Low Carbon Diet

There is an environmental program on NHPR (New Hampshire Public Radio) every weekend called Living On Earth. This is one of the NHPR shows that I listen to every week. On the show this morning, they had a segment on a low carbon diet. This is the sort of diet I can support!

The main idea is to reduce your carbon footprint- the amount of CO2 you help produce by going about your daily lives. If you haven't figured out what your carbon footprint is, you should give it a try. Its amazing how much a single household contributes to global warming. There are many calculators out there:

• Earth Day Footprint Quiz
  
• Carbon Calculator
  
• Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth Carbon Calculator

Once you've calculated your carbon footprint, hopefully you'll want to reduce it! Here are some ideas from the low carbon diet, and some from me:

• Replace incandescent light bulbs with CFL bulbs
  
• Take cloth bags to the grocery store
• Insulate your water heater
• Reduce the time in the shower
• Turn down the thermostat in the winter, turn it up in the summer
• Do laundry in cold water
• Buy energy efficient appliances, and recycle the old ones
• Air dry clothes
• Bike or walk instead of driving
• Grow your own vegies, no transportation needed
• Replace your hot water heater with a Point of Service (POS) water heater
• Only turn on lights if you need them, and turn them off when you're not in the room
• Compost instead of throwing biodegradable material away
• Get food from local farmers markets and farm stands
• Reuse your water glass all day
• Install rain barrels at your gutters for watering plants
• Use drained cooking water to water house plants, the added nutrients are good for the plants
• Carpool