According to the EPA and other sources, there are more than 1,000 brand new environmental toxins introduced into our environment annually. Environmental toxins are responsible for more than 95% of diagnosed cancers. More than 3,000 environmental toxins are found in food and drinking water. Processed foods contain at least 9,000 varieties of toxic substances in the form of preservatives, chemically based solvents, and emulsifiers, which is not well digested or eliminated by the body.

A healthy American can have at least 400 various chemically based environmental toxins stored in their fat cells. Some Americans can have as many as 800 versions of toxic elements stored in their fat cells. These numbers are staggering considering that it was only about 50 years ago when most Americans had less than 300 toxins stored in their fat cells.

The biggest health problems that come with such toxic storage in the fat cells include everything from neurological disorders to obesity to reproductive disorders. Cancer, asthma, allergies, and metabolic issues can all be traced back to environmental toxins.

So how do you avoid these toxic environmental issues? For starters, change the foods you eat. Processed foods have a very high percentage of carcinogens in the form of chemicals. Cooking does not decrease the level of toxins found in processed foods, and thus sticking with natural raw and whole foods is much healthier than eating foods that are made from a box.

Organic foods help to eliminate a large percentage of environmental toxins. Pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are found on at a minimum of 50% of food in North America. Some tests have revealed numbers as high as 95%. The chemically treated fruits, vegetables, and meats can hold onto the residue and become ingested despite washing before eating.

Just because it looks healthy doesn’t mean that it doesn’t house environmental toxins. Organic foods are at least 75% organically grown, eliminating a huge chunk of pesticides and other contaminants. Foods that are certified 100% organic are at least 99.5% organically grown. This means that you can eliminate one of the biggest sources of potentially deadly carcinogens from your daily consumption.

All farm raised salmon should be avoided. Farm raised salmon tends to hold a percentage of the contaminant known as polychlorinated biphenyls, which is a substance that is highly toxic to human health. The use of the substance has been outlawed but can still be found in many of the natural environments that are home to the fish that become meal to farm raised salmon.

When the salmon eat the fish meal, the PCB remains in their tissue and then remains in your when you eat the salmon. Only wild caught salmon should be considered, although many fish oils are much healthier than eating fish.

Daily use cleansers, antiperspirants, and even fabric softeners can hold heavy metals and other contaminants. Fortunately, the industries have caught onto the idea of selling plant based organic materials that are found in nature and have no heavy metals or other contaminants.

By using these products, you can reduce your daily contact with potentially dangerous environmental toxins by as much as 50%. If you also alter your diet to include only organically grown foods, you can further eliminate your risk exposure by another 30%. These two major changes can reduce your risk exposure by 80% as compared to daily exposure that most people face by simply eating processed foods and using daily products that are loaded with carcinogens.

There are some environmental toxins that are out of our individual control but can be changed through mass efforts. Buildings loaded with molds, asbestos, and other contaminants are still in existence and still threaten our general health. The contaminated air we breathe thanks to high emission production factories and high emission vehicles are still threatening our daily health.

A combination of personal responsibility and concerted public efforts can help decrease these threats through stricter regulation and reduced use. With a dedicated effort to reduce the output of environmental toxins, we can all band together to improve our health while helping the planet live a longer, healthier natural life.

Using environmental science articles to gauge our progress in the environmental race can be filled with conflicting messages. While our progress is working on commendable, we are very far from where we need to be. Some of the current environmental articles praise our progress, as though we have somehow arrived because we are finally paying attention to the fact that our human activity has been destroying the world. As our level of destruction increases, there is a call to action for every member of society.

Recycling, changing buying habits, and living in a more conscientious manner is all part of changing the fate of the world, and the information reflected in environmental science articles either encourages or discourages the general public from becoming more conscientious.

When the information presented makes it seem like we are progressing nicely, environmental activism goes down. When the information reflected makes it seem as though we are struggling to combat pollution effects and natural resource harvesting, environmental activism increases. Thus, the information contained in environmental science articles can alter the state of conservation and environmental awareness.

This naturally poses the question should there be responsible reporting in such articles? If we want to see an improvement in conservation, environmental awareness, and efforts to create a healthier planet we can report the negative aspects regarding the state of the planet. Yet the advancements we make are worthy of reporting as well. Is there a way to report the positive while stressing the need for more concerted efforts for increased environmental awareness and conservation?

