You may not be able to reduce global warming, end pollution and save endangered species single-handedly, but by choosing to live an earth-friendly lifestyle you can do a lot every day to help achieve those goals.

And by making wise choices about how you live, and the amount of energy and natural resources you consume, you send a clear message to businesses, politicians and government agencies that value you as a customer, constituent and citizen.

Here are five simple things you can do—in 30 minutes or less—to help protect the environment and save Planet Earth.

Drive Less, Drive Smart
Every time you leave your car at home you reduce air pollution, lower , improve your health and save money.

Walk or ride a bicycle for short trips, or take public transportation for longer ones. In 30 minutes, most people can easily walk a mile or more, and you can cover even more ground on a bicycle, bus, subway or commuter train. Research has shown that people who use public transportation are healthier than those who don’t. Families that use public transportation can save enough money annually to cover their food costs for the year.

When you do drive, take the few minutes needed to make sure your engine is well maintained and your tires properly inflated.

Eat Your Vegetables
Eating less meat and more fruits, grains and vegetables can help the environment more than you may realize. Eating meat, eggs and dairy products contributes heavily to global warming, because raising animals for food produces many more greenhouse gas emissions than growing plants. A 2006 report by the University of Chicago found that adopting a vegan diet does more to reduce global warming than switching to a hybrid car.

Raising animals for food also uses enormous amounts of land, water, grain and fuel. Every year in the United States alone, 80 percent of all agricultural land, half of all water resources, 70 percent of all grain, and one-third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food.

Making a salad doesn’t take any more time than cooking a hamburger and it’s better for you—and for the environment.

Switch to Reusable Shopping Bags Producing plastic bagslitter uses a lot of natural resources, and most end up as that fouls landscapes, clogs waterways, and kills thousands of marine mammals that mistake the ubiquitous bags for food. Worldwide, up to a trillion plastic bags are used and discarded every year—more than a million per minute. The count for paper bags is lower, but the cost in natural resources is still unacceptably high—especially when there is a better alternative.

Reusable shopping bags, made of materials that don’t harm the environment during production and don’t need to be discarded after each use, reduce pollution and save resources that could be put to better uses than making plastic and paper bags. Reusable bags are convenient and come in a variety of sizes and styles. Some reusable bags can even be rolled or folded small enough to fit into a purse or pocket.

Change Your Light Bulbs
Compact fluorescent light bulbs and light-emitting diodesThomas Edison. For example, compact fluorescent light bulbs use at least two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and they last up to 10 times longer. Compact fluorescent light bulbs also generate 70 percent less heat, so they are safer to operate and can reduce energy costs associated with cooling homes and offices. (LEDs) are more energy efficient and less expensive to use than the traditional incandescent bulbs invented by

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road. On top of that, for every incandescent bulb you replace with an approved compact fluorescent light bulb, you will save consumers $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.

Pay Your Bills Online
Many banks, utilities and other businesses now offer their customers the option of paying bills online, eliminating the need to write and mail paper checks or to keep paper records. By paying your bills online you can save time and money, lower the administrative costs of companies with which you do business, and reduce global warming by helping to prevent deforestation.

Signing up for online bill paying is easy and doesn’t take much time. You can either choose to have certain bills paid automatically each month or elect to review and pay each bill yourself. Either way, you will receive outstanding returns on your small investment of time.

你單槍匹馬可能無法減少全球變暖,制止污染,拯救瀕臨滅絕的物種,但你可以采取一種對(duì)地球有利的生活方式,每天做大量的拯救工作來實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)。

而且,通過明智地選擇生活方式,有節(jié)制地消耗能量和自然資源,如你可以發(fā)清潔短信給視你為顧客、選民和公民的商人、政客以及政府機(jī)構(gòu)。

以下就列舉出簡單可行的五招,有助于你在30分鐘內(nèi)保護(hù)環(huán)境拯救我們的星球-地球。

少駕車、巧駕車

每次只要你不駕車出門就可以減少空氣污染;而且可以改善你的健康還為你省錢。

短距離出行你可以步行或騎自行車;長距離的話就可搭乘公共交通工具。30分鐘內(nèi),大多數(shù)人是可以輕而易舉地步行一英里甚至更多;騎自行車,搭乘巴士、地鐵或往返列車的話就可相應(yīng)地跑得更遠(yuǎn)了。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)選擇公共交通的人群比自駕車的人群更健康。搭乘公共交通的家庭每年節(jié)省下來的錢足夠支付他們一整年的食物。

一旦你確需駕車的話,請務(wù)必花幾分鐘檢測一下引擎確保它能正常運(yùn)作,輪胎充氣也要恰到好處。

常食蔬菜
少吃肉多吃水果、谷物和蔬菜會(huì)出乎你所料地有利于環(huán)境。食肉、蛋和乳制品都會(huì)加劇全球變暖,因?yàn)轱曫B(yǎng)肉食動(dòng)物比栽種植物釋放出的溫室氣體多得多。2006年芝加哥大學(xué)所做的一項(xiàng)報(bào)告顯示素菜飲食比轉(zhuǎn)而駕用混合動(dòng)力車更能減少全球變暖。
飼養(yǎng)肉食動(dòng)物也需占據(jù)大量土地,消耗大量水、谷物和燃料!每年僅在美國,肉食動(dòng)物飼養(yǎng)占地就達(dá)總農(nóng)業(yè)用地的80%,耗水達(dá)到總水資源的50%,吃掉總谷物的70%并消耗總化石燃料的1/3。
拼一盤沙拉所需時(shí)間不再比做一份漢堡長,但前者更有利于健康且也有利于環(huán)境。

改用可重復(fù)使用的收購物袋
生產(chǎn)塑料膠袋需要消耗大量自然資源且大多數(shù)膠袋用完之后隨處亂扔以致污染景觀、堵塞下水道,將無處不在的膠袋誤以為食物的成千上萬海洋哺乳動(dòng)物也難逃死劫。全世界每年使用之后被丟棄的膠帶多達(dá)一兆億個(gè)(即100多萬個(gè)/分鐘)。紙袋價(jià)值較低,但自然資源的成本仍高的讓人無法接受,尤其當(dāng)出現(xiàn)更好的替代物時(shí)它們的成本就會(huì)高之又高了。

更換燈泡
壓縮熒光燈燈泡和LED燈燈泡。比如,壓縮熒光燈燈泡與標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的白熾燈泡,前者只需2/3的能量就可以產(chǎn)生同樣量的光且壽命是后者的10倍,所產(chǎn)生的熱量也只有后者的70%,因而操作更安全,也可降低與冷卻房屋和辦公室有關(guān)的能量成本。據(jù)《有關(guān)科學(xué)家聯(lián)盟》提議,如果全美每個(gè)家庭僅換掉一個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的白熾燈泡而改用壓縮熒光燈燈泡,發(fā)電站將可能減少釋放900億磅溫室氣體,相當(dāng)于750萬輛轎車不上路。另外,你用獲準(zhǔn)的壓縮熒光燈燈泡替換每個(gè)白熾燈燈泡的話,在一個(gè)燈泡的有效壽命期內(nèi),你將為消費(fèi)者節(jié)約$30的能量成本。