Earth Day Is a Call to Action for Humankind

On this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the call to action is aimed at individuals, not just government. That's the view of Dedee DeLongpre Johnston, director of sustainability at Wake Forest University, who is issuing a call to action for Earth Day 2010.

"On the first Earth Day in 1970, the focus was on grassroots political action to bring attention to the environment and the degradation of earth's systems. Now, our focus is on the broader concept of sustainability and the immediate actions that are necessary in order to preserve our quality of life," DeLongpre Johnston said. "It's a way of looking at what's going on in the world and acknowledging that most humans are acting in a way that's not in our own best interest."

While the environmental movement recognizes that nature itself has intrinsic rights and humans should act as good stewards of nature's bounty, sustainability also takes human needs into account and recognizes that our economic prosperity and way of life are at stake. "It's not about the environmental movement versus sustainability," said DeLongpre Johnston. "Sustainability can be seen as an evolved way of thinking about the environmental movement and an acknowledgment that human beings can't prosper without healthy and intact natural systems."

In keeping with the focus on sustainability for Earth Day, DeLongpre Johnston is challenging people of all ages to make April 22 a Day of Action by adopting at least one of 10 lifestyle changes with the greatest potential for impact.

10 Actions to Radically Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

1. Walk, bike, or carpool - Forty percent of all trips are two miles or less; 90 percent of those trips are taken by car. If one out of 10 people switched to an alternative form of transportation, CO2 emissions would drop by 25.4 million tons per year.

2. Get an energy audit - Slightly more than 20 percent of all energy is consumed in homes. A home energy audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient.

3. Weatherize your home or office - For every $1 spent on weatherization, $1.80 is saved over time. Weatherization can reduce energy bills by 32 percent, and weatherized households save an average of $218 per year on their energy bills.

4. Buy energy efficient appliances - It's a good idea to replace older, inefficient appliances with energy efficient ENERGY STAR(r) qualified appliances. In some cases, instant rebates are available for refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers, and dishwashers.

5. Power down and unplug electronics - Many appliances continue to draw a small amount of power when they are switched off. In the average home, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics and appliances is consumed while the products are turned off.

6. Buy local -In addition to the reduced transportation footprint of local economic activity, buying local has a strong multiplier effect in the economy. A 10 percent change in purchasing from national chain stores to locally owned businesses each year would create 1,300 new jobs and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity.

7. Invest in Durable, Re-usable Products - As one example, the manufacturing of bottles to meet the American demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil each year, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for that year. Each year over 500 billion disposable bags are consumed worldwide (1 million every minute). Decreasing the number of disposable products in your life decreases the carbon footprint of manufacturing, transportation, and disposal.

8. Eat local and in season - The average meal travels anywhere between 1,200 to 2,500 miles from farm to plate. A basic diet of imported ingredients can require up to four times the energy of an equivalent locally-sourced diet.

9. Plant an organic garden - Research suggests that the conversion of 10,000 small- to medium-sized farms to organic production practices would store carbon in the soil equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road. Planting and maintaining a garden reconnects us with the true value of food.

10. Conserve water - Up to 30 percent of a household energy footprint can come from moving water from its source to the home. A faucet that is dripping just one drip per second will waste about four gallons of water in just one day or 1,400 gallons in a year. The average household could conserve water by 34 percent per year by installing water-efficient fixtures and appliances.