help me help earth

this is the i am most confused about can sum1 tell me reasonable things to do in my everyday life to help the eath

MY AVERAGE DAY
wake up at 7 watch tv untill bout half 8( having shower and get dressed in that)
bike or walk to skool
stay at skool untill half 3
cum home get changed play out or watch tv


can ne body gimme ideas on how to help the Earth?

 

help the earth do what?

 

you do have to take your pick really because there are thousands of ways you could help the earth.... but if you're thirteen i guess you need 'simple' stuff, unless you also convince your parents to change their ways too...
a couple of ideas:
-start composting your fruit and veggie waste from the kitchen (loads of info on the internet on how to do this proporly)
-dont buy things that are wrapped in 17 layers of useless, 'aesthetic' packaging
-recycle (although loads of people will argue that this in fact consumes too much energy to really make a difference...)
-plant trees!
-continue riding a bike instead of driving/getting a car
-try not to waste energy and water by leaving lights or taps on when their not being used

loads of other stuff too, but if for a start you do all those things and convince your parents to do the same, you'll be on a good track

peace

 

adding to what shrimpgirl said:
dont buy things you dont need! dont create trash to begin with
you dont always need a bag for one item, maybe get a canvas bag to put purchases in
recycle your clothes too, some places now have where you can just put it into a bin kinda thing outside and they pick it up
stop watching tv or limit it, you dont really need any of that (unless its pbs) and it wastes electicty

 

thanks for your help both of u (i cant use i car my parents dont have one lol)
i was wondering is it bad for the enviroment using a bus, i no it is better than getting car but is it still bad?

 

well i think the pollution is the same, but carpooling is good. its already going to be used so one more person or five more people wont make much of a difference.

 

about the recycling ur clothes part, if ur mom or u know how to sew, u can make new clothes with your old one. i think taking a bus is better than driving a car. its carpooling which helps a lot. its nice to know more and more people wanna make a change. ive seen a lot of posts about this, it makes me happy haha. peace~

 

buses and mass transist save a pretty good chunk of energy, how big i forget but its pretty nice.

y'know, if yur parents garden, they might be happy to see you wanting to compost.. what i do, to make it not messy and easy( i used to keep in plastic grocery bags and attracted flies in our house when we left windows open), is just throw a coffee container somewhere in the fridge, and fill it up slowly with my fruits and vegetable waste, and teabags..and occasionally ill just walk it behind the garage(or you can get a bin or something), and chuck it on the pile. does wonders for the garden if you mix it with leaves and sticks and other organic matter. or if im just anywhere eating say a banana or apple, ill be sure to toss the peel or core under a bush somewhere. it decomposes and biodegrades much more quickly there than in a landfill, and im sure the bush enjoys the organic matter. bananas are good for this because they rot quickly ive learned, likewise with apple cores, but other things work pretty fast too im sure.

going vegetarian helps too, its second only to cars in terms of environmental destruction. or, give up red meat and pork, they are the hardest on the land. chickens and turkeys are still factory farmed and given really shitty lives, and fishing is arguably very inhumane, but you have to start somewhere i guess...

nother thing your parents would like if you bought for say a birthday or mothers day or something, fluro lights. with energy prices on the rise(here anyway), these things are blessings. they use 15 watts of power compared to the average 60, and save about 20 bucks a month on average and live at least 5 times longer than their counterparts, 5 times!!! you can get 2 for just 10 bucks here, pays itself off in a month. who doesnt wanna save 20 somethin bucks every month???

oh yeah, THRIFT STORES!!!! never buy new name brand clothing, cotton is a very pesitcide intensive crop to grow...and those name brands tend to be the same people who are fucking up this world, and not helping the environment. or buy name brand shit found at thrift stores, just used but equaly nice, for WAY cheaper... you can find lots of nice stuff for very cheap there, can usually never even tell its used.

and stop watching tv... go sit under a tree and watch the clouds and daydream, or read a book.

 

Here is a fun project you could do at home. Go here http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/recyclingpaper.html and learn how to make your own recycled paper at home with newspaper scraps

 

thanks (i'm thinking and learning more about decomposting food waste at the moment, thanks all) if eva u wanna email me my addy is sam_gallant@hotmail.co.uk

 

I have now encouraged my mum to get a compost bin in the garden
that is also good for us for enriching soil i believe

it also decreases the amount of rubbish we have (whole point in doing it)
we are getting it on monday mum working untill then

thanks agen all

 

Hey,
one great way to help the earth is by educating yourself on certain topics - urban sprawl, global warming, agriculture, Genetically Modified Foods, deforestation, energy sources/fuel, etc. - you need to understand the problems to fix them...
going vegetarian/vegan helps a lot too - although just limiting your intake of animal products helps too - in short, this is because the amount of food produced per acre of beef is much less than the amount produced per vegetable so it takes up more land, corporations like mcdonalds use rainforest land that has been slashed and burned to raise cattle more cheaply, waste regulations for animals are basically non-existant and it basically seeps into the environment polluting water and causing eutropication which destroys water ecosystems, and of course, it's horrible for the animals
oh, and take this quiz! http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
it gives you some suggestions as well
also, you can always get involved with local groups or get one started at high school - the high school group could set up trash clean ups, recycling drives, plant trees, invite speakers for earth day, etc.
hope that helps , let me know if you have any questions
~Dan

 

on that http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp i got
2.7 hectareas I am not sure i answered every question very accurately like house size but i think that is good isn't it, im now finding bout things u suggested

thanks

 

yay!!!
it says; if everyone lived like me we would need one planet
i got a 2 and most people where i live would have a 4.8 (thats bad!!!)

great website

 

good for you

mine is 2.1 without airplane travel but 4.7 with it!!!! thats huge! but my family lives overseas so i dont really know how i could reduce it unless i took a boat......and the a three day train.......

 

i believe there's this organisation that plants trees
so you can donate like 10 trees for each flight or something
train and boat would be more damaging then taking a plane i think or not?

 

yea, that is good!

mine is 1.7 planets when i'm living in Blacksburg where I can bike everywhere and live in a house with a lot of roommates and can buy locally grown food, but when i'm in northern Virginia staying with my parents in an area of urban sprawl where you can only by food from crappy supermarkets, have to drive everywhere and in a big house w/ few people it is like 3.2 planets - kinda sucks when you're a kid and have little control/power over some choices like that
~Dan

 

i think it some aspects train and boat might be more damaging, but overall,the amount of jet fuel that is burned is what does it - plus the amount of space needed for paved runways

 

aaah okay

eh check this:

http://www.greenseat.nl/

 

i neva had a convo wid lots of people that actually care about the enviroment, it feels real good to b part of it.