When environmental science articles reflect all aspects of the state of the planet the general public responds with a sense of honorable duty toward the environment while recognizing and celebrating the achievements that we have been able to attain. With every passing day, there are new developments that help the planet and there are developments which harm the planet. The best way to counterbalance the natural ebb and flow of public interest is to offer up a balanced view of the state of the world.

Who reads the majority of environmental science articles? Some of the more technical articles are aimed at the scientific community. These articles are generally highly technical and offer the scientific community an accurate report on progress, failures, ideas, and potential.

General articles are usually consumed by the public. The most read headlines by the general public include information articles that point out damage that most have not considered. When a headline reads as a potential disaster, curious people read the article. When the headlines read of promising new developments, fewer people read the articles. Does this play to human nature? Is it more likely to attract the attention of the public by playing up the negative headlines? Probably.

As a society we tend to focus on problems rather than progress. When progress happens, we often move on to the next thing on our agenda list. When problems face us, we look toward the government to focus on such problems. This can be present difficulties for the scientific community that wishes to reach the general public. We want the government to implement plans, actions, and regulations that will preserve the planet, but few people want to really put the effort into their own personal responsibility when it comes to ecological issues.

Using the environmental science articles to encourage the public to engage in their own conservation and environmental awareness in their personal life could be done without much effort. However, we have to keep the issues on the forefront of the minds of the people.

Without the headlines, the dramatization, and the playing up of the negative it is hard to get the attention of the general public. Keeping the public informed with honesty presents a very unique challenge for writers of environmental science articles. It is a challenge that a great many writers are meeting effectively.

The history of air pollution is a long and involved one. From the Middle Ages and beyond, there have been issues regarding air pollution that have proven that air quality is affected by nearly every substance that we insist on burning. Coal burning created smog, and its associated health problems, since the Middle Ages. The 18^th through the 19^th centuries saw serious health effects on the environment thanks to the burning of coal. Smog is certainly far from a new problem, and in our environment pollution still plagues the cities and towns of the world.

Water pollution is yet another plague that compounds the health of the natural world. Water pollution contaminates everything from the sea life to the sea grasses and flora that support the sea life. Our waters have become so polluted that fish harvesting to swimming have become significantly dangerous. The Hudson River became so polluted that the EPA banned the eating of all sea life harvested from the river in the 70s and 80s at various points.

Moreover, the 80s saw an influx of trash along the shoreline from dumping of medical waste, causing hypodermic needles to collect along the East Coast shorelines. Water pollution threatened the health of every sea creature and child along the country’s oceans.

Water pollution reached levels that were so high that the natural aquatic environment suffered great damage that lead to a major movement to “Save the Bay.” The Chesapeake Bay lost most of its natural grasses, which hurt the blue crab and oyster populations. This cut into the watermen’s ability to produce a reasonable living while also cutting sea life populations down to dangerously low levels. It took nearly a decade of concerted effort to reproduce the sea grasses that were demolished through human activity. Boating, dumping, and overharvesting all played a role in reducing the bay’s ability to filter the pollutants and produce healthy grasses.

Land pollution and water pollution are interconnected. Land pollution is a hazardous form of environment pollution that affects everything from our drinking water to our crops to our natural ecosystems. Land pollution can be caused by runoff from the roadways, hazardous chemicals that most households use on a regular basis, and construction sites. Natural waste can also cause environment pollution that affects our ground water, making it highly dangerous to drink unfiltered. Microbes can enter the digestive tract and cause illness. These microbes can come from unprocessed waste that can seep into the groundwater and cause serious implications.

Environment pollution that comes from land pollution is a serious problem for natural ecosystems. Mining can cause the destruction of trees, streams, and the life that is supported by these elements. As the ecosystem is destroyed, the entire ecosystem from insects to large animals find that they do not have enough food or drinkable water and starve to death. As with mining, these effects can happen from the runoff thanks to construction sites.

Chemicals and even sediment disruption can impact the land in unimaginable ways. What looks like a simple construction project can have ramifications from the immediate natural environment to the surrounding environment.

