What can you do to reduce the risk of Global Warming as an individual?

Question

I just watched an Inconvenient Truth, and I was deeply shocked. How can you reduse your use of all those CO2 gasses?

Answer 1

I think it's quite wonderful you've come here to find out stuff you can do!

Forget about the person who answered you with glib crap about how "bad" Al Gore is...at least Mr. Gore is TRYING to engage us in a positive way!!

The things that I can suggest::
1. Don't drive a motor car. These things are EVIL and are probably the biggest single threat to a good future for everyone. Public transport, car pooling, taxis, pushbikes and walking are all viable options. If you don't live close to your work, consider moving or telecommuting.

2. Recycling is good, but a better thing to do is to consume less! A good thing to do to question the entire lifecycle of the products that you do buy; as in where were they made, how did they get to your store, how much packaging do they contain, how long will they last and what's going to happen to them once you've finished with them. All these things have a bearing on the energy consumption that contributes to their manufacture and use and these all have a bearing on the amount of CO2 injected into our atmosphere. The simple thing, as far as foodstuffs are concerned, is to buy organic, locally-produced or -grown things.

3. Go with energy-efficient appliances. Check out the amount of energy you consume when you cook a slice of toast or make a cuppa! It's pretty scary...but! there are ways around this, too! Like using gas rather than electricity because most (not all) energy comes from coal-fired power stations. A really simple one is to turn your television off at the wall at the end of each night so that it's not on "standby". This simple fact alone can save about 10kg. of CO2 getting into the atmosphere per year!
Another grand thing you can do is to buy "green" power. It's not precisely Green (as in wind or solar or hydro), but it does allow governments to subsidise the folks who ARE installing alternative energy systems and selling their excess power to the energy suppliers.

4. Check out your "ecological footprint". There are a few sites with this kind of thing - one I can suggest is Redefining Progress.org's website...the exact link's below.

5. Have a look at a book called "Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place" (edited by Melvin McLeod and published by Wisdom Publications in 2006), because, after all, the saving of the world starts with how you relate to yourself! The Buddhist philosophy on this resonates really really well with me on so many levels, not the least of which is once you're "mindful" of how you are in the world, all the above suggestions become second nature. There's a beautiful quote in the book which says "There is nowhere on the earth for me to spit because if I spit upon the earth, I'm spitting on myself"...

6. Consider joining a progressive political party like The Greens. This party is working tirelessly within the halls of governments across the globe to try to engender change NOW.

Hope this helps!

Love and Light,


Jarrah

Answer 2

maximum easily, the place I stay worldwide warming is a extra possibly journey than a rabid wombat chew. The Earth has been warmer than modern on 4 or 5 events interior the final 10,000 years, yet actual no-one right here (so a techniques as i'm able to study) has died from rabid wombats in the time of that era.

Answer 3

AGHHH!!! Al Gore's adgenda may be of political nature, but WHO else is getting the masses to think about the future of our Earth... of our lives.... and the lives of future generations.

You are one person...and YOU CAN help! RECYCLE! It sounds easy and it is. Just put your cans and plastice in one bin and your papers ina another. You will be so suprised by how much you use! Also take public transportation as much as possible. I live in NJ so publis transportation is easily accessable, but if it is not for you - you can ALWAYS carpool.

ANother thing - consider where you are buying your meat products from... this is a good website about that... it will answer questions that I cant answer here ( too long)
the meatrix.com (its a fun website!)

Good luck and thank you for caring! I also made changes this year to live a more earth friendly life!!! Hope more people like you do too!

Answer 4

As a human mortal I have no effect upon geologic processes that have been in effect from the beginning of time.

Answer 5

Is global warming a man-made menace?

not all there are natural cycles in the planets life
but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,and this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations as well as destructions of essential componants the ensure living conditions for all life forms

some home truths

politicians and scientists who work for politicians have downplayed the facts because solutions are expensive and means change and change effects many people income,and most of the world is kept in the dark of the real things that are going on.


in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification


in recent times thousands of people have died because of exessive heat,usually old people.in India ,Mexico and France,
deforestation causing desertification,the desert conditions causing very cold nights and scorching hot days

in china, thousands of what used to be farmers are running for their lives from the dust storms that have burried their towns and turned their lands into dessert,the globe where they were got to hot for them .
and instead of producing food they are now needing it from some where else,and they will drastically effect the world food prices when they start buying water in the form of grains ,at any cost destabalising governments, in some countries ,could be the result
(are you seeing more Chinese around interested in agricultural lands ,we do here in Mexico)

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year
and all of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing ,not getting less ,in the dinosaurs days ,there were no desserts.

collectively this planet is drying up because of bad farming practices like,over grazing and fertilizers,

as far as the food production is concerned, Global warming or some of its effects are serious,rising seas result in landloss

each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

more landloss because of desertification every year,we have less areble land to produce food ,for an extra 70 million people ,

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,
and there are less and less farmers to do it..
who are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers
who are plowing more and more unstable lands because they have lost so many million hectares to desertification ,
because of bad farming practises ,such as using fertilizers and heavy machinary or over grazing

RISING SEAS
The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.
this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,are another matter.

Global warming is in theory reversable,but it will mean global co operation between all countries ,and taking into account human nature and the world politics ,it is unlikely that this will happen,

At least not untill we are all in the middle of planetary disastres and it becomes a battle for the survival of humanity every where.

SOLUTIONS
if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness
education on family planning to curb over´populaion

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

i am a Permaculture Consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government in Guerrero Mexico
http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Source(s) Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has
come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,
his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into 50 languages and won the best book award in 2003.

Answer 6

al gore uses more fossil fuels than all of the ppl on yahoo answers combined. he is the last person to preach to the choir. as for your question, eat more cows. they give off more methane than anything on earth.

Answer 7

Please understand that Al Gore's movie is political propaganda. Al Gore is a politician, not a scientist.

If you want a reality check from a real scientist check this out
http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=864