Technical Terms Simplified
L/yr: Litres per year - A litre is a unit of volume. A large pop bottle is about 2 L, so a Litre is half a bottle.
The average toilet uses 19L of water for each flush!
By changing to a low flush toilet you could save about 29,744 L a year in water - that's stopping about 15 000 large pop bottles of water from being flushed down the toilet!
Kg/ yr: Kilograms per year - A kilogram is a unit of mass - 3 medium sized apples weigh about 1 kilogram.
Gases - and air - can also be weighed in kilograms. A kilogram of gas can fill a small container or an entire room because gases expand.
One kilogram of carbon dioxide (which is a Greenhouse Gas) is enough to fill 20 balloons.
KWh: Kilowatt hour – Kilowatts are units of power. It takes 1000 watts to make 1 Kilowatt. Watts and kilowatts let you measure how much power you're using over time.
DID YOU KNOW?
On average, most vehicles that burn a litre (half a big pop bottle) of gas produces 2.4 kg of Greenhouse Gases: that would fill 48 balloons!
So a car journey from Hamilton to Toronto puts out about 163 kg of harmful Greenhouse Gases - enough to fill 3,260 balloons!!
Think carefully before you plan to drive - can you take a train or bus for your journey instead?
Here are some links to help you:
Trains:
Go Transit http://www.gotransit.com/,
Via Rail http://www.viarail.ca/en_index.html
HSR - Hamilton Bus service
http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/CityServices/Transit/