Environment pollution is on the rise. With more construction, industrial pollution, ground water threats, and air pollution causes, nearly everything we do has an environmental impact. Environment pollution is a chronic, widespread problem that seems no longer containable. Our cars, our electricity needs, and our housing needs all contribute to the destruction of our natural environment.

It is difficult to predict exactly how much destruction will be caused over the next ten years, but it has already been proven that the predictions from just five years ago were woefully inadequate and our destructive environment pollution is growing faster than our remedies. Saving the planet from this perpetual destruction requires immediate action on everyone’s part.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report has indicated that the global warming trend has reached what is feared to be the “tipping point.” This tipping point was determined to have been reached in the year 2005, despite the initial predictions that we would not see such catastrophic numbers until at least 2015. The 10 years of lost time make global warming one of the most urgent current environmental issues of today. The greenhouse gases that have been measured in the last few years have proven that the 455 parts per million readings are the result of environmental neglect.

The basic studies are convinced that the tipping point will mean that we will start to see some irreversible effects from global warming and that ecosystems around the world are already starting to suffer. This has unfortunately already been well illustrated by the polar bears’ plight to find food as their ice caps melt around them. The 1990s were a more environmentally friendly era as greenhouse gas emissions grew at a rate of less than 1% annually.

Measurements since the year 2000 have shown that greenhouse gas emissions grew steadily at a rate of 3.5% annually. Simply put, policies that destroyed the planet but lined pockets were established throughout the early 2000s and now the greenhouse gases are at a dangerously high tipping point.

Global warming is one of today’s most pressing current environmental issues but it is far from the only one. The loss of our natural resources is of great concern to environmentalists. With nothing more than the population growth, the dwindling resources would have experienced a serious toll. Add to that the intentional destruction of resources and we are soon facing crisis level depletion.

The Earth was created as a well balanced system that could maintain itself and sustain life. While progress has removed us from the daily dealings with the natural world, we still rely heavily on the natural balance of the Earth for survival. No matter how intense our technology becomes, there is no substitute for the balanced nature of the Earth.

For most of the planet, the natural resources that were once available even just twenty to fifty years ago have been significantly diminished. While there are companies that will plant a section of trees that have been cut down, they do not replace as much as they take.

A diminished natural resource issue can lead to all kinds of potentially dangerous situations including the loss of water for drinking and land for living upon. It is even speculated that there will be a shortage of food since farmers are being forced into sales for land development. If we buy up all the farms and put communities on them, where will our food come from?

Of course, pollution is one of today’s current environmental issues. Pollution of all kinds has a serious impact on the health of the planet, but also a serious impact on our health. The more we produce emissions from cars and industrial sources that help to make up ground level ozone, the less healthy the lungs of our society.

Pollution within the waters, some of which comes from runoff and some of which comes from illegal dumping, contaminates the entire ecosystem for miles around. Entire waterways can be affected, and our ground water is far from immune to the effects of waste disposal.

The fight against pollution has been a long one. From Giving a Hoot and picking up your own litter to restricting the use of pesticides and other chemicals, we all have the ability to contribute positively to the fight against pollution. While we can’t enforce our neighbor’s emissions, we can choose to ride our bike, recycle, and choose our activities based on the planet’s health. Every individual regardless of economic standing, origin of birth, or country of residence, plays a role in solving the current environmental issues of today, together we can improve the air quality standards.

Jobs for the Environmental Protection Agency are plentiful, as they need qualified people to help keep an eye on many different aspects of their role in the community. The role of environmental compliance inspector is a role that is sorely needed throughout many diverse areas.

In order to fully explore careers in environmental science, it might be best to understand what type of education is required in order for employment to be considered. In most cases, an applicant will need an undergraduate degree as well as completion of the appropriate graduate degree. This requirement naturally varies as the job description applies.

The environmental sciences are a highly regarded area of study that can lead to some interesting job opportunities. You can find yourself in the position of an Ecotourism guide or a zoo keeper or you can aim for specialized work like a geological engineer or the ocean sciences. What makes environmental careers so interesting is the vast and broad spectrum of potential careers that they encompass.

