We’re all just fresh into the New Year. It’s only been a week so surely everyone must still be highly pumped up with vibrancy and eagerness to take on a good challenge!
Well I am so I was looking around for something challenging yet ‘do-able’ (not that I’m a sore loser just that failing on a challenge this early into the new year would be quite depressing) and I came across the Carbon Challenge!
It’s really simple and truthfully it’s a personal challenge because there’s no one but yourself to judge you for it. Much like PETA’s 30 days vegetarian pledge, the Carbon Challenge relies solely on the trust system where your honour is all it takes to complete the challenge.
Now while I’m sure that there are many organizations that have this challenge in place, I took mine out (just before I wrote this post) with the Action For Climate Change which runs the ‘Green Ribbon Program’.
Briefly Action For Climate Change is a program developed by Conservation Volunteers to develop some real and practical actions aimed at reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions by both individuals as well as businesses delivered in both Australia and New Zealand.
The great thing about the Action For Climate Change movement is that it promotes little steps.. Small ones like that Carbon Challenge that you and I can actually participate in without feeling the loss of an arm or a leg when getting involved.
I mean I’ll be honest, I love the environment and I want to do everything in my power to keep it green but I’m not saint and I grew up in the luxury of modern technologies so big steps like giving up driving and turning to bicycles to get around is something I would need time to adjust and come to terms with.
But the suggestions by the Action For Climate Change program aren’t that jolting. They break the suggestions up into smaller areas like travel, water heating, electronic appliances, heating & cooling, refrigeration and rubbish then under them introduce the small steps that you’d be brave enough to try.
Now when you read through them you’re probably going to think these aren’t ingenious ideas that took Nobel Prize minds to come up with. And that’s true; they are simple ideas, so simple that it slipped our minds.
Imagine if everyone just did those simple things, how much of the greenhouse effect we could be reducing! So come on and join me on this challenge.
Surely if I can “reduce my power consumption by turning off the lights and computer when they are not being used” and visit 12simplethings for 12 more ideas on how to reduce the consumption, then so can you!
