Ecological Actions

Or How to Help the Planet Breath

The basics

	The Attitude Be positive in regards to the future of the planet. Believe in your power to change things as an individual. If you are the pessimistic kind, apply this quote of Guillaume d'Orange: It is not necessary to believe to undertake, neither to succeed to persevere.
Individual actions Get into the ACTION! Get over with the too famous sentence: If my neighbour doesn't do it, why should I! Be ready for sacrifices in order that more people live better now, but mostly tomorrow.		Communication Stay informed about your environment. Talk about your convictions; display your choices, alone or among a group. Speak highly of our web of life protection. A at all times remain pacific.
	Social and political implication As a citizen, as a voter get interested in the environmental aspect of the political programs. Stay alert and don't hesitate to get in touch with your elected representative. Tell them about your ecological concerns.

Ecological actions

Here's a list of various actions you can take in different areas of your life. You'll find easy things that everyone can do in favour of a better environment. We suggest you go at your own pace and don't try to become a model of ecological comportment at once. Very little people do everything described in the following anyway, so don't get discouraged and go little by little.

Changing your habits in those areas will allow you to contribute to the effort necessary from everyone in order to help solve some of the major problems that are over-consumption, global warming and others.

And to go further

Recycling

It is true that we have improved on the way of recycling, but there is still much to do in order to reach the ideal level of trash revaluation. Trash zero, that's the target! Whether garbage are buried or burned, soil and air are getting polluted when we have to get rid of our trash. To recycle is also about slowing down the rate at which we exploit the vegetal (trees for paper) and minerals (silica for glass and other metals) of the planet.

Recycling of paper, plastic, glass and metal:

• The first thing to do is to reduce your consummation of those as much as possible. For example, a north-American consumes 325 kg (812 lbs) of paper and cardboard per year compared to 7 kg (15 lbs) for an African. You can already give a second life to your paper before sending it to recycling. Use the back of envelopes to take notes, build envelopes with some magazine paper or signal your mail box with a "no publicity" note. Be imaginative.
  
  
• Have an easy accessible space for recycling. This way you will be more likely to throw your little wrapping cardboards in recycling rather then the normal garbage can. Have also different spots in your place like some wardrobes, in the office or in the garage.

Selective collect is not working everywhere. So until political authorities respond to your demands, make the effort of bringing your recyclable garbage to the closest recycling bins. The fullest those bins are, the better there's a chance that your representatives see the need of a collect.

• All domestic glass is recyclable, so if it's not refund put it in the recycling bin. Oil bottles need to be cleaned. Take advantage of your normal dishes water to clean it, stay green and don't waste any water for a special cleaning, same for cans where metal is recyclable.
  

Composting

• Composting is an important natural process that transforms vegetal, organic elements into dirt. Earth, soil is compost from leaves, branches, flowers and fruits from the wild. You can reduce the volume of your domestic trash by keeping your organic leftovers for compost. Some municipalities collect it, but it's rather easy to make your own.

• We might think that vegetal trash doesn’t need to be separated from the rest since it’s gonna be decomposing among the rest anyway (when burying is the technique). But it’s wrong because when the vegetal are mixed with other garbage that are more or less toxic, they get contaminated during the decomposition process and loose their natural property.

-Peels from fruits and vegetables, egg shells, tea leaves, coffee and its filter, just about everything that comes out of the kitchen can go to compost except meat. We are not going to go into details, but for the right techniques you can consult these sites:

- If your municipality collects organic trash, that’s perfect, but if not do it yourself. Even in town you can use apparels to do it and use it yourself or give it to others. When properly done compost is not smelly at all.

Transportation

Leading horse of the tour of the Americas, the choice of a means of transportation affects greatly the environment. Not only the choice of the car as an individual means of transportation is highly pollutant. But the growth of car users brings to construction of roads which monopolises space that seals a soil that we can only use to drive cars and pollute more. And finally the automobile isolates people one from another, limiting human relations and amplifying the individualistic figures of our society.

So here is our hit parade of the best means of transportations and their advantages. Think about all those alternatives before getting in your vehicle alone because each time you will contribute to get more CO 2 in the air. Certain options might take more of your time, but sacrificing a little of your time is a great part of ecological choices. And the more time passes by, the more acting ecologically becomes more a duty than a choice.

1- Your legs: Walking is not only the cheapest way to go around, but most importantly it is the best for your health. Choosing an apartment in regards of your work and other services is giving yourself the privilege to move yourself around most freely.

2- The bicycle: It allows you to cover a considerable distance in a reasonable time (10 km=30min.), it works with quite an ecological fuel, you can pass by traffic jams and it is rather easy on maintenance. You can carry the baby around and quite some weight in panniers. It is also healthy and it is not limited to city transportation. On the contrary, you can discover the backcountry from quite a different perspective.

3- Public transportation: Public it says, public it is. Constructed to accommodate a great number of people, it is the price to pay for the kind of society we built. The time has passed where we could at the same time enjoy a good quality of air and enjoy being alone in a vehicle. Subways, tramways and buses are can lead you almost anywhere in big cities. Combine it with some walking or biking and it can become really efficient.

