Winter Conservation

It has been so cold this winter! It sure makes it easy to turn up the heat really high or take a hot shower, doesn’t it? We consume so much energy in the winter. We start our cars so they are warm by the time we need to leave. We blast the heat in the car. We blast the heat in our home. We only use hot water in baths and showers. Some of us leave the oven open just to warm the house a bit more. It’s these times when we need to be reminded of our effect on the world. Winter causes most of us to consume great amounts of energy without much thought. We need to remember to conserve and preserve!

First of all, we use a lot of gas in our cars in the winter. Turning up the heat in your car uses extra gas. Everyone knows that more used gas means more is bought and more pollution occurs. This time of year money is tight! Christmas shopping does that enough, but our extra gas consumption adds to it. We have so many products made just to keep warm in the car that don’t require energy. We can buy heating pads and we can, and should, dress warmer. We have warm winter clothes for a reason.

At home, it is important that solutions for the cold meet in the middle. It is not practical to keep the heat really low and be walking around the house in snow suits, while frost grows on everything in the house. But we can still bring the heat down and put on a sweater or a housecoat.

Another important thing to remember about conserving energy in your home is proper insulation. Without it we will lose so much heat through walls, windows, and doors. This makes the house colder and we end up turning up the heat even more. Make sure open spaces under doors have an insulation flap, windows are double layered, and proper sealing is done around the windows.

The hardest one to conserve is hot water. This takes the most will power. It’s not exactly pleasant to shower in cold water on a cold day is it? This is another place we can meet in the middle.

We all know of these things. But in this cold weather it is easy to forget about energy consumption when our mind is on combating the cold. It is really important that we all make conservation a habit. One day we will run out of natural gas; and the world is having a hard time keeping up with our consumption and pollution to replenish its natural state.

Animal Cruelty

I wanted to talk about a recent event that has left me quite emotionally scarred. It is my intention to raise awareness about animal cruelty.
I recently read an email that was a petition against animal cruelty. Attached was a link to a website that had a video about the Chinese fur trade (I am unsure if it is really from China, the men in the video were speaking a language that didn’t sound like Chinese). The video started off with a bunch of men standing around some disorientated animals. I have never seen these animals before so I am unsure as to their species. One of the men took a bat like object and bashed one of the animals in the head. Another man took some of the others by their hind legs and smashed their heads into the ground. The animals were not killed but only left slightly knocked out. The men then proceeded to hang them upside-down and make a cut and pull the animal’s skin off. The animals were alive through the entire process. They were left to die. I knew that this happened; but knowing and seeing are two VERY different things.
This is just an example of what is happening all over the world. Many people have lost their respect for the creatures we share this world with. We’ve gone from having civilizations all over the world that worship, respect, and value the world’s creatures, to civilizations that value money and entertainment instead. This has led thousands of people to subject animals to cruel treatment. People have lost heart for what animals may feel in order to make some money off of these defenceless beings.
The fur trade is not the only area where animals are mistreated. There are many pets that are abused by their owners. There are even people who torture animals strictly for entertainment. I read about a man who once starved a dog to death in a studio as “art”.
There are many things we can do to prevent animal cruelty. We don’t have sovereignty in other countries and therefore have no say in their laws and regulations but we can do our best in this country. If anyone ever witnesses an event of cruelty, PLEASE, report it. There are many organizations that work toward prevention and ending events of animal cruelty and abuse. But they cannot do so alone. They need our help. There are two ways to help these kinds of organizations: we can adopt a pet, and/or we can donate to these organizations.