10 Simple Ways To Make Your Lifestyle Green

All of us are aware of the crisis that our planet is facing. Rising global temperatures, vanishing flora and fauna, scarce resources – and the list has only started. We try to be well meaning (well, most of the times), and even get those pangs of dudgeon when we figure out the sheer proportion of this mess and the way we, in our individual capacities, continue to do precious little to make a difference. It’s never too late to start a good thing: Halabol tells you how. Here is a list of 10 simplest things you can do to make a significant difference. And we all know the adage of tiny drops making up an ocean, don’t we?

1. Gizmos Should Serve Better Purpose Than Just Show Off (Pay Bills Online And Save Paper)

Yes, we know how you are so good at doing the social media stuff on your smart phones. No matter what advertisements claim, mere buying those smart phones won’t make you smart, unless you harness their full potential. Most of us get newspapers, since it’s kinda conventional to get them at civilized homes; while we might never be getting time to spare more than 15 minutes. Try phone applications; they are available for a majority of national and international dailies and magazines. You can read news on the go, while doing the needful to save forests. And did we mention that you should shift to ebills, if you haven’t already? Talk to your network provider, and do it right away. We know, there are certain seemingly arcane offices, which still ask for hard copies for making reimbursements. Consider floating this as an idea there; if they still choose to live in the Stone Age, never mind; give them just a printout of the first page of your billing statement. It would incur many benefits; you won’t only help save on the other pages of your statement details (which you anyway never check), but it will also help save on the fuel used to make the bill delivery close to your doorstep.

2. Say No To Bottled Water (Now, Come On, You Can Trust Those ROs)

Courtesy: sodahead.com

We have all heard of those stars who would only use mineral water to bathe; thankfully, the hostilities of lesser mortals (like us) towards the planet are limited to only insisting on mineral or sparkling *whatever* water, when we go and dine out. It is one of those few celebrated examples of nurturing an artificial demand; MNCs want money, mind it, and they may fake doing CSR activities to aggrandize their websites. Unless you stop being the reason of this unreasonable destruction to the environment, they won’t stop production. While we can understand if you are out somewhere, at a remote place, where you wouldn’t have the luxury of RO/filtered water, but why at a restaurant that charges you uppity sums for service providing? If it’s your vanity, shun it. In fact, scientific evidence points out that those who stay way too clean, tend to be more immunologically challenged. Water, at any place, would have some bacteria, against which our body would develop immunity over a period of time. That’s why some of us get an upset stomach, when we go out for some days to a new place; notice that those who always insist on ‘mineral water’ (read these two words with a fake Brit accent, for the comic relief and to know how ‘they’ say it; go on, try it once), get that immunity issue all the more. So start being less highfaluting, and carry your water containers with you! If you don’t believe us about the false demand, see the following useful video (see it even if you believe us; it’s nice!).

http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/

3. Eat Smart And In Moderation (If Possible, Go Vegetarian)

For every extra bite you take than you need, you push the overall food production machinery in an overdrive, which means more usage of irrigation, fertilizers, transportation, cold-stores, and we shouldn’t forget – more of those inches. To lose those inches, you end up doing a lot, and if you don’t use natural methods, chances are that your deeds would yet again have a deleterious impact on the environment (think about the extra minutes the treadmill would operate and that AC will remain switched on… there, you got the drift, didn’t you?). So, it is better that we live in peace with our surroundings always – taking only that much that we for subsistence. And yes, being a vegetarian is a grand service to our mother earth. It’s a bit technical how, but here it is, if you really want to know. A hen would need to be fed 10 kg of cereal for producing one kg of meat (remember that 10% law of food chains?), since the poor creature would need a lot of energy to live and metabolize, until it puts on enough weight and becomes ready to go to your dinner plate. That 10 kg of cereal would be enough to feed at least ten people for 3 days. Now you may argue that the cereal that the hen eats and what humans eat won’t be the same. We don’t blame you for not having thought through (the finger-licking temptation does funny things to our cognitive ability), but the answer is that land is a scarce commodity; the same land with same water could be used to grow food for those people, who don’t even get hen-grade food to eat. Therefore, the lower your trophic level on a food chain, the better you are for the environment. Going forward, vegetarianism might become the only option to sustain the burgeoning world population, if scientists’ horrors about global food crisis, caused by a variety of natural factors, come true. But then, as Marx clearly told us ages ago, that’s the concern of petty bourgeois.