There are numerous areas of law enforcement that are combined with environmental science careers. Fish and Wildlife and Fish and Game employ agents to oversea and enforce legal issues surrounding the natural environment including the animals that live within it.

Many of the scientific jobs such as ocean sciences, paleontology, zoology, or herpetology require higher education degrees and entail environmental sampling, testing, and a dedicated scientific effort to determine damage done to presenting alternatives to damaging practices.

These fields involve a great deal of collecting scientific data and applying it to everyday life. Scientific environmental careers are the backbone of developing environmentally sound products and practices.

It is possible to land a career in environmental science without a college degree. Many of these ecojobs include services like building the wind generators and solar panels that are required to offer the consumer green energy.

Green energy jobs are expected to grow considerably. If the green energy plans are done correctly, there will be jobs for the construction of alternative energy sources as well as the landscape repair needed after the construction is complete. It is speculated that green energy jobs will be the future of construction.

For any career in environmental sciences, the qualifications will change over the years. It is recommended to finish out the educational degree that corresponds with your field of interest. The environmental careers that are developing now will need fresh skills in another five years.

These ecojobs are essential to conservation efforts and protection efforts. Without these jobs the environmental issues that we face today would not receive its due attention, funding, or public understanding. Air quality testing , is a pefect example of a career in environmental science.

Nearly every career in environmental sciences involves educating. Whether you are educating just one person about the impact of their behavior or congress about the impact of the world’s behavior, evidence leads to education, which eventually leads to change.

Be aware that these products are only considered environmentally friendly because they conform to a standard set by officials.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that any of these pest control options are completely non-toxic or that they don’t do some harm to the environment, but they do fall within regulation boundaries and they do provide a better alternative to many of the extremely harsh chemical solutions that have been traditionally used to kill pests.

Additionally, some products that are touted as safe and reliable are neither of these things. Here is an at-a-glance guide to some methods of environmental pest control that have been proven to work and contain low levels of toxicity, or are completely safe:

Glue traps. These are fairly self-descriptive. Glue traps use various mechanisms to lure the animal or insect; one common technique is to douse the trap in pheromones that attract the pest. The animal then becomes stuck to the glue and either dies or is held there for further disposal.

IGRs. IGR stands for “Insect Growth Regulator” and these unique devices don’t kill, maim, or trap the targeted pest. Instead, they impair the pest’s capacity for molting, maturation, and reproduction, thereby providing a longer-term and more “big-picture” type of pest control.

Naturally-derived sprays. You don’t have to look any farther than the woods to find certain plant-derived substances that perform just as well as big-name chemicals, but with a lot less toxicity. In some cases they have been modified, but in all cases they are much safer than conventional pesticides. Cedar oil sprays, castor oil derivatives, the pyrethrin extracts of certain flowers, and natural alcohols all fall into this category.

Pheromone traps. A typical pheromone trap will always have a sexual excretion that draws the pests to it, and then a liquid or glue that either captures or kills them.

Ultraviolet light. Surprisingly enough, many types of flying pests are attracted to ultraviolet light traps which then “zap” or stick them. Many of them include pheromones. Zappers are not allowed in areas where food is prepared, so most professional kitchens and restaurants use ultraviolet traps with sticky parts on them instead of electricity.

Bait. Luring insects with bait usually doesn’t damage the environment at all, making it one of the ultimate environmental pest controls. Researchers have discovered how to modify bait so that it is only toxic to the target pest and won’t affect pets or other animals that ingest it.

Live trapping. Many people prefer this method when dealing with animals that they would simply like to relocate. There are many varieties of these traps, most of which leave the animal relatively unharmed.

They can be especially useful when dealing with animals like raccoon that could be rummaging through your garbage cans. Of course, you’ll need to investigate local restrictions and regulations before releasing captured animals into an alternate environment.

Sonic repellant. Sonic and ultrasonic frequencies can be emitted from a device to repel big animals like deer, which are more difficult to trap in the conventional way.

All of these methods are good choices for environmental pest control, and they solve a dilemma faced by many responsible home owners: environmental psychology dictates that a human being is entitled to a clean and restful environment, but the planet can’t handle more pollution. Environmental pest control addresses both these issues.

