What if Everyone Greened Their Home?

One of the most frequently heard excuses for not making environmentally friendly changes is 'I'm only one person, my actions don't make a difference in the larger scheme of things.' Another argument is that until the government starts to take some real initiative in dealing with climate change, individual actions count for very little. But the beauty of simple changes is that if we all take time to make them, they can become huge, world-altering changes.

Table derived from information supplied by Energy Star, the E.PA., the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Geological Survey

Admittedly, the table above illustrates an unlikely scenario. Not every household in the U.S. will undertake these changes. What it does illustrate is that individual actions can add up, and that even if some of the 111 million households in the country made these changes, it would have a positive impact on the environment.

Change Equivalents

When we look at the chart above, the numbers in that last column are impressive. But merely stating that we would save 55.5 billion pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere may not mean much to the person reading it. What exactly does 55.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gas mean? And would it really change things? To get an idea of the impact of preventing all of those greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere, consider this:

• Preventing one million pounds of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere is the equivalent of taking 98 cars off of the road for an entire year.
  • Extrapolating from that number, we see that if everyone in the U.S. simply replaced 5 regular bulbs with CFLs, it would be like removing 5.4 million cars from use for one year.
• One million gallons of CO2 is the equivalent of nearly 52,000 gallons of gasoline.
• If everyone repaired faucet and toilet drips, we would save nearly the equivalent of one Lake Michigan (the Earth's 6th largest freshwater lake) every single year.
• Preventing 133 billion pounds of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere (which would happen if everyone in America recycled just half of their paper, plastic and aluminum) would have the same positive environmental impact as adding approximately 400,000 acres of pristine forest to the planet.

Source: U.S. Climate Technology Cooperation Gateway

Final Analysis

The fact of the matter is that most of these solutions are simple and inexpensive to implement. Aside from replacing appliances and insulating the attic, every one of the changes outlined above would take less than $100 and minimal home improvement skills to accomplish. If we can change our thinking, starting to realize that there is no such thing as a small change and that the power of individuals acting together can create enormous change, then we can begin to have a really positive impact on our environment.