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Act

As we have previously seen, each person puts pressure on our Mother Earth through their daily lifestyle, needs and requirements.

Unfortunately, our Earth cannot support the ever-growing needs and we must act now to reduce our consumption and thereby our greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to global warming.

In your daily life, you can set up actions and adopt new reflexes that could change a lot if they are applied on a wide scale! Together we can accomplish a lot.

Encourage your family, friends, and community members to share your commitment.

Energy

  • Reduce your "phantom" consumption by turning off the lights when you are leaving a room or by turning off your electronic appliance.
  • Lower the heating temperature by 1°c.
  • Favour eco-energetic appliances. The most common and well-known ones are those with the Energy Star standard.
  • Reduce your water consumption. Don't let your water run when you are brushing your teeth. Prefer a shower over a bath.

Did you know that...?

An open tap lets out about 8 litres of water per minute

Transport

  • Favor walking, biking and use the public transport as much as you can.
  • When you can avoid to take your car, think of car-pooling. This will allow you to reduce your costs and ecological footprint
  • Practice eco-driving: This allows you to lower your gas consumption, your CO² emissions, noise and pollution in your city or environment along with the cost of repairs and maintenance for your vehicle.

Did you know that...?

North Americans accumulate more than 8,000 billion passenger kilometres per year in road and air travel. That's the equivalent of 21 millions times the distance between the Earth and the moon or enough to go around the planet every 18 months.

Diet

The steak story!

To produce a steak

It takes 3 years for a cow to reach adult age and produce about 200 kg of fresh meat.

During these 3 years, the cow will consume 1300 kg of grain and 7200 kg of grass. To irrigate these fields, it takes 3 million litres of water. We then add 24000 litres drunk by the cow and 7000 litres for its maintenance

So, to produce 1 kg of beef, you need 15340 litres of water.

  • Eat less industrial meat. The industrial meat production is a major cause of greenhouse gases emission.
  • Favor organic food when it is possible; organic farming doesn't use chemical or pesticides. Favor the local and seasonal food.
  • Reduce your transformed food products consumption (ex: pizza). They are over-packaged and travel further than fresh non-transformed products.
  • Don't buy bottled water. The manufacture of plastic bottles is made of petroleum-based products, and causes an increase in greenhouse gases.

Consumption

  • Reduce your consumption. Less consumption is less waste. Ask to yourself if something you want to buy is useful and if you really need it.
  • Think about sorting your waste (paper, plastic, cardboard, metal, glass), they could be recycled.
  • Don't throw away your "sensible waste" like computer, phone, battery or bulb. They contain a lot of toxic components for the environment and must be treated. You can bring your material back to the place you bought it or bring it the specific shop
  • When you plan to print a document, make sure it is necessary and favor a both sides impression on recycled paper.

The story of a tee-shirt

The cotton of a tee-shirt could come from Texas. The cotton will cross the Pacific ocean to arrive at a Chinese textile factory, where it will be manufactured. Then it goes back to America where it will be worn for a few months (at the most one or two years) and then end up in a dump or charity organization. From there, it will either be recycled or sent to Africa.

Even more actions

With your friends, your classmates or the whole community, you can:

  • Clean the shores of a lake, river or body of water.
  • Plant and maintain a community garden (vegetables and flowers).
  • Start a recycling program at school, at the sports centre, at home or in the community.
  • Plant trees.
  • Try to convince people around you (at school, the Band Council, health centre, etc…) so that documents are printed on both sides and on recycled paper.
  • Organize a demonstration workshop on composting, reuse and recycling.