Transportation
- Using public transit for one year instead of your car will save nearly a tonne of pollutants from being released into the atmosphere.
- One full bus takes 40 vehicles off the road. Over the course of a year, that full bus will prevent nine tonnes of pollutants from getting into the atmosphere.
- An idling engine releases twice as much exhaust fumes as a moving vehicle.
- If every driver in Canada avoided idling for five minutes a day, we could prevent 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted.
- Ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine.
- Easing up on the gas pedal can save lots of fuel. Decreasing your highway cruising speed from 120 km/h to 90 km/h will cut fuel consumption by about 20 per cent.
At home
- Turn off your monitor when you’re not using your computer. More than 50 per cent of the energy used by a desktop computer powers the monitor.
- Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. They use 75 per cent less energy and last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, while providing the same amount of light.
- If every Canadian household replaced one standard 60-watt incandescent light bulb with a 20-watt compact fluorescent light bulb, greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 400,000 tonnes. That’s like removing 66,000 cars from the road. It would save $73 million a year in energy costs.
- The typical house uses about 30 light bulbs, using a total of about $200 worth of electricity each year.
- Refrigerators account for about 11-13 per cent of your total energy costs each month.
- A refrigerator built 20 years ago uses 70 per cent more energy than today's energy efficient models.
- Chest freezers use 10-25 per cent less energy than upright models because they are better insulated and cold air does not spill out when the door is opened.
- New freezers use less than half the electricity of those made in the early 1990s.
- New dishwashers use about 95 per cent less energy than those built in the early 1970s.
- The average household does 215 loads in the dishwasher per year.
- Rinsing dishes in the sink before washing them in the dishwasher wastes water and energy.
- Keeping lids on pots when you are cooking will use up to 20 per cent less energy and your food will also cook more quickly and evenly.
- Burning wood in a conventional wood stove for nine hours emits as much particulate matter into the atmosphere as a certified stove does in 60 hours or as a car travelling 18,000 km.
- Residential wood heating is responsible for 29 per cent of the fine particle emissions associated with human activities. This makes it the third most important source overall.
- 23 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions are produced by individuals and families, according to Natural Resources Canada.
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REALITY CHECK
- The Clean Air Act
- The difference between Kyoto and the new U.S.-led climate pact
- The Kyoto protocol vs. The new kid in town
AUDIO
- CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks: On the way to a warmer world (Dec. 3, 2005)
External Links
- Clean Air Online
- Climate change information from Environment Canada
- Text of the proposed clean air act
- Greenhouse gas information from Environment Canada
- "What You Can Do" from Environment Canada
- The Science of Climate Change (from Environment Canada)
- Ecological Footprint Quiz
- Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (PDF format)
- U.S. government’s 2002 “Clean Skies” initiative
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- Sierra Club of Canada’s 2004 Kyoto report card
- Full text of the Kyoto Protocol
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