Tips to save our environment

Guns embed electrical plugs, although, when the electronic device is turned off = 40-50% saving of electricity costs you must pay each month. And that also, reduce the heat arising from an electronic device that spread to global warming.

Did You Know??

1. Guns embed electrical plugs, although, when the electronic device is turned off = 40-50% saving of electricity costs you must pay each month. And that also, reduce the heat arising from an electronic device that spread to global warming.
So release all electrical plugs when you go or not used.

2. Plastic bags take 1000 years to decompose in the landfill (landfills). Around 300 million plastic bags were thrown away each year in Indonesia. Not to mention that dumped in the river behind the house and where they should not. 10kg paper prepared in the newspaper selling flea market, which requires 1 tree, takes 10 years to be big. Imagine what happens to illegal logging.

How many trees have been cut down for you? Imagine how they make the world hotter?
So bring own bags from home when you shop, try calculating how much you save when you plastic shopping once...?? ?

3. When you buy 1 liter of mineral water bought in supermarkets = 5 liters of water. Ask why?, Because at the factory, to cool the hot plastic bottles new printed, requires 5 liters of water.
Listing bottle what is safe to use as a bottle of water? See the sign below the bottle, look for 2.3 or 4 numbers. Number 2 than that, they're not safe, because you eat plastic!!

4. TISSUE who has used it on guns can recycle, as well as former hit carton oil, food, cakes, drinks; they’re only a waste (garbage). Estimates of people wearing TISSUE day = 6 seed 2200 seeds a year. It means that we reduce the waste of paper as much as 7 Billion seed a year. GREAT IS NOT IT?

Or use a handkerchief, towel cloth can be used over and over guns' such as tissue.

5. Be Green on ATM?
If at the bank no money

to take guns' uses receipt / proof of the transaction or be smart dong: Transfer via Internet banking mobile banking or 8 BILLION times in ATM transactions are issued a paper receipt of each epidemic is one of the largest sources of waste in the world.

If during the year the transaction guns' uses paper receipt, it will save a large roll of paper which could create around equator line until 15 times.

6. Have a minimum of 2 kinds of trash in the house, helping to reduce water pollution, air and soil.

Soot reduction 'could help to stop global warming'

Cutting one of humanity's most common pollutants would have immediate cooling effect, Nasa claims

Governments could slow global warming dramatically, and buy time to avert disastrous climate change, by slashing emissions of one of humanity's most familiar pollutants – soot – according to Nasa scientists. A study by the space agency shows that cutting down on the pollutant, which has so far been largely ignored by climate scientists, can have an immediate cooling effect – and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollution at the same time.

At the beginning of the make-or-break year in international attempts to negotiate a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the soot removal proposal – which is being taken seriously by experts close to the Obama administration – offers hope of a rapid new way of tackling global warming. Governments have long experience in acting against soot.

Cutting its emissions has a virtually instantaneous effect, because it rapidly falls out of the atmosphere, unlike carbon dioxide which remains there for over a hundred years. And because soot is one of the worst killers among all pollutants, radical reductions save lives and so should command popular and political support.

The study – from Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics – concludes that tackling the pollution provides "substantial benefits for air quality while simultaneously contributing to climate change mitigation" and "may present a unique opportunity to engage parties and nations not yet fully committed to climate change mitigation for its own sake."

Black carbon, the component of soot that gives it its colour, is thought to be the second largest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. Formed through incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and vegetation, it delivers a double whammy.

While in the air, it is spread around the globe by the wind, and helps to heat the atmosphere by absorbing and releasing solar radiation. And when it falls out it darkens snow and ice, at the poles or high in mountains, reducing its ability to reflect sunlight. As a result it melts more quickly, and exposes more dark land or water which absorbs even more energy, and so increases warming.

The bad news – as the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development points out – is that soot is causing global warming to happen much faster than expected. Its president, Durwood Zaelke, says "black carbon is exacerbating the climate situation": "Taking quick action is quite simply our only near-term option."

Rich countries have already reduced their emissions of black carbon from burning fossil fuels dramatically since the 1950s. The health benefits of a worldwide cut could be massive. Soot contains up to 40 different cancer-causing chemicals and can also cause respiratory and heart diseases. It is estimated to cause two million deaths in the developing world each year – mainly among children – when emitted from wood-burning stoves in poorly ventilated houses. In Britain, research has shown that people are twice as likely to die from respiratory disease when heavily exposed to soot emitted from vehicle exhausts.

