Essential Skill #6: Green Your Ride

Though driving a hybrid is the best way to cut down on your vehicle's carbon footprint, there's many other important things you can do for better fuel-efficiency ... no matter what you drive. Author David de Rothschild explains in Essential Skill #6 in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook:

Green Your Ride.

You'll save on gas (and carbon emissions) by:

1) Turning off your car instead of letting it idle for just 10 seconds or more -- a good thing to remember when you're waiting on the teller at the bank, your lunch at the drive-through or your friend at the convenience store. (Weather permitting of course. Let's not bake in a hot car, or freeze in a cold one, just to save some gas.)

2) Rolling up windows when you're going highway speeds -- there's less resistance, making it easier for your car to move and save you gas.

3) Checking tire pressure every month -- that's how quick your tires lose one pound of pressure per square inch. Keep them properly inflated, and your tires will not only roll just right, but also last longer.

4) Giving your car a tune-up -- it can increase fuel-efficiency 15-50%!

5) Driving slow and smooth -- you use 33% more fuel if your idea of driving is gunning the gas and slamming on your brakes.

6) Increase the aerodynamics of your vehicle by removing roof racks

And if you are planning to take the next step by purchasing something new that's more fuel-efficient, remember that weight and aerodynamics are key -- that means light vs. heavy ... low vs. tall ... and round edged vs. "boxy" ones.

Essential Skill #5: Sub-Size It

Just 5% of the world’s population lives in the United States, yet of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, we pump nearly 25% of it into the atmosphere! One reason – our "super-size it" mentality. Yet as you may know from personal experience in countries outside of America, the "bigger-is-better" concept has spread across the globe.

But you don’t have to live in a mansion, drive a Hummer or have a plasma TV in every room to benefit from the lesson of Essential Skill #5 in The Live Earth Global Warming Handbook:

Sub-Size It.

Your House
"From 1970 to 2004, the average new home in the U.S. grew more than 50%" writes author David de Rothschild "even as the average number of people in each household shrunk by 17%." In fact, houses that are 4,000-square-feet or bigger use 40% more energy than houses between 1,500 and 2,000-square-feet.

Your Vehicle
The heavier it is, the more gas it takes getting from A to B. For instance, the Hummer H2 weighs 6,400 pounds, getting between 11 and 14 miles per gallon. On the greener hand, a Smart Car ForTwo weighs just 1,606 pounds, getting more than 58 miles per gallon.

Your Television
Big screen plasma TV’s use twice the energy of LCD’s (and even more than the CRT’s we grew up with).

Of course, none of this means that you have to live in one-bedroom home, drive a car that only seats two or set up your parents’ old black-and-white in the living room. It means only that when you shop (for anything), you take along your sub-size-it mentality.

"Cars and televisions last 10 to 15 years," writes de Rothschild. "Houses can last 100 years or more. The decisions we make now can affect greenhouse-gas pollution for decades."

Essential Skill #4: Calculate Your Carbon

How big is your carbon footprint? In other words, how much global warming-causing carbon dioxide is your lifestyle pumping into the air? That’s the focus of Essential Skill #4 in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook:

Calculate your carbon.

As author David de Rothschild points out in the book, there are hundreds of carbon calculators online for you to choose from. We’ve tried a few in recent months, some simpler to use and more comprehensive than others. Our personal favorite is the Nature Conservancy’s Online Carbon Calculator, which assesses your emissions in four main areas:

• Home energy
• Driving and flying
• Food and diet
• Recycling and waste

Your carbon footprint is calculated based on your answers to simple questions in each of these areas. For instance, the "hardest" question asks how many miles you drive each year, month or week. You’ll of course want to account for your trips to and from work, shopping, etc. But also remember to include any long road trips you make out of town throughout the year.

This carbon calculator also takes into account where you live, the number of people in your household and the type of home in which you live.

Best of all, the Nature Conservancy shows how the size of your carbon footprint compares to your region and to the rest of the world. For instance, our carbon footprint is 41 tons of CO2 each year. That’s lower than the US average of 53 tons, but much higher than the world average of just 11.

Click this link to calculate your footprint through the Nature Conservancy’s Online Carbon Calculator.

Essential Skill #3: Replace a Lightbulb

Anyone who's been following the Live Earth Movement (or had any exposure to the avalanche of the greening of consumerism in recent months) is probably already an expert in Essential Skill #3 in the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook:

Replace a lightbulb.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs not only last longer than incandescents, but also use 75% less energy. That translates into a savings of $30-50 per bulb throughout its lifetime. Just be sure the CFL's you buy are Energy-Star approved. And instead of tossing those incandescents into the trash, hold onto them in case of emergencies.

If you want to see how we're changing the world "one bulb at a time," go to One Billion Bulbs. Their goal is to keep track of every lightbulb changed all over world. (They even have a map that lets you see how many have been changed in your state and/or country.) Of course, the key is us letting them know. So act now, and tell One Billion Bulbs how many you've replaced. Best of all, they'll calculate your savings for you - in dollars and in CO2.

For instance, we've replaced 7 60-watt incandescents with 7 13-watt CFL's. Every year, that's a savings of $48.90 and 686.89 pounds of CO2! (Numbers that will probably double once we finish replacing ALL our bulbs this week. )

We hope you'll do the same.