There are ways to reduce our carbon footprint without protest groups

We are a consumer nation and we may talk about global warming, but we do little to stop it.

We have big environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace protesting pipelines, but there are better ways to be proactive.

I read that if we planted one billion trees it would reduce the carbon in our atmosphere by three per cent. I also read that Canada has more open land than any country in the world to do this.

Being the second largest by land mass in the world I believe this.

We have a tree, a poplar, that grows about five or six feet a year. So, come on you environmental groups get out there and plant those one billion trees.

Canada has a carbon footprint smaller than three per cent. It seems to me that this is a better thing to do than raise money to support protest groups. We also should look at what we are putting in landfills. Reusable diapers are cheaper and more environmentally friendly, Kleenex, come on, get out the hankie. Recycle more plastic. I saw where a house was built using 16,000 recycled plastic bottles. Plastic bags can be recycled.

Stop driving your children everywhere. They have legs let them use them. Stop driving recreational vehicles.

People got out to the woods and enjoyed our countryside before the internal combustion engine was around. It may interest you to know that the first automobiles were electric. They changed to gasoline because it was cheaper.

Guess what, it isn't cheaper anymore? So if you just can't live without your recreational vehicles, start agitating for electric motors.

Big industrial farms should be looking at solar power to run their harvesters. Farmers who benefit from supply management should be spending more of their income to reduce their carbon footprint.

There are motion sensitive street lights, perfect for small and medium towns.

There are more things to increase the list, just add your own.

Walter Jones lives in Amherst. His column appears weekly in the Amherst News.