Tackling these two health crises, the Nasa study concludes, would also be the most effective short-term way of slowing climate change. Its research shows that the "strongest leverage" on reducing global warming would be achieved by "reducing emissions from domestic fuel burning" in developing countries, particularly in Asia, and by "reduction in surface transport emissions in North America", especially from diesel engines.

In both cases solutions are known. Cookers using solar energy or biogas, for example, eliminate smoke. And last month California brought in measures to force trucks to fit filters to reduce diesel soot emissions by 85 per cent, estimating that they would save 9,400 lives over the next 16 years.

New California Cars Display Smog, Global Warming Scores

SACRAMENTO, California, January 2, 2009 (ENS) - As of January 1, every 2009 model year and newer car built for sale in California will be required to carry a label that clearly ranks the vehicle's environmental impact. A vehicle's certification level can be found under the hood on the vehicle emissions control information label.

The label will show a simple ranking system that provides consumers with practical information that can help them choose the most environmentally friendly vehicle that still meets their transportation needs.

"This label will arm consumers with the information they need to choose a vehicle that saves gas, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps fight smog all at once," said California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols. "Consumer choice is an especially powerful tool in our fight against climate change."

The environmental performance label will have two scores on a scale of 1-10, a global warming score and a smog score.

The higher the score the more environmentally friendly the car is. The average new car will score five on both scales.

Electric cars earn the highest ratings on both scores. One car rating 10 on both scores is the GEM electric car from Global Electric Motors, a Chrysler company. Priced at $12,495, the GEM is 100 percent battery-electric and does not use any gasoline.

A GEM electric car is the highest rated car for both the smog and the global warming scores.

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, creating global warming. Scientists are certain that human activities such as burning gasoline for transportation are changing the composition of the atmosphere and warming the planet's climate.

Greenhouse gases emitted from vehicles include carbon dioxide, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydroflurocarbons from air conditioner refrigerant. Greenhouse gas emissions are identified as the CO2-equivalent value.

The California global warming score is based on the sum of a vehicle's greenhouse gas emissions, which are identified as the CO2-equivalent value.

The global warming score ranks each vehicle's CO2-equivalent value on a scale of one to 10 relative to all other vehicles within the current model year.

A score of 10 is the cleanest a vehicle can rate and indicates that the vehicle emits less than 200 grams of CO2-equivalent per mile driven.

A score of one is the dirtiest a vehicle can rate and indicates that the vehicle emits more than 520 grams of CO2-equivalent per mile driven.

The global warming scores are adjusted to reflect the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions from the production and distribution of the fuel used to power the vehicle.

Smog is hazy air pollution produced by the photochemical reaction of sunlight with volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen released into the atmosphere, especially by automobile operation.

California's new smog score ranks each vehicle's pollutant levels of non-methane organic gases and oxides of nitrogen relative to all other vehicles within the current model year.

Smog scores will be on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the cleanest. The average vehicle available in California today will get a smog score of 5. Many pre-2004 vehicles fall below a smog score of one. This is because, over time, there have been significant advances in air pollution control technologies and the Air Resources Board has established more stringent pollution standards for vehicles.

How To Stop Global Warming

Global Warming is a dramatically urgent and serious problem. We don't need to wait for governments to find a solution for this problem: each individual can bring an important help adopting a more responsible lifestyle: starting from little, everyday things. It's the only reasonable way to save our planet, before it is too late.

How To Stop Global Warming:

Here is a list of 50 simple things that everyone can do in order to fight against and reduce the Global Warming phenomenon: some of these ideas are at no cost, some other require a little effort or investment but can help you save a lot of money, in the middle-long term!

1. Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
   CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
   We recommend you purchase your CFL bulbs at 1000bulbs.com, they have great deals on both screw-in and plug-in light bulbs.

2. Install a programmable thermostat
   Programmable thermostats will automatically lower the heat or air conditioning at night and raise them again in the morning. They can save you $100 a year on your energy bill.

3. Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
   Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.

4. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
   Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

5. Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
   Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most energy efficient products available.

6. Do not leave appliances on standby
   Use the "on/off" function on the machine itself. A TV set that's switched on for 3 hours a day (the average time Europeans spend watching TV) and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode.

7. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
   You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 50°C.

8. Move your fridge and freezer
   Placing them next to the cooker or boiler consumes much more energy than if they were standing on their own. For example, if you put them in a hot cellar room where the room temperature is 30-35ºC, energy use is almost double and causes an extra 160kg of CO2 emissions for fridges per year and 320kg for freezers.

9. Defrost old fridges and freezers regularly
   Even better is to replace them with newer models, which all have automatic defrost cycles and are generally up to two times more energy-efficient than their predecessors.

10. Don't let heat escape from your house over a long period
    When airing your house, open the windows for only a few minutes. If you leave a small opening all day long, the energy needed to keep it warm inside during six cold months (10ºC or less outside temperature) would result in almost 1 ton of CO2 emissions.

11. Replace your old single-glazed windows with double-glazing
    This requires a bit of upfront investment, but will halve the energy lost through windows and pay off in the long term. If you go for the best the market has to offer (wooden-framed double-glazed units with low-emission glass and filled with argon gas), you can even save more than 70% of the energy lost.

12. Get a home energy audit
    Many utilities offer free home energy audits to find where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. You can save up to 30% off your energy bill and 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Energy Star can help you find an energy specialist.

13. Cover your pots while cooking
    Doing so can save a lot of the energy needed for preparing the dish. Even better are pressure cookers and steamers: they can save around 70%!

14. Use the washing machine or dishwasher only when they are full
    If you need to use it when it is half full, then use the half-load or economy setting. There is also no need to set the temperatures high. Nowadays detergents are so efficient that they get your clothes and dishes clean at low temperatures.

15. Take a shower instead of a bath
    A shower takes up to four times less energy than a bath. To maximize the energy saving, avoid power showers and use low-flow showerheads, which are cheap and provide the same comfort.

16. Use less hot water
    It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.

17. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
    You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.

18. Insulate and weatherize your home
    Properly insulating your walls and ceilings can save 25% of your home heating bill and 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Caulking and weather-stripping can save another 1,700 pounds per year. Energy Efficient has more information on how to better insulate your home.

19. Be sure you’re recycling at home
    You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates.

20. Recycle your organic waste
    Around 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions through the methane is released by decomposing bio-degradable waste. By recycling organic waste or composting it if you have a garden, you can help eliminate this problem! Just make sure that you compost it properly, so it decomposes with sufficient oxygen, otherwise your compost will cause methane emissions and smell foul.

21. Buy intelligently
    One bottle of 1.5l requires less energy and produces less waste than three bottles of 0.5l. As well, buy recycled paper products: it takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests worldwide.

22. Choose products that come with little packaging and buy refills when you can
    You will also cut down on waste production and energy use... another help against global warming.

23. Reuse your shopping bag
    When shopping, it saves energy and waste to use a reusable bag instead of accepting a disposable one in each shop. Waste not only discharges CO2 and methane into the atmosphere, it can also pollute the air, groundwater and soil.

24. Reduce waste
    Most products we buy cause greenhouse gas emissions in one or another way, e.g. during production and distribution. By taking your lunch in a reusable lunch box instead of a disposable one, you save the energy needed to produce new lunch boxes.

25. Plant a tree
    A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%. The Arbor Day Foundation has information on planting and provides trees you can plant with membership.

26. Switch to green power
    In many areas, you can switch to energy generated by clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar. In some of these, you can even get refunds by government if you choose to switch to a clean energy producer, and you can also earn money by selling the energy you produce and don't use for yourself.

27. Buy locally grown and produced foods
    The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.

28. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
    Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.

29. Seek out and support local farmers markets
    They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by one fifth. Seek farmer’s markets in your area, and go for them.

30. Buy organic foods as much as possible
    Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!

31. Eat less meat
    Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.

32. Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
    Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year! Look for transit options in your area.

33. Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
    Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. eRideShare.com runs a free service connecting north american commuters and travelers.

34. Don't leave an empty roof rack on your car
    This can increase fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 10% due to wind resistance and the extra weight - removing it is a better idea.

35. Keep your car tuned up
    Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.

36. Drive carefully and do not waste fuel
    You can reduce CO2 emissions by readjusting your driving style. Choose proper gears, do not abuse the gas pedal, use the engine brake instead of the pedal brake when possible and turn off your engine when your vehicle is motionless for more than one minute. By readjusting your driving style you can save money on both fuel and car mantainance.

37. Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
    Proper tire inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference!

38. When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle
    You can save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year if your new car gets only 3 miles per gallon more than your current one. You can get up to 60 miles per gallon with a hybrid! You can find information on fuel efficiency on FuelEconomy and on GreenCars websites.

39. Try car sharing
    Need a car but don’t want to buy one? Community car sharing organizations provide access to a car and your membership fee covers gas, maintenance and insurance. Many companies – such as Flexcar - offer low emission or hybrid cars too! Also, see ZipCar.

40. Try telecommuting from home
    Telecommuting can help you drastically reduce the number of miles you drive every week. For more information, check out the Telework Coalition.

41. Fly less
    Air travel produces large amounts of emissions so reducing how much you fly by even one or two trips a year can reduce your emissions significantly. You can also offset your air travel carbon emissions by investingin renewable energy projects.

42. Encourage your school or business to reduce emissions
    You can extend your positive influence on global warming well beyond your home by actively encouraging other to take action.

43. Join the virtual march
    The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-political effort to bring people concerned about global warming together in one place. Add your voice to the hundreds of thousands of other people urging action on this issue.

44. Encourage the switch to renewable energy
    Successfully combating global warming requires a national transition to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. These technologies are ready to be deployed more widely but there are regulatory barriers impeding them. U.S. citizens, take action to break down those barriers with Vote Solar.

45. Protect and conserve forest worldwide
    Forests play a critical role in global warming: they store carbon. When forests are burned or cut down, their stored carbon is release into the atmosphere - deforestation now accounts for about 20% of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Conservation International has more information on saving forests from global warming.

46. Consider the impact of your investments
    If you invest your money, you should consider the impact that your investments and savings will have on global warming. Check out SocialInvest and Ceres to can learn more about how to ensure your money is being invested in companies, products and projects that address issues related to climate change.

47. Make your city cool
    Cities and states around the country have taken action to stop global warming by passing innovative transportation and energy saving legislation. If you're in the U.S., join the cool cities list.

48. Tell Congress to act
    The McCain Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act would set a firm limit on carbon dioxide emissions and then use free market incentives to lower costs, promote efficiency and spur innovation. Tell your representative to support it.

49. Make sure your voice is heard!
    Americans must have a stronger commitment from their government in order to stop global warming and implement solutions and such a commitment won’t come without a dramatic increase in citizen lobbying for new laws with teeth. Get the facts about U.S. politicians and candidates at Project Vote Smart and The League of Conservation Voters. Make sure your voice is heard by voting!

50. Share this list!
    Send this page via e-mail to your friends! Spread this list worldwide and help people doing their part: the more people you will manage to enlighten, the greater YOUR help to save the planet will be (but please take action on first person too)!
    
    If you like, you are free to republish, adapt or translate the list and post it in your blog, website or forum as long as you give us credit with a link to the original source.
    Thank you.

Governors pledge to fight global warming together

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008. Schwarzenegger, who has advocated strict reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said he organized the gathering to show local governments in other countries that emissions can be cut without harming the economy.(AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Click here to enlarge image

(AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his counterparts in 12 states and regional leaders from four other countries signed a declaration Wednesday pledging to work together to combat global warming, a move Schwarzenegger said will help push heads of state to curb their nations' greenhouse gas emissions.

The document was signed on the last day of an international climate summit organized by the California governor, who hopes the two-day event will inform U.N. negotiations in Poland next month on a new global climate treaty that is to be completed by the end of next year.

"We have to draw people into the debate," Schwarzenegger said during an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. "We have no choice. In the end, we are going to destroy the world" if greenhouse gases are not reduced.

The governors and regional leaders in Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia agreed in the document to develop policy positions on the industries that produce the most greenhouse gases - forestry, agriculture, cement, iron, aluminum, energy and transportation.

Those reports will then be forwarded to the United Nations. The chairman of a state pollution control board in India also signed the declaration.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat and one of four other governors co-hosting the summit, said it is incumbent on states to cut emissions because of the lack of action so far at the federal level.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida and Democratic Govs. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Jim Doyle of Wisconsin are the other co-hosts of Schwarzenegger's conference, titled the Governors' Global Climate Summit.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has advocated strict reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said he organized the gathering to show local governments in other countries that emissions can be cut without harming the economy.

