coyou

Eating less meat will help you on your quest to reduce your carbon emissions. The cow is the worst emissions offender, largely because of what come out of it’s other end!

Have a read of this article

Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9 per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.

 

So If you don’t fancy becoming fully vegan, just a reduction in the amount of meat meals you consume will help.

Nobody (with any sense) is going to question that Climate Change is happening. Thankfully public opinion now seems to be turning against the deniers as the problems of man made accelerated climate change become mainstream. This turns everyone’s attention to solutions.

If you want to get to grips with the complex issues involved in solving climate change then I can recommend reading George Monbiot’s book Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning.

This book more than any other will give you an insight into how we’ve got ourselves into this situation and offers ways in which we might get ourselves out of it.

Definitely worth a read.

Small steps can make a big difference. (especially if a lot of people make them together) So here are some kitchen tips….

1. When you’ve got stuff in a pan, make sure you put it a lid on it. This will reduce the cooking time.
2. Don’t fill the kettle up, if you are only making one cup of tea.
3. If you have a garden, invest in a composter. This will reduce the amount of methane produced in landfilled sites (Methane is worse for the environment than co2 emissions.)
4. If you are boiling an egg, but the egg in cold water. Bring it to the boil. Then turn the heat off and leave for 5 mins. You have used less power than boiling the water, then putting the egg in.
5. Check your fridge, you might have it turned up to the max, turning it down slightly, will reduce the power you use.
6. Use your microwave. Weirdly, it uses about a third of the energy of a normal oven.
7. Try not to buy food with unnecessary packaging. Its a waste and often ends up back in the ground producing more methane.
8. If you have a dishwasher, only put it on at night and always make sure it is completely full.

I’ve changed all the bulbs in our house to low energy bulbs.

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages and had fitted only a couple previously when bulbs had gone. In case you don’t know, low energy bulbs are also called CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) It cost me about £150 to do all of them in one go, but I figured this will actually pay for itself over time, since it seems these bulbs will last 10 times longer than normal bulbs and are cheaper to run. The electricity used by a normal bulb is often more than 90% of its total cost.

The energy saving trust says:

“Each bulb you fit could save up to £100 on electricity over the bulb’s lifetime.”

I think one of the big problems with changing over is that most people (unless they are really committed) are not going to spend £150 on bulbs in one go! Money is tight, the answer to this problem would be to just make normal incandescent bulbs illegal, or another option would be to make CFL bulbs very cheap or give them away, this would dramatically help reduce your personal co2 emissions. But it seems to still be a bit of a way off in government thinking.

There also seems to be a problem with adapting to bulbs that look slightly different

There are a few myths that put people off getting CFLs, that having done it, I can say are just wrong.

The Myths

1) They look ugly. They’re not, I actually think they look elegant, (particularly the newer smaller ones.)
2) A concern that they don’t give you a bright light immediately when you flick the switch - who cares! its a split second does it really matter?
3) They give off a different type of light that some people find a bit strange at first. Its just different, it won’t kill you.
4) That they don’t fit all types of lights. Shops and DIY shops seem to still be a bit behind on this but have a look a round on the internet, you can get an energy saving bulb for every type of fitting.

If you cant afford to change all your bulbs in one go, have a think about the 5 bulbs you use most often and start wit these and then when other bulbs go, jsut make sure you replace them with low energy ones.

Changing to CFL’s is an easy step you do have control of changing. I bought mine from The Green Shop

This week I got hold of a Electrisave. It costs £19.99 to rent one for a month. (or £69.99 to buy one) Really simple to use, you just plug it in near your electricity meter and it tells you exactly how much electricity you are using in the home at any time. But more importantly it also shows you how much greenhouse gases you responsible for in kg per hour!

It becomes a bit addictive as you got round the house turns things on and off and watch the meter go up and and down. After just a couple of days of use I’ve started making sure all lights are off when I’m not in the room and things not being used are unplugged (like mobile phone chargers)

A very visual way of seeing your carbon emissions fall and your electricity bill decrease.

Its a really good starting point to think about how you can reduce emissions from your own home. Its the ipod of the climate change debate, everyone should get one.