We’ve all heard of environmental preservation, but understanding the field of environmental psychology relates to so much more than just keeping the grass green. Environmental psychology studies how humans relate to one another as well as their surroundings, so it can refer to man-made environments as well as natural ones.

Environmental psychologists try to determine what makes humans comfortable and how we can adjust our surroundings to reduce stress and enhance quality of life for as many people as possible.

Their work has a natural tie-in with conventional environmentalism because they believe that unspoiled nature can provide one of the best backdrops for human life.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we react to our environment. Environmental psychology as a formal discipline came into being in the 1950s, when researchers were primarily seeking to improve mental hospitals.

Previous to this, architects were rather self-involved, they built the structure to fit their own personal requirements and completely ignored the human element that would inhabit it.

Researchers found that traditionally-designed mental hospitals actually aggravated problem behavior in mental patients. With a little adjustment, a better environment could be created that would soothe the patients and make their issues easier to handle.

While some of us may classify ourselves as mental patients and others may not, we all share this innate desire to have beautiful, calm surroundings in which to thrive. A great deal of the environmental psychology discipline is devoted to how environment affects society.

One of the first great pioneers of environmental psychology was Robert Barker, observed in 1947 that citizens of Oskaloosa, Kansas associated certain surroundings with certain behaviors. For example, when in church they assumed their “church behavior,” in school their “school behavior,” and so on and so forth.

Each successive environment carried with it a character or behavior model. Humans build expectations around important environmental settings and these expectations become entrenched in societal beliefs, lying dormant until triggered by the appropriate environment.

Ultimately, the main goal of environmental psychology became to change the way society approaches its buildings and landscapes. They proved to the world that when human beings are surrounded by parks and trees and flowers, their minds function more efficiently and their moods become more positive. Children learn better in beautiful, natural surroundings.

Stress levels in people of all ages drop significantly and mental activity (and in some cases, capacity) is enhanced. Buildings that follow harmonious guidelines also have a soothing and uplifting effect on the mind. Large windows looking out on beautiful views, plants and animals living inside the house, high ceilings, lots of light, and well-arranged rooms and appliances can all contribute to an inhabitant’s feeling of well-being.

The science of environmental psychology is not too distantly related to the ancient Chinese belief in feng shui. This system sets forth a series of laws by which adherents may guide the flow of vital energy. They do this by placing objects, including walls and doors, in auspicious locations.

It is thought that when a person’s environment is properly arranged, his or her life-energy also arranges itself properly and this can bring health, clarity of mind, and inward peace to the individual. There is a touch of feng shui in the small Japanese zen gardens that some people use as recreational tools.

Originally they were life-sized gardens built on harmonious proportions in order to relax those who wandered through them. Environmental psychology has not only validated but also added, in its own modern way, to these ancient traditions.

• Each day, between 50 and 100 plant and animal species go extinct as a result of human interference.
• Desertification is slowly destroying agricultural land; global grain production has been steadily declining since 1985 despite modern farming technologies. For example, 220 miles of farmland in Mali have become desert in the last 20 years. There are techniques that can combat desertification, including planting trees and practicing rotational farming. However, local governments are focused on short-term gains as opposed to long-term investments, and very few have committed themselves to fight desertification of farmland. Combined with our explosive population growth, this is likely to cause severe famine in the not-too-distant future.
• Each year, Americans consume 50 million tons of paper-based products. This is the equivalent of 850 million trees.
• 40,000 children die each day from preventable diseases that are directly related to environmental pollution.
• By 2100, it is estimated that the world’s human population will have almost tripled.
• The recent Somalian pirate crisis has been provoked by overfishing, which is a major global crisis. Waters have been polluted and overfished to the point that major world powers like the United States have had to reach as far as Somalia and its surrounding areas to find viable fish populations. The Somalis, whose traditional source of food is fish, have now been robbed of their legal right to fish in their own backyards and are dying of starvation in huge numbers. More than 90% of Somalian males are unemployed, and in their desperation to feed their large families they have turned to piracy as their only means of survival. This is one example of human suffering and death that is directly caused by pollution.

