Post by Prabhjit Banga

Household appliances account for about 20% of the average homeowner’s electricity bill. Over the last two decades, Canadian appliance manufacturers have greatly improved the efficiency of these appliances. For example, today’s refrigerators use less than half the electricity of those built in 1984 or earlier.

The Ontario Power Authority’s Great Refrigerator Roundup program began in 2006 and has led to the collection and decommissioning of over 500 fridges and more than 200 freezers.

Recycling is a key element of the program. Refrigerators collected through the program will be disposed of in an environmentally safe manner, resulting in significantly reduced contribution to local landfill.

So want to get rid of your old fridge? And put money in your pocket?

That old, inefficient second fridge of yours is wasting up to $120 – $150 per year in electricity. If you have an electricity-guzzling fridge that’s fifteen years old or more, you can get rid of it the easy way. Just visit http://everykilowattcounts.ca/residential/fridge/ for more information. 

You won’t have to lift a finger, and you’ll be doing the right thing for the environment!

Last month, the World Meteorological Organization reported that the decade 2000-2009 was the warmest on record. 2009 itself was one of the five hottest years recorded of all time.

The period from 2000 through 2009 has been “warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s, and so on,” Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the international weather agency, said at a news conference in Copenhagen last month.

The international assessment on temperatures from 2000 to 2009 largely meshes with an interim analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, which independently estimates global and regional temperature and other weather trends, reports the New York Times.

With two weeks of the new year under our belts, is  another dubious record in store for 2010?

Remember a recent phenomenon called An Inconvenient Truth? Remember the guy who wrote it?

He may not be your favorite ex-politician or environmentalist, but Al Gore definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to climate change. His extremely influential research, activism and recognition catapulted climate change into the common person’s vernacular in North America and around the world.

Al Gore’s latest book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis covers effective solutions available now to address climate change. Presented in a reader-friendly format with issue-based chapters and a helpful index, the colourful, revealing photographs of the world’s inhabitants and spaces are a visual spectacle.

Love him or hate him, this book will give you more than enough to talk about (or argue about) on the environmental challenges of our time.

Leave a comment if you have a copy or plan to get one…