities and whom you would need to speak to about starting a recycling program for paper, glass, metal, and plastic. For more information, visit earth911.org.
35. PRINT DOUBLE-SIDED American businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy way to halve this, set your printer's default option to print double-sided (duplex printing). This has the added advantage of halving the paper pile on your desk. To further cut your paper wastage, make sure you always use "print preview" mode to check that there are no overhanging lines and that you print only the pages you need. Other ways to cut down on paper before you get to the printing stage include using single or 1.5 spacing instead of double spacing, and reducing your page margins.
39. PLANT A TREE It's the simplest thing in the world to gather acorns, chestnuts, sweet chestnuts, and sycamore seeds in the autumn, plant them immediately, and forget them until the following spring. The success rate for acorns is not as high as for the other three, but in a good year about 40 percent germinate into oak trees. There's little that will stop the others from growing into healthy trees within the first year. Start saplings in Styrofoam coffee cups, which can be split with a knife so that the roots aren't disturbed when you plant them outdoors. Keep the saplings for four or five years, then plant them in your own garden, offer them to friends, or return them to nature. It may seem like a very small contribution, but if 5 percent of the U.S. population were to germinate one tree in one year, there would be almost 15 million extra trees absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. For more information, visit arborday.org.
40. AVOID PESTICIDES Use natural methods of pest control. Form a log pile—dead wood provides a habitat for many kinds of wildlife, such as snakes and ground beetles. Both are natural predators for snails and slugs. If you create a small pond to encourage frogs and toads, they will help mop up the rest of your slug life. In the short term you can get rid of slugs using beer traps (slugs are attracted to yeast). To get rid of whiteflies, buy Encarsia formosa, small parasitic wasps that eat whiteflies. Grow flowers such as marigolds to attract ladybugs, hoverflies, and lacewings, all of which protect against aphids.
41. BAT BOXES Want to reduce the number of mosquitoes in your backyard? Then invest in a bat box. One bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes a night. You will also be making a contribution to our country's temperate biodiversity: bat populations in America and around the world are declining, especially in urban areas, where they have few roosting spaces. Ideally, group two or three boxes together, place them as high as possible, and face them so the sun directly heats them for six to seven hours each day. If you are making a bat box yourself, use untreated and unpainted wood. It is essential that bats not be disturbed, so make certain your bat boxes cannot be reached by any local cats. For more information, visit batconservation.org/content/Bathouseimportance.html.
42. WALK OR BIKE Always consider alternatives to driving, especially for journeys under two miles. It's better for the environment to walk, cycle, or even take the bus than to hop in your car. Currently, only 2 percent of employed adults walk to work in the U.S. Walking adds to life expectancy, is safe, helps with mental and physical health, and, best of all, is completely free. Cycling is another way to get around and has recently become more popular, what with more bike paths and cool new gadgets like L.E.D. lights for riding in the dark. New kinds of folding bikes have been specially developed for the commuter. Surprisingly, recent studies have shown that bicyclists in cities are less exposed to air pollution than people in cars and taxis.
43. BUY A HYBRID Hybrid cars, which run on a combination of a gasoline engine and an electric motor, are all the rage these days. They get up to 50 miles per gallon, while a typical S.U.V. might travel around 15 m.p.g. Hybrids can offer substantial savings, and you may qualify for a one-time tax credit of up to $3,400. For information on U.S hybrid-car incentives, go to hybridcars.com/tax-deductions-credits.html.
47. GET AN ELECTRIC LAWN MOWER Surrender your gas lawn mower. Gasoline lawn mowers are among the dirtiest of modern machines. A study funded by the Swedish E.P.A. found that using a four-horsepower lawn mower for an hour causes the same amount of pollution as driving a car 93 miles. The trouble with gas lawn mowers is that they not only emit a disproportionate amount of CO2, they are also responsible for releasing carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the air. Retire the noisy monster and buy an electric or manual model. Better still, reduce the number of times you mow per season and let some of your lawn grow wild, which has added benefits for bugs, butterflies, and birds. For more information, visit greengrasscutters.com.
48. GREEN GRILLING If you have a charcoal barbecue grill, make sure your charcoal comes from a sustainable source. Enormous areas of tropical rainforest are destroyed every year to produce the 900,000 tons of charcoal burned annually in the U.S. Chimney starters are the most environmentally friendly solution to lighting charcoal. They use only a couple of pieces of newspaper, meaning you can avoid the gas-flavored meat that accompanies barbecues started with lighter fluid or fire starters. If you are replacing your grill, remember that using a gas, rather than charcoal, grill is the most environmentally friendly way to barbecue. It avoids forest destruction and doesn't add to local air pollution.
49. RE-GIFT GIFT WRAP Help cut down on the consumption of paper and plastic by re-using wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and gift bags. These items should be good for at least one more wrapping. If you are feeling creative, use old calendars, pages from magazines, or even newspaper to wrap gifts.
50. A GREEN ENDING Green funerals don't just mean a woodland burial. Very few people actually know about the green alternatives to steel or hardwood coffins. Many private funeral homes present green alternatives to traditional coffins, including wicker caskets and shrouds. Currently, 89 percent of coffins sold are made of chipboard that is manufactured using formaldehyde. When chipboard coffins are cremated, they can release toxic gases. If buried, they disrupt local ecosystems; as the chipboard decays, the formaldehyde and glue leach into the soil and groundwater. Finally, most people opting for a green good-bye will choose a meadow or woodland burial, with only a memorial tree marking the grave. For more information, visit fullcirclecare.org/endoflife/funeral.htm.