{"id":3474,"date":"2013-05-09T11:39:47","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T11:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/?page_id=3474"},"modified":"2013-06-01T18:02:47","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T18:02:47","slug":"take-action-now","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/take-action-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Sustainably: How To"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Take Action Now: Reduce your Carbon Footprint.<\/h1>\n<p>&#171;<em>It&#8217;s not for you to finish the work, but neither are you free to exempt your self from doing it.<\/em>&#187; (Pirkei Avot.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tackling climate change is a huge task. Judaism teaches that real change starts with individuals&#8217; choices. It&#8217;s not just governments and industries that need to be more climate-friendly, each person has an impact on his or her environment. Energy decisions that we make in our day-to-day lives can affect the climate.<\/p>\n<p>Many of these choices flow from basic Jewish\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jewishclimateinitiative.org\/ethics\/consumption.php\">ethics of consumption<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Things you can do today at no cost:<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn off lights when you leave a room<\/li>\n<li>Only boil the amount of water you need in your kettle<\/li>\n<li>Turn off and unplug televisions, videos, stereos and computers when they are not in use &#8212; they can use between 10 and 60% of the power they use when on.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t leave fridge doors open for longer than necessary, let food cool down fully before putting in the fridge or freezer, defrost regularly and keep at the right temperature<\/li>\n<li>Close curtains at dusk to keep in heat<\/li>\n<li>Let your clothes dry naturally rather than using a tumble drier<\/li>\n<li>Turning down the thermostat for your heating by 1 degree could cut your heating bill by 10%<\/li>\n<li>Set your water thermostat for 60 degrees &#8212; this is plenty warm enough for bathing and washing and will save money too<\/li>\n<li>Use economy programs on dishwashers or washing machines<\/li>\n<li>Where possible don&#8217;t stand cookers and fridges\/freezers next to each other<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Things you can do in the future or with an initial cost:<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Put foil behind radiators fitted on external walls<\/li>\n<li>Use energy saving lightbulbs &#8212; they use a quarter of the electricity and last much longer<\/li>\n<li>Insulate your hot water tank and pipes<\/li>\n<li>Speak to your energy provider about switching to &#171;green energy&#187; from renewable sources.<\/li>\n<li>Fit seals to externals doors and floor boards to reduce heat loss &#8212; 15% of heat is lost through draughts and 15% through the floor<\/li>\n<li>Make your windows draught proof or fit double glazing &#8212; this cuts heat loss in half &#8212; up to 10% of heat is lost through uninsulated windows<br \/>\n<em>(NB ventilation is essential in rooms with gas, oil or solid fuel appliances so don&#8217;t block of ventilation in rooms with these types of appliances.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Fit loft insulation &#8212; which should be at least 200mm thick to be most effective &#8212; 25% of heat is lost through an uninsulated roof<\/li>\n<li>Fit wall insulation &#8212; up to 33% of heat is lost through uninsulated walls<\/li>\n<li>Replace old inefficient boilers<\/li>\n<li>Fit solar panels or solar tiles to your roof<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Transport<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t use your car for short journeys &#8212; these are most polluting &#8212; walk or cycle<\/li>\n<li>Use public transport as much as possible<\/li>\n<li>Share car journeys with work colleagues or friends &#8212; up to a third of all car mileage is accounted for by the drive to work<\/li>\n<li>Walk your children to school or share a run with their friends &#8212; up to 20% of rush hour traffic is due to children being driven to school<\/li>\n<li>Choose a fuel-efficient \/ environmentally friendly car.<\/li>\n<li>Turn off your engine when waiting in your car<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that your tyres are inflated correctly &#8212; this can save you 5% on the cost of your petrol<\/li>\n<li>Take off your roof rack \/ remove heavy objects from the boot when not in use<\/li>\n<li>Avoid accelerating (or braking) sharply as this uses fuel more quickly. Use lead-free petrol<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Water:<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Water shortages are a looming consequence of climate change. Also, using less hot water saves energy.<\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Inside:<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use the plug in your basin or sink &#8212; don&#8217;t leave water running unnecessarily<\/li>\n<li>Always wash a full load in your washing machine or in your dishwasher<\/li>\n<li>Fix dripping taps and make sure that they are turned off fully &#8212; in one week a dripping tap can waste a bathful of water<\/li>\n<li>Have a shower instead of a bath &#8212; an ordinary shower uses two-fifths of the water in a bath but power showers use 4 times as much water as a normal shower<\/li>\n<li>Fit a water saving device in your toilet cistern or fit an &#8216;eco-flush&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Outside:<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Collect rainwater for watering plants<\/li>\n<li>Water plants in the early evening &#8212; less water will evaporate<\/li>\n<li>Water plants at their roots<\/li>\n<li>Avoid using sprinklers &#8212; they can use up to 1000 litres of water an hour!<\/li>\n<li>Select plants that don&#8217;t need constant watering.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t use a hose pipe to wash your car &#8212; use a bucket instead<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Waste<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reuse as much as possible &#8212; envelopes, carrier bags&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Sell unwanted things or donate them to charity shops<\/li>\n<li>Recycle as much as possible (glass, cans, paper, plastics&#8230;)<\/li>\n<li>Recycle organic waste by making a composter and use it on your own garden &#8212; up to 20% of household rubbish can be turned into compost.<\/li>\n<li>Stop excessive junk mail up to 60% of what comes through our letter boxes is never read.<\/li>\n<li>Rather than have your bank and credit card statements sent to you by post &#8212; check them online instead<\/li>\n<li>Cut down on the number of brochures that you send off for.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Shopping:<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/jewishclimateinitiative.org\/policy\/Link%20to%20vegetarianism%20page\">Eat less meat<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Buy goods with minimal packaging.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid buying goods that have flown thousands of miles.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t buy disposable \/ throw away goods when it is possible to buy goods that are durable.<\/li>\n<li>Reuse shopping bags or take your own.<\/li>\n<li>Cut down on visits to shops by shopping more efficiently when you go.<\/li>\n<li>Buy recycled paper or wood from sustainable forests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>(Adapted from the BBC&#8217;s Climate Change Resources.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take Action Now: Reduce your Carbon Footprint. &#171;It&#8217;s not for you to finish the work, but neither are you free to exempt your self from doing it.&#187; (Pirkei Avot.) &nbsp; Tackling climate change is a huge task. Judaism teaches that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"inner-pages.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3474","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3474"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3491,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3474\/revisions\/3491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishecoseminars.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}