Since taking office in 2003, he has entered into partnerships with the governors of seven Western states and four Canadian provinces in an effort to help polluting industries buy credits from other companies that have been able to reduce their emissions.

In a speech to the conference Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said national economies will be harmed if governments fail to cut emissions.

"We can do it with fairness and equity so all our economies will flourish ... and no one is being held back," Schwarzenegger said.

Wisconsin's governor acknowledged that many governments are financially strapped but said his state must find creative ways to reduce emissions.

"You can't go the other direction," Doyle said. "I would hate to see us come out of economic doldrums two years from now and find that we have moved 25 years backwards."

Such moves will not come without costs, however, said Sabine Miltner, a director at Deutsche Bank.

She said sufficiently reducing emissions will require capital investments of roughly $500 billion a year between 2010 and 2030. Miltner suggested the U.S. and other governments weighing economic stimulus packages invest some of the money in energy efficiency projects, transmission lines for renewable power sources and public transportation systems.

The United Nations has a December 2009 deadline to complete a treaty to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. That treaty, which expires in 2012, does not include the U.S. or China - the world's largest emitters.

Other governors who signed the declaration were Bill Ritter of Colorado, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Martin O'Malley of Maryland, David Paterson of New York, Ted Kulongoski of Oregon, Jon Huntsman of Utah and Christine Gregoire of Washington.

Fifty Ways to Help Save the Planet

The problem is so vast and the urgency so great that advice which suggests you turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or switch off lights and standbys when they are not needed or go vegetarian for one day a week seems, well, ridiculous. Global warming is probably the greatest threat our species has ever faced. The sheer scale of the processes under way in the atmosphere and the oceans makes it hard not to view anything an individual does to reduce emissions as being too little too late. Not true. The astonishing fact is that each of us can have an immediate impact on the production of greenhouse gases, and if enough of us act together in these minor ways, the cumulative effect will be dramatic. That's because so much of the way we live our lives is wasteful and, to put it bluntly, thoughtless. It takes nothing to switch off a lamp, unplug the phone charger, take a shorter shower, cook without pre-heating the oven, skip the pre-wash part of the dishwasher cycle, or, often, walk or bike instead of drive. And they all save money, which is one of the rather striking things about reducing your carbon footprint—the standard way of measuring the CO2 emissions each person is responsible for.

Some of the suggestions that follow may involve a little more effort—recycling, ditching plastic bags, and fixing leaky faucets and toilets; others require you to spend money—insulating your home, installing solar panels, or buying a fuel-efficient car. Even with these, however, there is almost always an eventual payback in terms of reduced bills.

The overwhelming and heartening point about the ideas here is that, if adopted by large numbers of people, they will have an immeasurable effect. When it comes down to it, the continued rise in carbon emissions is a matter of individual conscience: each of us can and should do something, however small. In 5 or 10 years' time that thought, together with everything written here, should be second nature to us. Ladies and gentlemen, this little booklet is the future—a more ingenious, more satisfying, and less wasteful future. Welcome to it.

Reporting for V.F.'s Green Guide by Daisy Prince and Emily Butselaar.

1. Lightbulbs Matter

Switch from traditional incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (C.F.L.). If every American household replaced one regular lightbulb with a C.F.L., the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road. A 30-watt C.F.L. produces about as much light as an ordinary 100-watt bulb. Although the initial price is higher, C.F.L.'s can last 12 times as long. C.F.L.'s are available at most home-improvement stores and at bulbs.com.

2. Ditch Plastic Bags

Californians Against Waste (cawrecycles.org), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, estimates that Americans use 84 billion plastic bags annually, a considerable contribution to the 500 billion to one trillion used worldwide. Made from polyethylene, plastic bags are not biodegradable and are making their way into our oceans and wat

erways. According to recent studies, the oceans are full of tiny fragments of plastic that are

beginning to work their way up the food chain. Invest in stronger, re-usable bags, and avoid plastic bags whenever possible.

3. Rinse No More

According to Consumer Reports, pre-rinsing dishes does not necessarily improve a dishwasher's ability to clean them. By

skipping the wash before the wash, you can save up to 20 gallons of water per dishload. At one load a day, that's 7,300 gallons over the course of the year. Not to mention that you're saving time, dishwashing soap, and the energy used to heat the additional water.

