Team minus 6％

Team minus 6％ is the title of a project from the Japanese Government that aims to reduce green house emission which is said to be one of the reasons for global warming.

In 1997,”Kyoto protocol” was approved in Kyoto, Japan. It forced developed countries to reduce and control six kind of greenhouse effect gases in a fixed amount of time.

 Japan is to reduce 6％ of the green house effects compared with 1990 within 5years from 2008.In order to reach this goal, Japan established “Team-6％” as a national movement.

 The purposes of this project are to let the nation know about the present situation of global warming and actions that will protect the earth, and to encourage people to take action.

 In order to stop global warming, each of us has to carry out concrete actions!

Now, we will introduce behaviors that are kind to the earth.

＜control air conditioning and heating＞

・In winter we use a lap robe. It is said to raise the temperature by one degree centigrade. （Kanna）

・We set air conditioner 28 degree centigrade in summer. （Tomoka）

・We seldom use the air conditioner. In summer, we open the windows, and use fans.(Shiori)

＜water conservation＞

・When brushing our teeth, we don’t leave the water running. （Kanna）

・In my house, we re-use water in which rice has been washed. (Shiori)

・In my house, we sink plastic bottles into the bathtub in order to increase the volume.(Tomoka)

＜stop idling＞

・My family’s car is Prius (hybrid car) .More and more fuel-efficient cars (hybrid car, electric car) are being sold in Japan. （Kanna）

・My father goes to his office on foot. And I ride to school by a bicycle. (Shiori)

・My family is saying that if we buy a new car, we will buy hybrid car. (Tomoka)

＜using eco-product＞

・We use our own chopsticks instead of disposable wooden chopsticks. (Shiori)

＜Prevent excessive packaging＞

 ・Most of the stores in Japan sell plastic bags instead of giving them for free. This can decrease waste of plastic bags. （Kanna）

・When going shopping, we take our own shopping bags to the store. (Shiori)

・Plastic bags cost 5 yen, so we use our own shopping bags. (Tomoka)

＜save electricity＞

 ・We can decrease waste of electricity by unplugging when electrical appliances they are not used. （Kanna）

・We put Styrofoam trays to recycle boxes. (Shiori)

Then, let us explain how many people are joining this project and how to do it.

The project started on April 1. More and more people are joining the project now. There are about 3,104,787 people (individual) and 30,696 (groups) who have joined it now. The Prime Minister serves as the team leader, the minister of Environment serves as the sub leader. In addition, some mascot characters and TV characters join it. If you want to join it, you should join it on the internet.

Finally, here’s a summary of the result of this project. 

Now, the greenhouse effect gases already increase by about 8.7%. Therefore, we have to reduce it about 14.7% (6%+8.7%). It may be very hard, but they have done many things to reduce it. For example, they take a wrapping cloth or their own bag with them when they go shopping to prevent too much wrapping, separate rubbish according to whether it should be burned or not, separate cans, bottles, plastic bottles, then we separate the cap of plastic bottles and labels, keep the room temperature at 28 in summer and 20 in winter. If we keep doing those things steadily, we hope we can achieve this goal. However, we can do this only if all the people in Japan bear in mind that we must save the earth.

Thank you for reading.