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Have
You Hugged Your Earth Today?
Did you know that by learning to use energy efficiently you also
help the earth? We owe it to our earth to do everything we can to
keep it clean and safe. Every time you make a good energy use choice,
every time you recycle materials, you are "hugging your earth."
How do we affect our environment? Take a look at some of the ways.
- Residential appliances like washers, dryers and air conditioners
consume one-third of all household electricity.
- Planting trees to the south, west and east of your home or school
can help change the climate and reduce summer energy costs. This
is because the full-grown trees provide a windbreak and shield
buildings from the sun.
- You can help save electricity, and the natural resources needed
to make electricity, by using compact fluorescent bulbs. Replace
a 75-watt incandescent bulb with an 18-watt compact fluorescent
bulb. The compact fluorescent bulb gives off the same amount of
light, will last up to 10 times longer and uses less energy.
- If we buy energy-efficient furnaces, water heaters, clothes
dryers, ovens, air conditioners and lights, we can reduce the
need for power plants. Reducing the need for power plants reduces
the amount of natural resources, like coal and gas, needed to
make electricity.
- Everyone knows that recycled paper, made from old paper rather than trees,
saves one of our most precious natural resources. But did you
know that approximately 500,000 trees are destroyed to make the
newspapers Americans read in just one Sunday?
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Using recycled paper not only saves trees, it also reduces pollution.
Why? The paper manufacturing process can pollute rivers and lakes.
Most of this pollution is toxins from bleaching the paper, and
paper is just as good when it is not bleached.
- As Americans, we create about 400,000 tons of garbage each day.
At least 50 to 80 percent of that garbage could be recycled.
Want to do your part to help out the environment? All it takes
is to become aware of your energy use and make an effort to use
it wisely now and for the rest of your life.
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