Tiny Lifestyle Tweaks Add Up!
By Jenn | November 5, 2009
Just wanted to point ya’ll towards this Grist article, which basically backs up our whole reason for existing here at Tiny Choices:
“The United States could cut greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of France’s total annual emissions by getting Americans to make simple lifestyle changes, like regularly maintaining their cars or insulating their attics, a study showed Monday.
If U.S. households took 17 easy-to-implement actions—like switching to a fuel-efficient vehicle, drying laundry on a clothesline instead of in a dryer, or turning down the thermostat—carbon emissions could be cut by 123 metric tons a year by the 10th year, the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found [PDF]…
…
“It is greater than reducing to zero all emissions in the United States from the petroleum-refining, iron and steel, and aluminum industries, each of which is among the largest emitters in the industrial sector,” the study said.
But the lifestyle changes come with a much smaller price tag and no great change to the way Americans live.”
Some of the changes may be, depending on your income, cost-prohibitive– but others are free or inexpensive to implement. Hang your clothes up to dry. Caulk around window and doorframes. Insulate your attic. Inflate your tires. Combine trips. Install a low-flow showerhead. Wash in cold water. Wear a sweater.
Etc. You get the idea. As always, we tackle the ones we can, and take notes on the ones we hope to get to in the future, and look for ways to Repurpose Reduce Reuse Recycle everywhere we go.
What do you think about this study, and about tiny choices in general? Hopeful, hopeless, or somewhere in between?
[Image by baredreamer via Creative Commons]
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- Is it Too Much Work to adopt a Greener Lifestyle?
- Tiny Choices Pep Talk
- Urban Window Farms
- Easy Peasy Tip: Work the Windows!
- Tiny Choices Survey: MB Mullan
- Tiny Choices Survey: Daniele!
Topics: General |
Of course, I love it when a study comes out that validates our premise!
While I know the USA can’t turn around global warming by changing lightbulbs, as Obama infamously pointed out (and later retracted and softened) at the same time there probably will never be a silver bullet and I love that people can be empowered and part of the conversation NOW, while the policy makers are busy fighting over how much carbon a developing country is “entitled to.”
I think it’s awesome that yesterday I was the only commenter on your post, and today you were the only commenter on mine. *tap tap* Is this thing on? :)