4. Start Carrying A Reusable Bag (It’s IN, Trust Us!)

Every time you decide to experience the bliss that retail therapy is, you also ensure that trees continue to be felled for those stylish paper-bags. Consider buying some good quality jute bags (at some places, really nice bags are available for as low as Rs. 25; visit Spar, the hypermarket, if you don’t believe us) and carry them along whenever you decide to go splurge.

5. Walk, Bike, Or Use Shared Cars (Spare That CNG-Fitted SUV)
Consumerism is a b****, they say. Many people save a lot to buy their dream cars, only to get them fitted with CNG kits (thanks to the petrol prices, which will never go down in the living memories of us all). While that’s totally eco-friendly, the point is why spend on something you cannot afford to maintain? Fine, everyone has a right to indulge, but is it really necessary to enjoy that cheap and subsidized ride (govt. subsidizes CNG heavily), when you can safely be a wanderlust of no lesser proportions by using the metro, too? What about using car pools? Don’t even begin to think that CNG is having no impact on Earth; it doesn’t produce harmful gases like sulfur and nitrogen oxides on combustion, but it does produce carbon dioxide, much like any other fossil fuel. And you would know that carbon dioxide is the one that’s causing the significant most of the global warming. Consider purchasing an electric cars or a scooty. Yes, we know that electricity may also be getting originally produced using fossil fuels, but our dependence on renewable sources of energy – to produce electricity – is steadily rising; so you can be assured you of an overall cleaner ride, and also, centralized pollution is always more accountable and better actionable with offsetting measures.

6. Understand Your Electronics (We Aren’t Talking Of The Physics Lessons Here)

It’s okay if you never actually understood Ohm’s law, or could never quite warm up to physics lectures, but you should know that leaving the mains on – while using the remote to switch off your electronic devices – would not shut them down. They would keep on consuming electricity (called phantom power). Leaving your laziness aside, you should get up and switch off the appliances from the mains. It’s never a good idea to leave your phone connected to the charger overnight, since even the worst of these devices, gets completely charged in a few hours. When you decide to purchase a new device, pay heed to star rating – the more, the better. Learn how to set your printer to print on both sides of the paper (if your printer facilitate that), or you can do that manually as well. We all know how good the CFLs and LED light bulbs are to save electricity; invest in them. Dry your clothes in sunlight, instead of using the dryer always (they consume so much electricity, that they never come with star ratings!)

7. Goodbye To Disposable Cups (Your Cuppa Shouldn’t Cost Us Our Planet)

Coffee, the very mentioning of this devil transports some of us to a longing skittle-alley. It’s best to have it with conversations; that means sitting in the restaurant and drinking out of bone-china cups. If you are really late, just because you couldn’t get up/get decked up on time, skip it. But those disposable cups are really making our planet go down the drain. Make it a habit to use porcelain mugs in the office too; most offices have a place where you can go and clean your utensils.

                                                         Courtesy: pages.uoregon.edu

8. ‘Nuff of Those Tissues (Hankies Work Just As Well)

There was a time when we would need to import everything. We used to have four weathers then too, and people would sweat a lot on hot-humid days, then too! And yes, our movie heroines would apply a lot more pancake, which would be all the more watery and wearing. They would all make do with home-brought cotton hankies then. Yes, yes, we know the ‘typewriter/computer’-comparison palaver well, but a tissue affords no more a luxury to you than, maybe, just plain laziness of not having to carry around everything in your bag. No sweat, if you cannot, but it would be nice if you could let go, no?

9. Cut Down On Junk Mail (You Don’t Need Them Anyway)

A multitude of servers and IT-infrastructure (and the ACs to keep them cool) need to be maintained to foster our IT-enabled lives. With every click we make on our search engines, we are leaving an innocently ignorant trail that impacts the environment. Try to learn how to unsubscribe from unwanted senders of emails, how to block undesirable senders and the like. Get registered to the DND (Do Not Disturb) service of your network provider. Give a piece of mind to unwarranted telemarketers, by all means, so that they don’t dare call you again. This will make a small, yet finite, positive impact.

10. Read And Learn About Eco-Friendly Practices (And, Above All, Share)

We could have easily put another tip here, since there are so many, but there’s no greater tip than the dissemination of knowledge and awareness. Try to share your green stories with others and motivate them to follow suit. You may also write to us explaining anything that you did for the planet and would want to share with others. If you are confused whether something is green or non-green, you can always write to us. We are listening!

Did you see how easy it is, and how every small thing counts? What are you waiting for; go, get started, now!

(Rights of the pictures used above rest with their respective owners; they have been used for purely non-commercial purposes and we make no claim for their originality or ownership)