Here at Green Cleaners, we take pride in the quality of service we provide to our clients. We also do our best to offer you more than just a cleaning service - going beyond the realm of the daily grind, we hope to be able to keep you in the loop with regards to what is going on with our world and what we can do together to preserve Mother Nature.
Below you will find an excerpt from ABC's article, "Seven Continents, Seven Ways to Save the World", where ABC news assembled seven leading experts on the environment -- from scientists to businessmen -- to bring you Earth's most pressing problems. Being believers in a world capable of change, we will follow it up with some promising solutions.
Pressing Planetary Problems
Water: Too much water (from melting glaciers and ice packs) may flood the coasts. Too little water in drought-stricken Australia and Africa is caused by the changes in weather and habitat.
Forests: Up to 20 percent of our greenhouse gas problem can be attributed to loss of forests and trees, often called "the lungs of the planet" by environmentalists. Trees take in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and give off oxygen. But in countries with vast forest acreage, like Brazil, the forests are disappearing as people harvest the timber, plant crops and look for pasture land for animals.
Extinction: As habitats are destroyed, thousands of species may become extinct, from polar bears to vast numbers of fish species.
Power: As more and more people come onto the energy grid in emerging nations, and first world countries continue to gulp power at an alarming rate, power plants are a major source of dangerous greenhouse gases. These pressures all threaten the Earth and affect thousands of animal species, including our own.
Promising Solutions
Choose efficient vehicles: According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon emits 50 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. A car that gets double that mileage emits half as much -- and will save you roughly $3,000 in gas.
Drive smarter: Don't add extra weight, don't speed, don't drive aggressively and don't overuse your air conditioner, all of which decrease fuel economy.
Unplug phone chargers, televisions, VCRs and other electronics -- don't just turn them off. According to the Department of Energy, nearly 75 percent of all electricity used to power electronics in the average home is consumed by products that are switched off.
The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It seems like something from a kid's sing-a-long, but sometimes we lose sight of just how much we buy. Try buying less, and reusing and fixing things when you can instead of buying new. And for a lot of people, recycling is as easy as rolling the trash bin to the curb. Just remember to do it at work, too.
Window shop. If you have the urge to spend, try window shopping or browsing first. This helps ensure you are only buying things you really need, or really want, and you're not just impulse buying. Remember, every item in a store, no matter how small, has a footprint — so if we are conscious consumers, we can reduce our own footprint and the overall footprint of our nation.
Take a direct flight. If you need to travel by airplane, try taking a direct flight when at all possible. Your impact is reduced when you take one flight, as opposed to hopping on a couple or more passenger jets to reach your final destination. You might also feel a little less harried when you arrive, because changing planes can be a real hassle.
Go native. Use native plant species to landscape around your home or business. The plants will probably grow better in a familiar environment, and the plants may also get shipped a shorter distance to get to your local nursery. Also, use organic soil when planting — it's made using more eco-friendly methods, and uses less resources. And remember, green plants are a good way to offset carbon. So plant something, anything — it helps.
These solutions seem simple enough to accomplish, and easy for us to maintain within our lifestyle - let's do our part and encourage everyone else to hop onto the eco conscious bandwagon.
