Increase Your ‘Greenness’ on Earth Day

By Carol Zhou Yan (10)

Today is Earth Day.

U.S.-Thousands picked up garbage, turned in old cellphones and computers and took nature walks. Environmental leaders are aiming for a big effort on Earth Day, when they hope 1 million Americans will call their congressional representatives to lobby for legislation to fight global warming.On a more modest scale, grocery stores in Los Angeles will give away 50,000 reusable bags, and, starting Earth Day, Whole Foods Market stores will no longer offer plastic bags.

Taipei and Hong Kong-On Earth Day, the EPA (Environmental Protection Administration) announced a “lights-out campaign” to combat global warming. Under the banner “Save Our Sky,” the EPA went on to urge people and businesses to get involved by turning off their lights and elevators for one hour on Earth Day.

Beijing-In celebration of Earth Day, a Canadian in Beijing is spreading a movement to raise awareness of sustainable development through a distinctive hand sign.

But these activities and celebration are just for Earth Day! It is not good.  The most important thing is how to increase our “greenness” in daily life, not only Earth Day.

Some analysts say that greenness can be expensive.

Products that help people use less energy — or leave a smaller “environmental footprint,” as green advocates say — often are more costly than their alternatives, causing some to argue that going green is only for those who can afford it.

Those in older homes have to pay several thousands of dollars to replace windows with energy-saving, double-paned glass. Organic food, grown without chemicals potentially harmful to land, water, wildlife and people, costs more. So do hybrid vehicles and electricity generated by wind turbines or solar panels.

In a CBS News/New York Times poll last year, fewer than half of the respondents said they had bought a costlier, “eco-friendly” product during the past year.”The fact is, most of these products sold as ‘green’ cost more than the alternative,” says Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank that dismisses climate-change warnings as scare tactics not based on sound science. “You’re already pricing people at the lower end out.”He cites a study by an automotive research group, CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., that calculated total energy use for several car models. Ebell says the overall energy outlay for the Prius — from design to the junkyard — is costlier “than for an SUV like my Chevy TrailBlazer. It takes a huge amount of energy just to fabricate those batteries.”

Matt Golden heads a San Francisco firm that does home-energy audits to examine power use and heat loss and recommends ways residents can save.”We don’t have to live like cave people,” Golden says. “You don’t have to give things up. You just have to get smarter” about what it takes to run high-tech gadgets and appliances.

When Golden examined the home of Cliff and Monica Knudson in San Jose, Calif., he found that their plasma TV, with a digital video recorder and DVD player, drew 100 watts of power when turned off — the equivalent of burning a 100-watt light bulb 24 hours a day. Golden’s solution: Plug everything into a power strip that can be turned off when the TV is not in use.

Several websites such as alittlegreener.com have popped up to offer advice to consumers about how to save energy, recycle and green up their lives — without being fanatic about it.”It needs to be easy. It needs to be OK to start small,” says Meredith Thomas of San Francisco, who launched alittlegreener.com last year as a guide for the not-so-eco-savvy consumer.

Astrid Usong of Redwood City, Calif., went to Thomas’ site to find places to recycle building materials from a house she is remodeling with her husband, Patrick Weston. What she found there “touches every facet of your life: food, baby, family, work, vacation,” says Usong, 29, a designer for a financial website.Big gaps in awareness

The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows wide differences over what the government should do about global warming. About two-thirds favor spending many billions more on research into new sources of energy. But just one-third are comfortable with land-use restrictions to curb suburban sprawl, which necessitates more car trips. Only about a third favor imposing tough restrictions on U.S. industries and utilities.