Ashley

Its Sunday afternoon… the weekend is about to end, I said to myself ‘Let’s catch a nice movie on TV’ and just as I try to switch it on, I realize there is no electricity. Another Sunday afternoon is ruined. And looking at current energy crisis going all over the country, I think I will have to spend many more Sunday afternoons and then whole Sundays and then whole week without electricity. I can’t even imagine how the situation is in small towns when cities like Mumbai are getting power cuts. We take all the glory to blame Governments and related people for this shortage. But have we ever realized that we are also equally responsible for this shortage and we can do our bit to prevent it in some or the other way? First thing to realize is that mother earth has very very limited supply of energy resources and it has reached its exhausting limit already. If we don’t act fast we are headed for big trouble.

Another thing to consider is the amount of air that gets polluted with burning of these resources. Recently there were headlines in news paper about UN giving world some 8 years to save ourselves from global warming. Whoa… 8 years that is like tomorrow and most of us don’t really seem to be concerned with the possible effects it might have on us. Studies say, this will affect human kind as much as a world war or big meteor impact would affect. The reports are painting scary pictures of ‘what might happen due to global warming’ and most important thing is that this will be a on going phenomenon and will anything but worsen with time.

With the time frames they are predicting, we can’t even say do it for next generation. If things continue like this, ours will might be last generation to survive. So here are little things that we can do to keep ourselves away from the Dooms day as far as possible.

Switch off those lights – Diwali comes only once a year so save all those lightings for that. Switch off tube lights, fans whenever you are not in the same room. And not just the lights in your house, but anywhere you go, be it office or even the elevator. Even if you are not paying for the electricity directly, you will eventually end up being affected by the loss.

Switch off computers screens and computers too when not in use – The computer monitors consume a lot of energy. Switch them off whenever you are not using. Also switch off the office machine if you can when you leave for the day or at least switch them off during the weekend.

Turn off vehicles at signals – It’s a bad habit many people have. Even of the signal is red for whole 3 minutes; they won’t take pains off turning off their vehicles. It is painful to stop at signals with the engine noise and carbon fumes coming out of the vehicles. We can definitely prevent that and save a little bit of fuel and lot of air.

Talk a walk whenever you can – So you have a nice big vehicle to show off, but do give your legs some work out. You don’t need to drive around to a place around the corner. Who knows, you might end up noticing the greenery on the way which you never had time to see. I want to go a little further and suggest using public transport whenever you can or at least use car pooling.

Put a check on leaking taps – Leaking taps are the worst culprits for water wastage. A single tap is capable for draining out gallons of water. So make sure all the taps in your house and where you use them are always closed properly. Water is also a valuable energy resource.

Use non-conventional energy resources – Solar energy is emerging and huge source of non-conventional power and so is wind energy. In a country like ours, use of solar power is very feasible and the government gives huge subsidy on them. Solar water heaters are in existence since long but these days solar inverters are also coming in. I have seen people using solar inverters not only in case of power cuts but also as regular power supplies. They not only reduce your electricity and other fuel bills but also reduce pollution and definately not noisy like the conventional generators. Best part of these units is that they need almost zero maintenance.

So…it is not that difficult to keep the dreaded days away, isn’t it?