April 2008
Earth Day:
Think Globally; Act
Individually
Dear Friend,
On April 22, 1970, 20-million Americans
commemorated the first Earth Day, marked by many as the
beginning of the environmental movement, which led to
the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the
Endangered Species Act. Thirty-eight years later,
Earth Day is commemorated around the globe and has
evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our
environment.
Living on islands in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean, we in Hawaii tend to be more sensitive to
the earth and the water around us—to our aina. We
understand that our own actions affect our entire
community. We know that, even though we need to think
globally, the steps we take as individuals can make a
global difference.
We can decide to protect the
environment and reduce energy consumption by buying more
efficient appliances, cars and homes. However,
these kinds of steps require significant financial
investment, and they’re not decisions that most people
make very often. So, to commemorate Earth Day,
here’s a list of 6 choices that don’t require major
lifestyle changes or a lot of money.
Bring reusable bags to the
grocery store. Plastic bags are made from
crude oil and take an estimated 1,000 years to
degrade. Compared to plastic bags, paper uses more
than nine times the landfill space, takes more energy to
produce and recycle, and generates more air and water
pollutants. Reusable bags hold more groceries and
are more convenient. Even if you can’t remember to
bring bags with you, refusing that plastic bag when you
buy just one item or rent one movie effectively reduces
consumption.
Use less water.
Showers account for two-thirds of all water heating
costs. Try taking a shorter shower and use a low-flow
shower head. Run your dishwasher only when full, wash
your clothes in cold water, and fix leaky faucets and
running toilets. At one drop per second, leaky faucets
can waste up to 2,700 gallons of water a year, and runny
toilets can waste as much as 200 gallons a day.
Take care of your
car. Keeping tires properly inflated
improves gas mileage and can keep your tires from
wearing out as soon. Driving with under-inflated
tires reduces fuel economy by 2%, on average.
Avoiding rapid acceleration, reducing idling time and
removing excess weight from your vehicle also improves
fuel efficiency.
Change one light
bulb. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use
less electricity and last much longer than the
old-fashioned incandescent bulb. Compact
fluorescents can be pricey, and sometimes they don’t fit
in older fixtures made for a smaller bulb. In
addition, these lights should stay on for at least 15
minutes or bulb life is actually shorter, so they’re
most useful in living or family rooms or above your
front door. But, if every household changed just
one light bulb to a compact fluorescent, it would keep
more than 13 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere. That’s equivalent to taking a million
cars off the road for an entire year.
Recycle. In
2003, recycling and composting activities kept nearly 72
million tons of material out of landfills and
incinerators. Today, America recycles 32.5% of its
waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15
years. Hawaii has also made efforts to increase
recycling in recent years by starting curbside pickup
and the HI-5 cent bottle redemption law. By
recycling plastic containers or giving them to
organizations that recycle, they’ll benefit from that 5
cents and the plastic container will not spend 700 years
in a landfill.
Plant a tree or enjoy
nature. Planting trees is an effective
way to reduce greenhouse gases. Trees absorb carbon
dioxide and create oxygen for us to breath. On Earth
Day, get outside—enjoy a park, fly a kite, ride a
bicycle or help clean-up a local stream or nature
setting.
Earth Day 2008 is Tuesday, April
22nd. As we go about our daily lives, we can all
make little improvements to consume less. And if a
lot of individuals take action, it will make a global
difference.
Aloha,
Neil Abercrombie
Member of Congress
