{"id":9720,"date":"2012-01-01T02:30:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T10:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145696.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=9720"},"modified":"2012-01-01T02:30:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-01T10:30:20","slug":"5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-carbon-footprint-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/articles\/5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-carbon-footprint-in-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had a an exceptionally fun morning Christmas Day on the set of <a title=\"fox 5 good day ny website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.myfoxny.com\/category\/232991\/good-day\" target=\"_blank\">Good Day NY<\/a> on FOX 5. I talked with Dave Price and Anna about keeping it green in 2013 . . .<\/p>\n<p>[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YBDwLFY_s2M&#038;hl=en_US&#038;version=3]<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a title=\"green diva meg on fox good day ny\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YBDwLFY_s2M\" target=\"_blank\">Watch GD Meg on FOX Good Day NY<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"font-size: large\">1. Remember those reusable bags . . . because . . . <\/span><\/strong><em> <\/em><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures a year<\/li>\n<li>The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas and it\u2019s floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. It weighs 3.5 million tons and is 80% plastic<\/li>\n<li>If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain,\u00a0the chain would reach around the Earth\u2019s equator 776 times!<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: large\"><strong>2. Get rid of vampires and phantoms . . . no, not Edward the dreamy teenage vampire . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><em>An energy vampire or phantom load is the electricity consumed by an electronic appliance when it is turned off or on standby <\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the Environmental Defense Fund, 65% of pollution attributed to global warming (or climate change) comes from generation of energy and its use<\/li>\n<li>5 &#8211; 20% of our home electric bill comes from vampire or phantom energy use<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Shed light on those vampires and expel them!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>get a &#8216;smart stip&#8217;<\/em><\/strong> or two to help manage a lot of those electronics &#8211; I found this <a title=\"tripplite eco-surge protector\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lashenelectronics.com\/p-2369-tlp78tusbg-tripp-lite-timer-controlled-eco-homebusiness-theater-surge-suppressor.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Tripp-Lite Eco-Surge<\/a> one at my local electronics store, <a title=\"lashen electronics\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lashen.com\" target=\"_blank\">Lashen Electronics<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Understand your energy use<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 The US Department of Energy offers this\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.energysavers.gov\/your_home\/appliances\/index.cfm\/mytopic=10040\">tool to calculate your household energy use<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: large\"><strong>3. Just say NO to bottled water<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>National Geographic estimates that <em><strong>17 million gallons of crude oil<\/strong> <\/em>is used on an annual basis to produce plastic bottles.<\/li>\n<li>If you fill a water bottle \u00bc of the way with oil, this is about how much oil is used to manufacture that one bottle!<\/li>\n<li>It is estimated by the Container Recycling Institute and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reusablebags.com\/\">ReusableBags.com<\/a> that 22 billion water bottles end up in landfills every year.<\/li>\n<li>Although many plastic bottles are being recycled for good re-use as a variety of materials,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/kids.nationalgeographic.com\/kids\/stories\/spacescience\/water-bottle-pollution\/\">National Geographic Kids<\/a> states that only 1 in 6 plastic bottles makes it to the recycling bin!<\/li>\n<li>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ewg.org\/reports\/BottledWater\/Bottled-Water-Quality-Investigation\">Environmental Working Group\u2019s scientific study on bottled water vs. tap water<\/a>, bottled water contains distinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue and pain medication<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Check out Green Diva Mizar\u2019s water purification systems, <a title=\"pur2o water purifications systems\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pur2o.com\" target=\"_blank\">Pur2o<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: large\"><strong>4. Buy less, Recycle more<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In general, I really want to just be more mindful about buying &#8216;stuff&#8217; I may not really need &#8211; I&#8217;ve been on this kick for a couple of years and it saves money and reduces the amount of junk I need to throw out from packaging, etc. I always ask myself now, do I really need this or do I just want it . . . or, do I have something at home I can use instead.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is only 28%!<\/li>\n<li>Recycle as much as you can<\/li>\n<li>Avoid buying things are excessively packaged<\/li>\n<li>Buy in bulk<strong> <\/strong>(food, cleaning products)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"font-size: large\">5. Get local\/Eat Local<\/span> <\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduce carbon footprint by reducing &#8220;food miles&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>A typical carrot has to travel 1,838 miles to reach your dinner table<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Support local farmers &#8211; enjoy farmer&#8217;s markets<\/li>\n<li>Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) &#8211; find a CSA, farmer&#8217;s market or food coop near you &#8211;\u00a0<a title=\"local farmers market, csa or food coop finder\" href=\"http:\/\/www.localharvest.org\" target=\"_blank\">LocalHarvest.org<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Stimulate local economy<\/li>\n<li>patronize restaurants that buy from local farmers<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had a an exceptionally fun morning Christmas Day on the set of Good Day NY on FOX 5. I talked with Dave Price and Anna about keeping it green in 2013 . . . <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/articles\/5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-carbon-footprint-in-2013\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":11999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[1912,7,5505],"tags":[1419,6179,6180,300,6181,5309,6182,46,6183,2895,6184],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-carbo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}