A healthier world --- April 22 of each year is Earth Day Celebration
Yes, we can improve our environment and here are simple tips how we can contribute to a healthier world.

First, start always by setting a good example .

You can:
1. Have your own coffee cup at the office and avoid plastic ones.
Bring your own reusable cutlery and dishes to pot locks, school picnics and so on. This is widely used in Germany.

2. Send an article on the subject to your friends and family and ask them to read and forward it.

3. Pull chargers from the wall and turn off computers (wasted energy use is 10 percent of your energy bill). If your cell phone, iPod, or digital camera is unplugged from the charger, but the charger is still in the wall, it is draining energy.

4. There is now a better light bulb - a compact fluorescent (CFL) - and it uses 66 percent less energy than a regular light bulb and can last up to fifteen times longer.

5. Bring a garment bag to the dry cleaners so your clothes don't need all that plastic and paper. Return all extra hangers.

6. Buy in bulk [to reduce extra packaging].

7. Buy appliances that have an Energy Star label. This signifies the most energy-efficient brand - and the difference between these and the less-efficient ones is enormous. For instance, if you buy one of today's most energy-efficient refrigerators, it will use less than half the energy of a model that's twelve years old or older. Defrost your freezer. When ice builds up, it actually requires more energy to keep it cold.

8. Only run your dishwasher if it's full. Don't pre-rinse dishes.

9. Pass your magazines on to a friend, hospital, library, or nursing home. The paper industry is the third-largest contributor to global warming pollution.

11. Buy and re-use your own shopping bags. Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags a year; less than 1 percent of these are recycled. Plastic bags come from petroleum, and the manufacturing of just fourteen of those plastic bags uses the same amount of oil that it would take to drive a car one mile. Paper bags are even worse.

12. Producing paper bags uses four times the energy as making plastic ones, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency. Right now, only about 20 percent of the paper bags in use are recycled. And most of the plastic and paper ends up in landfills, which - you guessed it - emit global warming pollution.

13. Recycle your newspaper. Sixty-three million newspapers are printed each day in the United States; 44 million of these will be thrown away.

14. Choose products with the least packaging and complain to companies that over package items.

15. Reuse everything possible - take paper clips off of letters you receive and reuse them; reuse envelopes. Print and copy on both sides of paper.

More info thru "Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You!"
by "An Inconvenient Truth" producer Laurie David.

** Use cloths for cleaning instead of paper towels. Microfiber cloths get things miraculously clean, streek-free and last for ever. But torn-up, old T-shirts work well, too.

** Green-clean your windowas with a simple solution of 2 cups of water, 1/4 cup vinegar and a squirt of liquid soap. Put in a spray bottle and clean so the windows; wipe off with a cloth or newspaper.

** Choose a mild soap made from organic and fair trade vegetable ingredients, without any synthetic colors, fragrances or antibacterial additives. Skip the liquid soap and you have less packaging.

** Consider giving your lights one hour of rest every weekend.

** Green- wrap presents with newspapers (especially the Sunday comics), magazine pages or kids' artwork (ask permission first) which can look great when used as wrapping paper. Use plain boxes decorated with interesting paper clippings or calender pages, dried flowers or anything else. These can be re-used among family and best friends.

** When you let your car idle, you are wasting gas. Simple solution: Turn off the ignition if you are waiting for more than a few seconds.

** Check with your local gas and power company and ask how you can save on dollars and on energy.

** We all have to invest in a healthy, sustainable environment!
** Good site for more information: www.earthday.org

** The United States Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/earth day/