Being Eco-Girl

Bullshee tagged me in his latest blog.
And before I knew it , I had 3 tags to do already.
Let me begin by doing Shek's and reduce the pending pile of tags before new ones hit me!

* and to think - there was a time when I thought no one tagged me - Shakes head in disbelief*

Ohkay - getting down to the task at hand. This is one of the rare "think hard" tags Ive done since Ive been around - and Ive been around for a long time now :D

Shek's Tag asks me to talk about what I do ( can and should do) to reduce the pollution / global warming / general - "we are shitting up the earth" stuff.
Pretty serious eh? Yeah.
Because this is the only inhabitable planet we have within our reach right now, and if we mess this one up, there is no packing the bags and leaving to another planet as though planning a road trip.

And cliched though it might seem, we havent inherited the earth from our forefathers, but have loaned it from our children - we better be careful with what we do with this fragile planet which we all call home.

1. Say no to Polythene

Atleast in places you can, like your shopping bags etc - say No to them. They are non bio degradable, and any stray animals ( and we have a lot of them here in India) eating them have a mortal hazard of ( you guessed it ) ending up dead.
Use cloth bags. I would not really advocate paper bags too - as it takes a lot of bamboo shoots for that paper that you use ( more in the points ahead); I do use polythene bags a lot - but dont throw it away, but keep it for future use, and in case its torn or un-usable, put it in the "recyclable" part of the garbage ( yes we do that now here in my city)

2. Use Recycled paper
For those scribble pads, those greeting cards and those write and throw kinda stationery, please use recycled paper - yes I agree it blots when you use a fountain pen, it is rough and grainy, but hey! look at the larger picture - its the earth we are talking about!

3. Switch off those lights there
When you arent actually in a room/ office / elevator - please switch off those lights and fans and ACs ... do you know how much of coal is burnt in case you are using thermal energy? Even otherwise, In India, you have certain parts of the country having black-outs every single day for atleast 3 hours flat- do not use electricity indiscriminately!
On a related note - if you do have a "generator / Inverter / Dynamo" at home, do not use it until really required when there's a power cut. The amount of fuel that gets consumed is humongous!
It will not only save those extra rupees, but also reduce the pollution - both air and noise pollution!

4. Eat cold food!
Yup! reheating the food over and over again not only reduces the nutritional value in it, but also expends a lot of energy!
On a related note - cook as much as you need - dont cook extra food -and if in case you do end up with food that you cant consume - you have several agencies that take this food and distribute it among the poor - kindly use their services!

5.Try and Carpool
Ohkay! so you will have to get up a little early, will have to honk in front of your friend/ colleague's house - but do it! it not only reduces the fuel consumption hence reducing the green house effect, but also the air pollution in the atmosphere, but also increases those social ties - for which otherwise - you have no time.

6.Try and pot some plants at home.
Even if you are one of those who lives in the cramped city apartment, one shrub that is kept in one corner of your house will do. It will improve the aesthetics of the house and contribute a teeny weeny bit of oxygen too! I know we cant all have orchards in our backyards, but we can always do our 2 cents , cant we?

7. Use the Bucket and Mug.

Okay - its proven and its official - you waste more water under a shower or filling up that bath tub than you do when you use the typical desi bucket and mug. There are countries who are deprived of safe drinking water, why other countries? I still remember how mom used to stand in queue waiting for those precious 15 minutes of the day ( the only time when water would flow from taps) waiting among atleast 4 other families ( hey! wait - am I showing my low standards here? -- hehe -- am I taking pot shots at someone here? -- never mind this digression - I dont mind if my standards are low - this is me and that was my mom in the queue for water then) even today; im told families in Gujrath yet face this situation.

ummm... this is all I can think of right now; will add more as I can think of more - and will update this post - as I go along.

Now I have Lalit's tag to do and Bullshee's tag as well! ( and since Sakshi wrote "whoever reads this post is tagged" Im yet to do that as well ...) Buck up Arpz, pull up your socks.

But - one last announcement - it might just happen that I write nothing but put up these tags here - so it'll be easy for you guys atleast for some more time.
I am too angry,annoyed, steeped in self pity, busy,preoccupied and watever else that is that normal humans do - so will be staying away a li'l more from the blog world.
In the meanwhile, you can drop impersonal topics such as the above for me to blog ... and No, Im not blogging about Himesh Reshammiyya or how and why have Beckham and Victoria moved to LA.