New assignment for grade 5 at Vibyskolan - What can YOU do?

Goals to achieve for the student are:
• to know how peoples actions affect the environment and to be able to talk about once thoughts on the subject
• to know what every individuals rights an obligations are regarding the environment, and also show awareness of how you as an individual can contribute in saving and preserving our environment

The global warming is mainly caused by to much carbon dioxide discharge. In Sweden every person discharge almost six tons of carbon dioxide, divided like this:
32% transports 24% food and drink
20% sport activities and travels 16% residence
3% household and consumption 3% furniture and utensils
2% clothes and shoes

If we are going to manage to slow down the climate changes the council of Stockholm wants to reduce our personal discharges to three tons of carbon dioxide per person to the year 2015. Impossible? No, not if we all start now. It is the small changes in our every day life that has the biggest effects. Below is a list of things that you can do to reduce your discharges;

Transports
• Take the bus or the train instead of the car. That is better for the environment.
• Ride your bike or walk to school

Food and drink
• Buy food or fruit from the current season. Avoid frozen or canned food.
• Buy your food close to where you live, that way you reduce your transportation.
• Make a list before you go shopping, that way you reduce the probability of buying stuff that you don’t really need.
• Do not go out shopping for grocery when you are hungry. If you do it’s likely you will buy to much.
• Choose organic or “good for the environment”-labelled food.
• Reuse your bags to pack the food in.
• Cook vegetarian dishes. If you cut out beef from your diet once a week for a year you will avoid 50 kilos of greenhouse gases.
• Boil the water in a kettle before you put it in the saucepan. Always use a lid.

Sport activities and travels
• Choose an environmental friendly way to get to your activity
• If you need new gear, consider the possibility to buy second hand.

Residence
• Reduce the heating in your house with 1-2 degrees C.
• Check the temperature in the freezer, if it is colder than -18 degrees C, raise the temperature to -18 degrees C.
• Turn the water of. If you are going to wash the dishes, pour the water in the sink, don’t wash in running water.
• Take a quick shower instead of taking a bath.
• Change your light bulbs to low energy light bulbs. Low energy light bulbs only use about 20% of the energy that a regular light bulb uses.
• Switch the light off when you walk out of a room
• Don’t place furniture in front of radiators because that lets the heat out
• Pull down the curtains during the night; that will keep the cold out.
• Don’t let electric equipment stand on stand by. For example, don’t charge your mobile phone during the night, only until it is fully charged.
• Place a “No advertisements, please” on your mailbox, that saves on our earth resources
• Use e-mail instead of regular paper-mail
• Defrost your freezer, that saves energy

Household and consumption
• Always load your washer and dryer so that they are full before you use them.
• Dry your clothes in the sun
• Use a low temperature when you use your washing machine
• Sort your garbage and use a compost for your leftovers

Furniture and utensils/ clothes and shoes
• Recreate something that you were going to throw away
• Buy durable clothes and shoes, that way you can use them for a long time
• Instead of throwing away stuff try and sell them second hand or give them to a charity


Assignment
Let this become a challenge to you and your family to take on during the following months. First and foremost, this is the students work to take on, but you decide together in your family how involved you as a family will be. The assignment is to carry out as many points as possible, a minimum is at least one point per headline. The performance shall be documented with a digital camera, and these photos, along with a text, will then be published on the blog from different students every week.

/Marika