By Anitra Krishnan
This is different from what I’d normally tell you. I would usually give advice with statistics, but not this time. Instead, I’m going to educate all of you through personal experiences.
COVID-19 has imposed a global plague on the entire world and we are all stuck indoors. Only recently, we are allowed out. But even though we are allowed to go out for a bit, the majority of our time will still be spent indoors. And you may think that this would be good for the environment. Boy, could you be any more wrong.
From my own experiences, I’ve realized that so much energy is being wasted during this whole quarantine period. Water is wasted, electricity is wasted, and now that people are allowed out of their houses again fossil fuels are being emitted too.
Now… fossil fuels are a little more difficult to cut back on… but we can easily cut the amount of water we waste and the amount of energy we waste.
When trying to cut back on the amount of water you use, consider how you are using water. Taking unnecessarily long showers, showering more than 2 times a day, taking baths instead of showers, and washing your hands too often are some examples of wasting water. Yes, quarantine can be very boring. But wasting water happens more than ever, especially now that washing all your packages for sterilization purposes is mandatory. So one way to cut back on the water you use is to take short, sweet showers. No baths allowed! Another way is to reduce how often you wash your hands. Now, I’m not saying don’t wash your hands at all, because that’s disgusting. And it is of vital importance at a time like this. But if you’re not even stepping out of the house and you didn’t use the bathroom or touch anything that could put your health at risk, why do you need to wash your hands? Instead of washing your hands, use sanitizers or sterilizing wipes to clean your hands. Another important point to consider is whether you leave your faucet on when you do wash your hands. During the 20 second hand wash, the tap should not be running since a lot of water is wasted that way. Why leave the faucet on when you’re still soaping your hands? Just turn on the faucet when you need it. These are actually really easy ways to reduce your water wastage. So try them out!!
Now for energy wastage, it is possible to cut back on electrical energy. During the day time, why bother turning on the lights? Use the sunlight that comes through your windows and let it fill your whole house until the night time when the sun has set. Even then, make sure to turn off all the lights in rooms that are empty. Why is it necessary to have lights on in a room where there are no people? Exactly, it isn’t necessary at all. So turn them off.
The cooling system is another thing that can be cut down. Turn off the cooling at night and the morning. Use it in the afternoon when the temperature is the hottest. It’s a more convenient way to save energy and will give you the same results. Plus, Collings also emit fossil fuels to some extent. To reduce the usage of these machines can kill two birds with one stone: reduction on fossil fuels and reduction on energy. See? That wasn’t so hard, wasn’t it? Not it’s your turn to try it out.
Additionally, why use electronic devices when you can go outside? Go out and play with your friends or go on a nice walk. It’s not necessary to sit in front of electronics all day and waste electricity.
I hope all of you try using these methods to make the environment much healthier and safer by using these COVID Quarantine tips. They really send that hard, you just gotta get used to them.