EAT YOUR VEGETABLES

All you have to do is stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef productioncontributes more to climate change than the ­entire transportationsector. The carbon footprint of the average meat eater is about 1.5tons of CO2 larger than that of a vegetarian. Cutting beef out of your diet will reduce your CO2 emissions by 2,400 pounds annually.

DRINK FROM THE TAP

You can save money and your environment by giving up bottledwater. The production of plastic water bottles together with theprivatization of our drinking water is an environmental and social catastrophe. Bottled water costs more per gallonthan gasoline. The average American consumes 30 gallons of bottledwater annually. Giving up one bottle of imported water means using upone less liter of fossil fuel and emitting 1.2 pounds less ofgreenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

OBSERVE AN ECO-SABBATH

For one day or afternoon or even one hour a week, don’t buy anything, don’t use any machines, don’t switch on anything electric,don’t cook, don’t answer your phone, and, in general, don’t use anyresources. In other words, for this regular period, give yourself andthe planet a break. Every hour per week that you live no impact cutsyour carbon emissions by 0.6 percent annually. Commit to four hours perweek, that’s 2.4 percent; do it for a whole day each week to cut yourimpact by 14.4 percent a year.

TITHE A FIXED PERCENTAGE OF YOUR INCOME

Tithe a fixed percentage of your income to non-profits of yourchoice. If an average U.S. family contributes 1 percent ($502.33) ofits annual income ($50,233) to an environmental non-profit, they couldoffset 40.7 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Many of our public healthand welfare services are tied to consumer spending which, in turn,depends upon planetary resources. If you want to help, don’t goshopping. Just help.

BUILD A COMMUNITY

Have dinners with friends. Play charades. Sing together. Enjoying each other costs the planet much less than enjoying its resources.

GET THERE UNDER YOUR OWN STEAM

Get around by bike or by foota certain number of days a month. Not only does this mean using lessfossil fuel and creating less greenhouse gases, it means you’ll getexercise and we’ll all breathe fewer fumes. If you can stay off theroad just two days a week, you’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by anaverage of 1,590 pounds per year.

COMMIT TO NOT WASTING

Wasting resources costs the planet and your wallet. Let your clotheshang-dry instead of using the dryer. Take half the trips but stay twiceas long. Repair instead of rebuy. The list goes on.In the summer, for every degree above 72°F you set your thermostat, yousave 120 pounds of CO2 emissions per year, and if you wash your clotheswith cold water you can cut your laundry energy use by up to 90 percent.

TAKE YOUR PRINCIPLES TO WORK

We must act as though we care about the world at work as much as wedo at home. Company CEOs or product designers have the power to make agigantic difference through their business, and so do the rest ofus. In commercial buildings, lighting accounts for more than 40 percentof electrical energy use, a huge cause of greenhouse gas production.Using motion and occupancy sensors can cut this use by 10 percent.

DONATE A DAY'S TV TIME TO ECO-SERVICE

Take one day off from TV—the average American watches four and a half hours of TV a day—and try voluntary eco-service instead. Those four and a half hours a day watching TV add up to 825 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

BELIEVE WITH ALL YOUR HEART THAT HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE MAKES A DIFFERENCE

We are all interconnected. Every step toward living a conscious lifeprovides support to everyone else who is trying to do the samething—whether you’re aware of it or not. We are the masters of ourdestinies.

From Daily Good

Go to WiserEarth.org for an awesome eco-community.

Blessings

Dan Benor, MD