Other instances of environmental disaster constitute little-known historical landmarks in the process of world pollution. In school we are taught history in a general sense, but few teachers ever go into detail or even mention events when it comes to environmental disasters and the huge role they play in our current lives. It may be unpleasant to realize, but these are the environmental facts;

• The Great Smog of 1952, which killed 4,000 people in London. The smog was caused entirely by air pollution.
• The great Japanese mercury poisoning of the 1950’s and 60’s, otherwise known as Minimata disease. The Chisso Corporation in Japan had been dumping methyl mercury into the nearby ocean and infected the fish and shellfish eaten by the local population. It is estimated that 1,784 people died over a period of 30 years before the government took any action whatsoever.
• Severe cases of mercury poisoning, or Minimata disease, also cropped up in Ontario, Canada in 1970. These cases arose from the ingestion of mercury-polluted fish and also from direct consequences of an illegal industrial chemical waste dump.
• The TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash flurry spill—this is the long and wordy name given to what many environmentalists consider to be the worst documented mass contamination ever caused in the United States. It happened a few minutes before 1:00 a.m. on December 22, 2008. Kingston Fossil Plant’s ash dike in Tennessee suddenly ruptured, shooting 1.1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry into Tennessee’s waterways. The flood of black sludge crushed homes and toppled trees as it went. Afterwards it was estimated that the sludge eventually covered 5.4 million cubic yards of land with up to six feet of ash slurry. This massive wave of pollution also completely destroyed a road, destroyed a main gas line, broke one of the area’s water mains, and destroyed several power lines. The sheer volume of pollution released in this spill was 50 times the amount of the epic 1989 Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill. As of this writing, only 3% of the pollution has been removed.

• 80% of our forests have been completely destroyed.
• 2000 trees, or the equivalent of 7 football fields, are cut down every minute in the Amazon rainforest. This doesn’t take into account the massive logging being practiced in other areas of the world.
• In the United States, only 4% of our original forests remain. The rest are gone.
• 40% of the United States water sources are unfit for human consumption. Many of the others possess levels of contaminants that have been deemed within regulations, but are still dangerous.
• Although United States citizens constitute only 5% of the global population, they account for more than 30% of the world’s waste.
• 75% of the world’s fisheries have been abused to the point where they are officially beyond capacity. We may soon find ourselves running out of not only water, but also fish.
• 100,000 synthetically-produced chemical substances are considered “safe” for use in everyday production, meaning that their levels of toxins are considered acceptable. This means that anything you use which has been mechanically manufactured may be slowly poisoning you.
• Computers, mattresses and pillows are just three examples of common household goods that contain significant amounts of BFR. BFR stands for Bromated Flame Retardant. It is a potent neurotoxin that damages your brain’s ability to function.
• Thanks to modern food sources and how they affect women’s bodies, the most contaminated food is currently mother’s milk.
• Each day, 200,000 people are forced to move to a big city because their previous environment is no longer capable of supporting them.
• Official numbers (the real amount is probably several times greater) indicate that the United States puts out 4 billion pounds of dangerously toxic pollutants.
• Today, individual rate of consumption is more than double what it was in the 1950’s.
• It is estimated that we view 3,000 advertisements every day. This is more than twice what the average 1950’s consumer would have seen in their entire life.
• United States citizens spend three to four times as much of their life shopping and consuming than Europeans.
• The average size of the United States home has doubled since the 1970’s.
• Each United States citizen creates about 4.5 lbs of garbage each day. This is twice the amount that was produced 30 years ago.
• For every single garbage can that you take outside on garbage day, 70 equivalent cans of garbage were produced by all the various manufacturing processes that created the can.
• 99% of all consumer goods are no longer being used 6 months after their purchase.

These pollution facts and figures make it seem almost impossible to fight the rising tide of pollution that threatens to engulf our world, but the environmental facts don’t necessarily mean that all is lost. We created this situation, and we can provide the solution if we simply work together and take the right steps. Here are some things we can do every day to make sure that the environment gets well soon:

• If 25% of United States citizens would use 10 less plastic bags each month, 2.5 billion bags would be saved a year.
• 380 gallons of oil are saved for each box of paper that gets recycled rather than wasted.
• Environmental pest control can greatly reduce pesticide contamination of food.
• We could do a lot for the environment if we developed an alternative to disposable diapers, which take 500 years to biodegrade. About 1% of all U.S. landfills are devoted entirely to disposable diapers.
• Lowering your thermostat by one degree reduces up to 10% of your fuel consumption.
• A train system was invented in 1987 that uses magnetic levitation and has almost no associated pollutants. Many other countries are implementing this technology, but the United States remains tied to its short-term lucrative automobile industry.

