Power Protect
Even if you haven’t yet seen Hollywood’s latest big-budget disaster flick, “The Day After Tomorrow,” you’ve probably heard about it. The villain in this movie isn’t the usual bad guy but is, instead, Mother Nature. She finally gets pushed to the breaking point by global warming and decides it’s time to strike back.
The movie is entertaining, to be sure, and it deals with a topic that many scientists feel is potentially serious to the future of our planet. Though the movie may distort the science, keeping people from taking the problem seriously, it gives us another reminder that the way we use energy in our lives can affect our air, water and all other aspects of our environment.
The Environmental Defense Fund offers steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, noting that there are things we all can do to cut down on these emissions and maybe save us from future environmental problems caused by global warming.
I’m hoping that the publicity from this movie will get people thinking a little more seriously about how the energy we use today — especially the burning of fossil fuels — puts carbon dioxide and other pollutants into our air. We usually single out carbon dioxide for discussion because it is the major contributor to the global-warming problem.
Here are some of the defense fund’s steps to reducing your home energy use, along with the estimated amount of carbon dioxide that can be saved each year for each action.
• Don’t run your dishwasher until there is a full load. Use the machine’s energy-saving features, including not using heat when the dishes are drying (200 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year).
• Wash clothes in warm or cold rather than hot water (save up to 500 pounds per year if you wash two loads per week).
• Adjust the water heater thermostat no higher than 120 degrees F (each 10-degree adjustment to this setting will save 500 pounds).
• Set your home’s thermostat to recommended settings (I usually say 78 degrees F in summer and 68 degrees F in winter) and don’t make rooms too cool in summer or too hot in winter (500 pounds per year for each 2-degree adjustment from these levels).
• Clean the filters on your air conditioner monthly (75 pounds per year).
• Replace your home’s incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescents (500 pounds per year for each frequently used bulb you replace).
• Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket (up to 1,000 pounds annually).
• Install low-flow shower heads to reduce your usage of hot water (up to 300 pounds per year).
• Plug air leaks in your home and caulk and weatherstrip around windows and doors (up to 1,000 pounds annually).
• Get a home energy audit done and fix up poor insulation or other energy-inefficient problems (up to thousands of pounds annually).
• Make sure your home has the right amount of wall and ceiling insulation for your climate (up to 2,000 pounds per year).
• When replacing windows, buy the best energy-saving models you can (up to 10,000 pounds per year).
•Landscape near your home with trees and shrubs, and paint your home a dark color if you live in a cold climate and a light color if you live in a warm climate (5,000 pounds per year).
• When buying home appliances, read the EnergyGuide labels and buy the most efficient ones (just replacing an old refrigerator can save 3,000 pounds each year).
• Install a solar water heater (3,000 to 5,000 pounds per year).
Tips like these will save you energy, of course, but it’s great to think that they’re also suggesting ways to help the environment. Whether or not you think the threat of global warming is as serious as many scientists say it is, you still can do simple things that will help improve the air you breathe and the water you drink.