Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's government is giving car buyers a Web site where they can check on just how environmentally friendly their new vehicle might be.
National Environment Institute president Adrian Fernandez announced the site on Tuesday, saying it is meant to help reduce greenhouse gases and smog by giving potential buyers pollution and mileage figures for each model. Cars cause 70 percent of the smog in Mexico's biggest cities.
The dirtiest car on Mexico's showrooms apparently is a Rolls Royce Phantom, which coughs out 574 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. That easily beats the next-biggest polluter on the list, a Mercedes Benz ML 63 AMG, with 391 grams, and is more than double what any Hummer on Mexican list produces.
The cleanest car is a Honda Civic hybrid at 100 grams.
Fernandez said the government is negotiating with California to monitor cars sold there for use in Mexico, and it hopes to reach similar agreements with other states.
Some 2 million U.S. cars have entered Mexico in the last two years. Many are older vehicles that don't meet U.S. emissions standards.
