Climate & Nature...

Tomorrow is World Health Day - actually it may be World Health Day for some of you already since it falls on April 7th. I'm a west coast girl, so it's still the 6th where I am. In any case, it's not too early to discuss.

Each year, World Health Day, from the World Health Organization announces a theme for the upcoming year. This year's theme is "Protecting health from climate change." Now of course we talk about building and green homes here, but we won't be building any homes if our health is harmed by climate change. So, let's chat about it.

Obviously climate change is set off by the toll we create on the planet. By using too much energy, by driving when we could bike, and by big old companies pumping that pollution into the air. Some people find global warming amusing, a joke, but if the World Health Organization finds it important enough to focus on this year then we can too.

The World Health Organization sites the following reasons why climate change is this year’s topic.

• “Extremes of heat and cold can cause potentially fatal illnesses, e.g. heat stress or hypothermia, as well as increasing death rates from heart and respiratory diseases.
• In cities, stagnant weather conditions can trap warm air and air pollutants - leading to smog episodes with significant health impacts.
• Other weather extremes, such as heavy rains, floods, and hurricanes, also have severe impacts on health. Approximately 600 000 deaths occurred worldwide as a result of weather-related natural disasters in the 1990s; some 95% of these were in poor countries.”

The World Health Organization feels that help is needed immediately, if we’re going to help stop climate change and it’s negative affects, also if we’re going to help the people already affected.

Following are goals of the World Health Organization related to climate change:

• “Establish links between climate change and health and other development areas such as environment, food, energy, transport;
• Hold events/activities in countries to publicize issues related to the impact of climate change on health;
• Involve as wide a spectrum of the world population as possible in efforts to stabilize climate change;
• Create advocacy campaigns for generating momentum that compels governments, the international community, civil society and individuals to take action;
• Protect poor and vulnerable populations from the effects of climate change, especially in Africa.”

Now when it comes to homes, and building homes, we can make a large difference to climate change, help prevent it, by doing some simple things to reduce our weigh on the earth.

You can do the following at home to help minimize climate change:

Check your light fixtures: If everyone in the U.S made sure that their five most used light fixtures contained ENERGY STAR light bulbs, the EPA notes that we could "Prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars."

Use the STAR when building: There are ENERGY STAR products available now in lighting, home electronics, heating and cooling equipment and appliance. By only useing energy efficient appliances, we cut greenhouse gases significantly.

Seal and insulate your home: It makes no sense at all to build a home that will just be chilly in winter, and too hot in the summer.If you start smart from the start with superior insulation techniques, you'll save energy and money, and reduce greenhouse gases.

Reuse & recycle: By using reclaimed and recycled materials to build you save previously discarded resources, while reducing the power needs to make new materials.

Use local materials: Transportation is one of the driving forces behind global warming. You can, in almost all cases buy local material for your home, instead of shipping in supplies.

To learn more ways to build cleaner and greener in order to prevent more climate change from occurring, visit the Green Building Initiative.