9:45pm Tuesday 30th June 2009
What is sustainability? You will be surprised that many people do not know the answer to this question! A few answers to this question may be (found after investigation on the internet) “Sustainability seeks to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future.” “Practices that would ensure the continued viability of a product or practice well into the future.” Or, “the ability to sustain something; a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems…” You may ask how is this possible when we are now living in a world that is being affected by every single human being on this earth, with our burning of fossil fuels, ridiculous use of energy and filling of landfills? So what is exactly happening to our planet? Global Warming is the warming of our planet, so the average temperature will increase due to chemicals being put in the air from power stations by burning fossil fuels. Acid rain caused from chemicals also destroys habitats like rivers, lakes and oceans and some types of trees.
Did you know that… If a four person family showers each day for 5-minutes, in one week they would use 700 gallons of water. This is enough water for a person to live off of for three years?
Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier?
Already over half of the world's tropical forests have been lost, 500,000 trees could be saved from being cut down if every family in the United States recycled their newspaper?
The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours?
The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years?
84 percent of all household waste can be recycled?
Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4,100 kilowatts of electricity?
If you cut your shower by 2 minutes you are saving 10 gallons of water?
My school, Kingston Grammar School, recently received our bronze award for taking steps towards becoming sustainable.
But what can you do to help the environment in your daily life without causing too much hassle for yourself? You would be surprised at the variety of things you can do. For example, you can now recycle your mobile phone and get paid some money for it at: www.envirofone.com surely that’s better than it sitting getting dusty in the back of some drawer? You can also donate your used tights to some charities based in third world countries as they have uses for them like tying bandages on to the body. Simple things like turning the lights off or turning appliances onto ‘stand by’ when you are not using them may sound small but when a high proportion of people do this it makes a huge difference to the energy consumption in this country!
There are many things that you can do to help the environment and many of them even decrease hassle in your daily life: You can log onto the Royal Mail website and sign up to not receive junk mail, you can change your kitchen habits so instead of wrapping things up in cling film or foil use reusable containers. Inflate your tyres correctly which preserves their life and petrol (which saves money!), recharge your batteries instead of buying new ones, reuse plastic bags or use bio-degradable ones, cut the length of your shower, don’t release balloons into the air as they can cause many deaths of sea turtles and whales and finally make some effort to buy items that have less packaging or recycled or bio-degradable packaging.
So will you help save the world?
By Community Correspondent Harriet Page.
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