21 | April | 2007 | Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist

EARTH DAY: Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint

“… more children knew the characters of the video game Pokemon than could recognise an oak tree or an otter…”

By Stephen Leahy

Apr 21 (IPS) – Today’s children will live in a new world of climate change and greatly diminished natural resources, which may give way to a nightmarish reality, or it could give birth to a happier and lighter way of living on the Earth, say environmentalists.

The scientific evidence for environmental troubles — from rising sea levels to species extinction to desertification — sends a clear signal that we are running into the limits of spaceship Earth to support us as it has for millennia.

“This world is ending; we need to lay the foundations for a new world,” says Alice Klein, a magazine editor and documentary filmmaker in Toronto. “We have a great opportunity to make a better world,” she told IPS.

Klein’s film “Call of the Hummingbird“, to premiere on Earth Day — Apr. 22 — at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival, tracks the 13 days when some 1,000 teachers, eco-activists, farmers, Mayans, Rastafarians, holistic health-workers, non-governmental organisation executives, student leaders from all over Latin America and a few from Europe and North America camped out together in central Brazil in 2005.

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From the Frugalist – a guy who loves to make lists here’s 57 tips on going green and saving money.

Some good ideas here although I’m not sure how he arrived at the dollar savings of going green i.e car pooling will save you $780 a year, but he’s right it would save a pile of money. As will many of his other green money savers — lots of great links as well.

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6 Easy Ways to Green your Transport and save $$

Bike or walk to work. The only gas you’ll use with this option is oxygen. Savings: $1,560 per year.
Telecommute. Learn about this quiet revolution [PDF link] in the workplace. Telecommuting twice a week can save you 40 percent of your gas costs according to the Telework Coalition. Savings: $624 per year.
Carpool. If you must use your car, share your ride. Find a ride in your local paper or try craigslist. Savings: $780 per year if shared with one other person.
Keep your car tuned. A well-tuned car uses approximately nine percent less gas than a poorly tuned car, and you can lose about two percent in fuel economy for every pound of pressure your tire is under the recommended level. Savings: $150 per year.
Learn to drive. Rapid acceleration and braking can lower your gas mileage by five percent around town and 33 percent on the highway, or an average of $0.55 per gallon. And, you get less mileage for your money (23 percent less or $0.67 per gallon) if you drive over 60mph. Savings: $1.22 per gallon, or $634 per year.
Decrease your drag. If you aren’t using that overhead luggage rack, take it off (do you really need to carry that much luggage in the first place?). Also, it may help to turn off the AC and open up your windows to conserve gas, but not when you’re cruising down the highway at 60mph. Open windows at that speed increases drag and is less conservative than using the AC