4- Car sharing: Imagine if half of the drivers on the road would take the other half on board of their vehicle. Fifty percent less pollution, 50% less traffic. Ideal car sharing is when you travel with a co-worker that has the same schedule as you. But it can also be someone that you pick up on the way who works in an office or a plant close to your own work place. Most of the excuses like: “I have the kids to drop at school.” are not valuable, so try it.

Energy economy

The more we consume electric energy, the more we have to produce electricity.

No matter what is its production mode, all the conventional sources have an ecological cost. A power station produces lots of CO2 and contributes to global warming. Hydro-electric damns are destroying eco systems and therefore contribute to the loss of bio-diversity. And nuclear power leaves us with dangerous radioactive wastes for thousands of years.

First, let’s take the good habit of consuming less energy. Use less electricity in heating, lighting, cleaning and entertaining. Buy low consumption electric devices. Then try to encourage the renewable energies of the wind and the sun.
Some people build their own bio-climatic houses and it works. Soon we will present to you a French example in our page dedicated to ecological citizens.

Alimentation

Our way to feed ourselves also has a great impact on the environment. As a consumer we have the duty to create a demand for quality products. We don’t have to rely on the over processed and empty products partly proposed by the market.

Transformation: The product has been processed, the more there is an ecological cost; water for washing and cooking, electric energy to have all the machines working. There can also be a great loss in the values of the aliments and the addition of doubtful products that are harmful to your health. By choosing unprocessed you live healthier and you help the environment.

Eat less meat: There are actually 20 billion livestock heads in the world, more than three times the world population. Twenty billions that we have to feed if we want to eat them. How come is it that we can feed those, but that we cannot feed the six billions of human kind? The problems are multiple. Most importantly, economic interests overrule human interests.

Let’s say that for one thing that we partly feed the animals with cereals we could eat directly or at least cultivate the numerous lands to bring food to man. A 10 acres farm can fill the alimentary needs of 60 people by the culture of soy, but only two by the production of meat.

L’emballage: Processed generally implies wrapped. For the equivalent product, look the one that has less wrapping. If you want to go further, write to the brand you chose to tell them you bought for their minimal wrapping and another brand to say that you didn’t buy because of the over wrapping.

- Over wrapping has an ecological cost, but also an economic one. One of the best examples is the one of tea bags. First a filter than an individual plastic wrapping put in box that is itself wrapped in plastic. All that when you can buy in gross and put it in an infusion ball by yourself. Compare prices and you will see that for an equivalent product, wrapping has a price.

- When you consume products that are wrapped, make sure that you recycle all that plastic paper and cardboard as much as possible.

- Avoid if you can the use of plastic glasses when you help yourself at a water fountain or coffee machine, especially at work where you can have your own glass or mug.

Organic products In general, organic products must comply with a strict schedule of conditions. But don’t get fooled by the single word organic or bio on the label.

-Organic agriculture generally means that the growing and the preservation of the products are done in great respect of the environment for the better health of consumers. That is to say:

- No pesticides, natural fight against pests
- No chemical fertilizer, use of organic fertilizer
- No geneticly modified organisms
- No intensive culture, rotation of cultures to avoid soil impoverishment

Soft Water

Today, contaminated water kills 5 million people. At the beginning, the project of the Tour of the Americas was more oriented toward peace, with an environmental side. In order to target a more precise target we went ecologist. It is however with the drinkable water topic that we see best the link between PEACE and ENVIRONMENT. As blue gold becomes scarcer, conflicts are rising to control its resources. By polluting and wasting water we destroy one essential element for mankind survival. To waste and contaminate our water is heading for war!

It seems sheer non sense to us that we use drinkable water to evacuate our bodily wastes from our houses. Each time we flush the toilet, 10 litres of drinkable water is going down the drain. Closed circuit systems exist to treat the water with bacteria. They are becoming quite popular in Japan for big buildings. Sometimes they serve a whole commercial block. It is clearly an example to follow.

• To pollute water as little as possible:

- If you live in an area where they bury garbage, make sure you recycle metal, plastic and other wastes that could pollute the underground water sources.

- Have leaks on your vehicle and equipment repaired. Oil, fuel and other toxic liquids are drained by rain water and carried in the circuit of treated water.

- When you need cleaning products, use organic ones (dishes and laundry soap, all purpose cleaner)

- Get informed and avoid products that contaminate water while being produced.

• To waste less water:

- Install a low consumption toilet at your place. If it’s not possible put a filled bottle of water in the reservoir. This way you save one or two litres of drinkable water each time you flush. Imagine what you save in a year.

- Make sure you have your leaks repaired, As much as 20 litres can be wasted by a single leak in 24 hours.

- Some people find that it is not hygienic, but you can wait that there is two or three pees in the toilet before you flush it. Throw 10 litres down for every few millilitres of golden fluid is maybe a bit much.

- Avoid the too famous water hose washing. Whether it is your driveway, the side walk or your car, make sure you don’t waste that precious liquid when you can sweep and use a bucket.

- Take a shower instead of a bath, close faucet while tooth brushing.

- Just use your common sense before having water going down the drain uselessly.

• To go further

Those actions we hope can become habits for everyone. Unfortunately it is not enough and we hope that many of you will look forward to do more for earth’s sake.

To build this page we gathered information here and there. Some of it can be found in a page that is full of references and that will help you to go further.