Make a Difference in Climate Change
by HANS Editors
Source: Health Action Magazine Summer 2007
1. Meat consumption
Producing a quarter pound of hamburger requires 100 gallons of water and 1.2 pounds of grain. It takes 7 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. The world's grain harvest has declined in five of the last six years and is expected to be 61 million tons short of consumption. Thirty-six percent of grain is used as feed. Worldwide, cattle population generates about 94 million tons of methane annually (one ton of methane is equivalent to 21 tons of carbon dioxide), which is 20 percent more damaging than carbon dioxide.
2. Ships
The world's commercial vessels produce more carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide than all the cars, trucks and buses on the planet. Talk to your government representative and to the UN International Maritime Organization and ask them to establish and police meaningful controls over the fuel burned in ships.
3. Lawns
There are 30 million acres of lawn in the US with 54 million people mowing their lawns each week, consuming a yearly amount of 800 million gallons of gas and applying 70 million pounds of pesticides. Maybe we have to change the concept that brown is beautiful instead of green, or plant native plants and vegetables instead.
4. Cars
If new cars and light trucks were required to install the best technology and increase fuel economy to 40 miles per gallon, Americans would save three million barrels of oil each and every day; more than the Arctic and Persian Gulf imports combined. The gas mileage per vehicle on average has actually declined in the last two decades due to larger vehicles. The CO2 emissions of a typical American car in one day average 3 kg.
5. Processed food
Buy less and buy locally. It takes about 10 calories to produce and transport food for each calorie in the food itself.
6. Garden irrigation
In Israel, drip irrigation delivers water directly to the roots of plants, reduces water consumption by 30-70 percent, and increases crop yield by 20-90 percent.
7. Green power
Signup for power supplied from sustainable sources such as wind, solar, biomass or animal farms that generate power from methane (animal waste).
8. Schools
A real opportunity exists to provide leadership and education to our youth by building smarter and healthier schools with sustainable and chemical-free products; solar heating; green roofs; extensive classroom daylight and solar hot water systems supplying the cafeteria.
9. Energy Efficiency
The US uses three times as much energy as Japan per capita for the same level of economic output; energy efficiency has been a major priority for the Japanese and positions them much more competitively in a future world
of constrained resources. Japan sets standards for a broad range of consumer products and energy use in commercial and residential construction and factory operations. Clearly, we can learn much from the Japanese experience.
10. Join Health Action Network Society
Choose to support a nonprofit, charitable organization that is continually involved with raising awareness and creating healthy action on environmental and health concerns such as climate change, fluoridation, food irradiation, cancer treatments, and more.
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