You do not have to move to a cabin in the mountains and live off the land if you are thinking about helping the environment. Have you noticed how environmental issues have become hot news, quite literally, these days? We use way too much energy and are very careless with our consumption and must all learn how to be more sustainable as we go forward. This will require us to think about every single action that we take during our daily lives. Look for as many ways to save electricity at home as you can, while learning about the benefits of renewable energy and seeing how these options or solutions can be applied for all of us.

What can you do to help save the environment? Here’s a small list of steps that you can take at home, right now, which would make a difference. If all of us were to apply what we read here, there would be a remarkable change over the long haul.

1. Consider all the bulbs in your home. It is much better to use compact fluorescent bulbs than those traditional incandescent items that use a lot of energy. Begin by changing all the light bulbs in the house. Yes, there are a great number of them. You may be worried about the money that goes out of your wallet when you first buy this kind of bulb, but statisticians from the government assure us that we can save so much money during the course of the year with lower electricity bills that we can make this money back.

2. Be a better steward. Get used to sending a lot more to the recycling plant. Bury biodegradable waste and food leftovers in the ground rather than clogging up the local landfills. People who know about these things tell us that up to 20% of the rubbish that we throw away is biodegradable and we could recycle it ourselves without stressing the system. Think of the energy used to collect this excess waste and save them the trouble of doing so.

3. Look at your transportation. Are you able to share transportation with somebody else on your way to work? Why not pool resources and cut down your bill, and the bill of a co-worker at the same time. It seems nonsensical when you look at all those cars jammed on the motorway in the morning, the vast majority of them with just a single occupant. This is craziness and while we wait for our politicians to come up with public transportation systems that really do work, we can all use our common sense.

4. Plant trees in your back garden. Trees are great for our environmental problems and the thorny subject of climate change. Trees actually absorb carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. By planting trees you can also keep direct sunlight away from your home and this could help to cut down your cooling bills in the summer, as well. If you have a noisy highway nearby, a couple of well positioned trees will help to cut down on your noise pollution, as well.

With a little bit of creativity, we can make a difference in virtually everything that we do!

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