The facts above are frightening , and need to be changed – If you would like to help make a change today there are lots of ways to help the environment.

1. Clean air filters associated with your air conditioning system so that no energy gets wasted.
2. Lower your water heater’s temperature to 120 degrees.
3. Try putting an insulated blanket on top of your water heater to keep it warm.
4. If you’ll be gone from the house for long periods of time, shut off or turn down your water heater.
5. Make sure that the refrigerator is set between 36 and 38 degrees and that the freezer is between 0 and 5.
6. Try to avoid opening the door of an oven in use; this wastes valuable heat energy.
7. Clean your dryer’s lint filter regularly to avoid wasted energy.
8. Unplug appliances that you don’t use often. This is one of the most effective ways to help the environment.
9. Try to replace your stove and oven cooking with microwave cooking wherever possible.

10.  Set your washing machine to use warm water or, if possible, cold.

11.  When buying big appliances, check to see if they have a label on them that reads “Energy Star.”

12.  Switch to compact energy-saving fluorescent bulbs.

13.  Set your thermostat low; keep it in the high 60’s during winter and the high 70’s during summer.

14.  Make sure your home is insulated.

15.  Shut off equipment as you leave the workplace.

16.  Plant trees around your home—they provide both shade and oxygen. People often don’t think of this when considering ways to help the environment.

17.  Install energy efficient windows.

18.  Turn off lights when you leave the room.

19.  Turn off your thermostat if you will be gone for extended periods of time.

20.  Put outdoor lights on a timer.

21.  Find a producer of green electricity for your utilities.

22.  Find alternative house cleaning chemicals that don’t involve toxic elements.

23.  Avoid pest poisons; try traps.

24.  Invest in a lawn mower that runs on electricity.

25.  Use lawn clippings as fertilizer.

26.  Mulch your garden with wood chips.

27.  Use minimal fertilizer and try to eliminate pesticides.

28.  Water grass in the morning rather than later in the day. This seems like a strange way to help the environment, but it works.

29.  Create a habitat for local wildlife in your backyard. Birds are an easy place to start.

30.  Try renting large household appliances or borrowing them from neighbors (ladders, chainsaws, decorations.)

31.  Use leaves and reasonably-sized yard debris for compost.

32.  Make a habit of double-sided printing and copying; it saves trees.

33.  One of the best ways to help the environment is to make sure your paper is recycled; also try printing with less toxic soy inks.

34.  Use ceramic dishes instead of disposable paper or plastic.

35.  Investigate flex-time and telecommuting possibilities to cut down on fuel expenditures.

36.  Recycle your office’s printer cartridges.

37.  Avoid burning things that produce fumes or large amounts of exhaust.

38.  Burn old wood instead of green wood.

39.  Try experimenting with solar power to heat your home.

40.  Try using wood stoves built after 1990 (the emissions standards were raised that year.)

41.  Try walking, riding your bike, or joining a carpool whenever possible. This is healthy for your body and a great way to help the environment.

42.  Check your home for water leaks and try to fix them promptly in order to conserve wasted water.

43.  Limit your dishwashing and clothes-washing to full loads so that you don’t waste water.

44.  Install a shower head that has a low flow and try timing yourself in the shower; hot water is extremely energy-consuming.

45.  NEVER dump into storm drains; dilution is no solution to pollution.

46.  Buy in bulk and try to select products that have minimal amounts of packaging material. We discard 33% of all consumer goods in the form of packaging material.

47.  Maintenance and a little fixing will help you get more use out of what you already have instead of consuming.

48.  Shop with fabric bags each time you go to the store.

49.  Start using rechargeable batteries. Every time you recharge a battery instead of buying a new one, that’s one less battery that ends up in a landfill.

50.  Consider settling for used furniture. The market is saturated with perfectly good previously-owned furniture and it’s a great way to help the environment.