EARTH HOUR EVERY HOUR
Millions worldwide dimmed the lights Saturday. We offer five easy ways to continue helping planet,
In the darkness, there’s bliss. You find it there every year when the lights go out for Earth Hour. For 60 minutes, you savour the shadows, visions of unexpended kilojoules twinkling in your head.
Toronto Hydro reported on Saturday night that the city cut its consumption by 205 megawatts for the hour — the equivalent of about 92,000 homes going off the grid. That beats last year’s cut of 197 megawatts.
But the lights are back on. If you’re still possessed by a hankering to save the planet, some suggestions:
Green your home. For starters, fix your leaking faucets. Not only is that dripping a soft form of water torture, it’s wasteful. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, just five droplets a minute from a single tap wastes roughly 655 litres of water each year. Then seal window drafts with caulking and replace old light bulbs with low-energy LED alternatives — they use 75 per cent less energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Make your own cleaning products. Don’t worry. You won’t need a Prohibition-era moonshine distillery to start cleaning au naturel.
For an all-purpose cleaner, mix a half cup of vinegar with a quarter cup of baking soda, and toss it into two litres of water. The ensuing mixture cleans chrome and stains in the bathtub, according to EarthEasy.com.
How about your own liquid laundry detergent? As directed by TLC’s How Stuff Works program, you chuck two cups of grated bar soap into a litre of boiling water. When it’s all melted, add two cups of Borax and two cups of washing soda. Then pour in 7.5 litres of water, stir with vigour, and add some cooking oil.
Freecycle. A movement more than 9 million strong, this network of people gives away the things they’re discarding so they end up being used by someone else.
Start vermicomposting. That’s composting with worms. The how-to website WikiHow recommends using red wigglers.
Build a worm bin in your backyard using some old tires or a plastic bin filled with straw, shredded Toronto Star papers or dry grass. Once the worms are ready to go — the City of Toronto advises that one pound of worms for a 60 cm by 60 cm container with a 30 cm depth — they’ll eat almost anything humans do.
According to the Composting Council of Canada, the dark castings from a worm bin are a great fertilizer for all sorts of flora because it’s rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Eat a PB&J. According to the PB&J Campaign by health advocates A Well Fed World, every time you have a “plant-based” lunch like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you’re reducing your carbon footprint — the level of greenhouse gas emissions behind your behaviour — by 2.5 pounds. So dig in.