Green in 2010

The Sierra Club recently published several tips for making 2010 a greener year. I thought it was interesting how simple changes can make a big impact.

Tip #1: Drive Less

If your pledge is to walk or bike more and drive less, you’ll relieve the environment of harmful greenhouse gases as well as reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Added bonus: This will nicely complement an exercise or diet resolution.

Yearly Impact: Reducing your driving distance by just 15 miles per week will save 900 pounds of carbon emissions annually.

Tip #2: Eat Fewer Animals

The environmental vegetarianism movement grows by the day, assisted in part by the recent assertion by the Worldwatch Institute that livestock production is to blame for more than half of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. If people resolved to cut back on meat and dairy in 2010, the world would be a much cleaner place.

Yearly Impact: If you refrain from eating meat just one day a week, you'll save as many emissions as you would driving 1,000 fewer miles this year.

Tip #3: Commit to Composting

We hear people preach about recycling all the time. But did you know that composting may be as important? As food and other organic waste decomposes anaerobically in the landfill, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that's more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Because composting is an aerobic process, it only produces carbon dioxide and not methane. Not sure how to get started? Click here and here to find out.

Yearly Impact: If the average family composted regularly, that household would prevent about 30 pounds of methane emissions per year, the equivalent of around 620 pounds of carbon dioxide (the same as what a small diesel car driving 1,200 miles would emit).
Tip #4: Give Your Time

Heed President Obama's call to service by signing up to help an organization that works to improve the world by protecting and preserving the environment.

Yearly Impact: Immeasurable.