4. Forget Pre-heating

Ignore cookbooks! It is usually unnecessary to pre-heat your oven before cooking, except when baking bread or pastries. Just turn on the oven at the same time you put the dish in. During cooking, rather than opening the oven door to check on your food, just look at it through the oven window. Why? Opening the oven door results in a significant loss of energy.

5. A Glass Act

Recycle glass (think beer bottles, jars, juice containers) either through curbside programs or at community drop-off centers. Glass takes more than one million years to decompose; Americans generate almost 13 million tons of glass waste a year. Glass produced from recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. Go to earth911.org for local recycling information.

6. Banking on the Environment

Want to have a more energy-efficient home or office? Save green by being green. Purchase appliances and electronics with the Energy Star certification. Begun in 1992 by the E.P.A. to rate energy-efficient computers, the Energy Star program today includes more than 40 product categories, and it also rates homes and workplaces for energy efficiency. Energy Star estimates that, with its help, Americans saved enough energy in 2004 to power 24 million homes, amounting to savings of $10 billion. To learn more about Energy Star, visit energystar.gov.

Find the right water filter

A flood of new water filters is making it easier than ever to remove impurities from your tap water. Here’s how to choose the right model for your home.

Analyze your water. Your first step is to review the Consumer Confidence Report, which your water system must provide to you each year. The CCR is usually mailed to you, printed in newspapers, or posted on the Web site of your local government. For help understanding the CCR, read “Deciphering your water report.”

But remember, this report tells you about the water in your municipality, not necessarily what’s coming out of your taps. The only way to know the quality of the water supply in your home is to test it. To find the names of state-certified testing labs or the state authority responsible for certifying these labs water, go to www.epa.gov/safewater/labs or call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791). You might be able to get a test kit for free or at minimal cost.

You might also consider using the Watersafe All-In-One Drinking Water Test Kit, about $18, to check your water. In our tests, it provided quick, accurate results for chlorine, lead, nitrate, nitrite, two pesticides, pH, and total hardness. Results for bacteria were less reliable and took 48 hours.

Ultimately, you might find you don’t need a water filter.

Choose the right model. Read our analysis of the different filter types to find one that matches your lifestyle and water problems. For example, if your family consumes several gallons of water a day, a single carafe just won’t do.

Read the fine print. Even within a specific type, the claims of which contaminants a filter can remove vary. So match the filter to the contaminants in your water. And use our Ratings (available to subscribers) to gauge the efficacy of each device.

Add in the long-term costs. All but one of the 27 models we tested for our latest report have filters that you must replace periodically. Our Ratings include the yearly filter-replacement cost for each model; it ranges from $20 to $330 annually.

Safely apply herbicides

The best way to keep your lawn free of weeds is to fertilize, water, and mow it properly. You can also make your lawn more resilient to weeds (and drought) by allowing it to grow longer. A healthy lawn will resist weeds without your having to apply chemical herbicides.

But if you're going to use herbicides to deal with broadleaf plantain, crabgrass, dandelions (shown), oxalis, and countless other weeds, you'll need to apply it properly. To identify common lawn weeds, use our interactive guide. Keep in mind that spot application of herbicides will require the use of less chemicals, which could save you money and be better for the environment.

Herbicides are classified according to their use or mode of action:

Nonselective herbicides like Roundup kill all kinds of plants.

Selective herbicides like Ortho Weed-B-Gon Max Weed Killer for Lawns Concentrate kill some plants but not others. In your lawn, selective herbicides kill dicots (which include many common lawn weeds), plants with branching veins in variously shaped leaves.

Postemergent herbicides such as Roundup and Weed-B-Gon kill growing weeds and may be either selective or not.

Preemergent herbicides prevent some weed seeds from even germinating. They are typically used in early spring to prevent crabgrass. Most often these herbicides are combined with a fertilizer, as in Scotts Turf Builder Halts Crabgrass Preventer.

Cut your heating bill, boost the value of your home

Combining no- and low-cost weatherizing tactics with government and utility incentives can help raise or at least maintain the value of your home and slash your energy bills. You'll also help protect the environment.

Several energy-saving projects can reduce your heating bills this winter, according to our calculations. For instance, insulating the attic or basement is typically inexpensive and easy to do yourself. Adding attic insulation can lower your heating costs from 5 to 30 percent, according to a U.S. Department of Energy study.

