Decreasing our Footprint on the Earth

My idea for our leadership class is to create a public awareness campaign about decreasing our consumption of natural resources as a community. By making small steps we can have a lasting change and impact through conservation. The first step would be to get our community to recognize Earth Hour this week on March 29th at 8:00 pm (maybe it’s not too late to get on the radio and in the local papers). See http://www.earthhour.org/

Most of our daily lives involve some depletion of natural resources. I would like to encourage a program where people try to take small steps to decrease their footprint: for example, turn down your thermostat by 1 to 2 degrees in the winter (it’s winter, wear a sweater) and turn your thermostat up by 1 to 2 degrees in the summer, change to electronic payment notices (bills) instead of paper to use less trees, limit your shower to 5 minutes or less, rake your leaves instead of using a leaf blower, only use lights when they are needed (i.e., use day light when you can and turn off outside lights that are not needed)…

While I think that switching to renewable energy sources is ideal and necessary, I think that we must also look at our energy consumption (and waste) and look at ways that we can work toward decreasing our use.
AP