Do this |
Because |
|
| Become a vegetarian or vegan |
Living
on a diet free of meat or even free of all animal products requires
MUCH less energy (and creates much less pollution) than living on a
diet that includes meat. Raising animals requires significantly more
space, more resources, more energy than growing vegetables. Farm
animals and their production creates a large amount of green-house
gases. |
significant |
| Find a farmer in your area and buy direct |
Locally
grown foods require much less transportation energy. Locally grown food
(unless it is grown in fossil-fuel heated greenhouses) pollutes less.
Even better if it is certified organic. |
noticeable |
| Eat vegetables that are certified organic |
Human-made pesticides and fertilizers require energy and resources to
be manufactured and distributed, and may pollute the air, soil, and
water systems. Vegetables that are grown without those pesticides and
fertilizers require less fossil energy to be grown and pollute less. |
significant |
| Eat less dairy |
A
cow has to give birth to a calve to continue to give milk. Around 50%
of all born calves are male. To reduce the supply of bull calves and
the waste of energy and resources to raise those bull calves, reduce
the amount of dairy you consume. A cow produces easily 5 gallons of
milk per day. That equals 5 gallons of milk, or 5 gallons of joghurt,
or around one pound of butter per day. If you eat that much dairy per
day, you should eat one bull calf every two years. If you eat less
dairy, you can eat less bull calf. The question now is how to determine
if the meat you eat is from a bull calf. And how much the bull calf
weighed. If it was a calf. |
noticeable |
| Eat meat only from animals you hunted |
Wild
animals live their lives outside and eat what they find. Generally that
is healthier than what traditional (non-organic) farmers give their
animals and it requires no fossil fuel energy to be manufactured. |
significant |
| Eat organically grown meat |
Meat
from organic farms comes from animals that ate naturally grown feed.
There are much fewer animals per acre on an organic farm. The meat may
be more expensive, but there is less pollution involved because there
are fewer animals and less artifical feed involved. |
noticeable |
| Eat the whole animal |
Meat
production pollutes. If you eat more of the animal, you have to raise
fewer animals. Fewer animals raised results in less pollution. |
noticeable |
| Eat food that does not look perfect |
Go
ahead and judge the fruit by its look. If it looks perfect (the way you
see it in high gloss catalogs or magazines) it is most likely from a
plant that was helped with pesticides to grow such perfect fruit and it
is most likely waxed. Pesticide use pollutes. |
not enough |
| Stay away from nail salons |
Nail
polish and nail polish removers use solvents that are toxic,
carcinogenic, mutagenic, and are, after you got a small dose while in
the store, exhausted to the outside. |
noticeable |
| Destroy antibiotics |
Sooner or later some diseases will be resistant to antibiotics that are
constantly added to our environment and pollution will increase because
people get sick, need to travel, end up in the hospital, etc. Do not
pour antibiotic liquids or pills down the drain or throw in the trash.
Boil or microwave the antibiotics before you throw them out. |
not enough |
| Stay out of the hospital |
Hospitals
pollute by using a lot of energy and resources and you have no control
over this. For understandable reasons, the protection of the
environment is not a priority of a hospital. However, if you have the
choice and can get healthy at home, do it. |
not enough |