Another simple measure you can implement right now is to drop the temperature setting on your household thermostat(s). For every degree you lower the temperature, you can save about 3 percent on your heating costs. Also consider lowering the setting 5° to 10°F when no one is home and at night.

Weatherizing you home can save you up to 30 percent on heating. And tests performed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the DOE showed that an aggressive weatherization program at your house can provide a 33.5 percent decrease in natural-gas consumption for space heating.

What's more, every dollar you shave off your energy bills with such home improvements can add more than $20 to the resale value of your home, according to a study by the Appraisal Institute. And a recent study by Seattle-based GreenWorks Realty showed that energy-efficient homes spend 18 percent less time on the market and sell for up to 37 percent more per square foot than conventional homes. (Consumer Reports has been leading the way on home-energy savings for decades, as detailed in "How to Cut Your Fuel Bill," from our August 1941 issue. As you'll see in this free PDF download—How to cut your fuel bill 1941.pdf—what's old is new.)

"We call efficiency the 'first fuel' that a homeowner consumes," says Suzanne Watson, policy director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. "Once you get that flowing, it cuts down your use of expensive secondary fossil fuels."

Seal holes
Cracks and crevices at all levels of your home allow expensive heated air to escape from your home; in an older house, those nooks and crannies can be the equivalent of a 2-square-foot hole in the side of the house. (Picture that.) But, estimates the DOE, proper weatherization alone can cut energy bills by at least 30 percent. Some utility companies provide free energy audits to pinpoint problem areas at your home; you can also find certified professionals in your area through the Residential Energy Services Network.

If you want to do the work yourself, look for dirty insulation, a sign of air movement that reveals other gaps you must fill. Also install precut foam pads to insulate electrical outlets, an often-overlooked source of cold-air infiltration and make sure you insulate holes in floors where heating and water pipes emerge. If you have steam radiators, place foil-faced insulation behind them to reflect heat back into the room. If your doors and windows are structurally sound there is no need to replace them. But you should replace any worn weather-stripping around doors and windows to cut drafts, which can make you feel colder and cause you to raise your thermostat setting.

"Add Insulation to Lower Your Heating Bills" and "Stay Warm Without Getting Fleeced" offer additional DIY ways to seal gaps.

Simple ways to save energy and money at home

In "Save Energy, Save Money," we focused on big-ticket efficiency improvements, but there are plenty of lower-cost ways to slash your energy bills at home without becoming an energy anorexic, including these and those that follow:

In the bathroom
• Save hot water by taking a 5-minute shower rather than a deep soak in the tub. Replace standard showerheads with low-flow models and turn off any supplemental showerheads.

In the kitchen
• Reheat dishes in your microwave, which likely consumes only about 20 percent of the energy of a typical full-sized oven. On the cooktop, use pans that are the same size as the burner and keep the lid on the pot when you want to boil water.

• Wipe minor oven spills and splatters regularly with a damp cloth so that you don't have to rely as often on the oven's self-cleaning feature. When you do use the self-cleaning feature, start the cycle right after cooking in the oven to take advantage of the preheated space.

• Get the fridge out of the garage. During summer the unit will have to work extra hard to compensate for the 100-plus degrees that a garage can reach. Better yet, consolidate your refrigerator and freezer items into one unit and turn off other refrigerators and freezers.

Around the house
• Unplug your television(s) and most other electronic devices if you use them infrequently or when you're away from home for an extended period. Even when turned off, electronic devices like TVs continue to draw standby power. Also unplug your computer and scanner if they'll sit idle for an extended period.

• To maximize light output, position lamps in the corner of a room, where their light will bounce off two walls. Painting interiors a bright color will also augment light levels, as will regularly dusting lamp shades and lightbulbs.

• Use LED lights for task lighting. In our test of undercabinet lighting, fixtures with LED bulbs were the most energy efficient, even besting fluorescents in the lumens-per-watt department.

• If your existing exterior door is old but still in good shape, install a storm door. During the summer, replace the glass or Plexiglas panels in the storm door with a screen to improve air circulation in the home and reduce the need for air conditioning.

• Buy a humidifier. During heating season, the colder it gets outside, the lower the relative humidity will be indoors. Providing some humidification will help to improve comfort, but don't overhumidify. Use a model with a humidistat to control indoor moisture levels.