Anyone hav any ideas to reduce greenhouse gases?

Answer 1

There are many things individuals can do to reduce their carbon emissions and reduce the impact of global warming. Living in a tent, travelling by bike and stopping breathing are three steps that could be taken. There are less drastic measures.
 
FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLE
Driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle makes a big difference. Each gallon of gasoline burned produces 10kg (20 pounds) of carbon dioxide. A motorist driving 15,000 miles a year will produce 7500kg of carbon emissions by driving a 20mpg vehicle whereas a vehicle returning 30mpg will produce 5000kg, 2½ tons less each year plus a reduced fuel bill (note).
 
DRIVING ECONOMICALLY
You can improve your vehicles fuel efficiency by as much as 30%. Drive gently avoiding harsh braking and sudden accelerating, drive at a steady speed, keep tyres correctly inflated, don’t carry excess weight, use the correct gear, use cruise control, remove bike and ski racks when not in use, keep your vehicle serviced, turn the engine off when stopped or waiting.  

DRIVE LESS
Walk or cycle short journeys – no fuel emissions, healthier and saves money. Stagger journeys where possible to avoid rush hour traffic and hold ups. Use public transport.  

HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY
When replacing appliances buy energy efficient ones, turn off electrical appliances when not in use, don’t use the standby option. Use energy efficient light bulbs and switch off when not in use. Wash clothes at a lower temperature, modern machines and detergents are just as effective at lower temperatures. Dry your clothes outdoors instead of in a tumble drier. Wash in full loads at a time.

Insulate your home and block draughts around doors and windows. In the UK this is free to many people.

Turn your heating and air conditioning down. A 1°C difference will be barely noticeable but will produce a substantial saving in terms of energy used.

Buy electricity generated from renewable sources and consider installing a renewable energy system to lower your electricity costs and reduce pollution.

Use rechargeable batteries; don’t leave rechargers on for longer than is needed.

Buy local food where possible, much food is flown or shipped half way around the world before it reaches us.

Recycle waste and avoid buying products with excessive packaging.

Sign up with mail preferential services to stop junk mail.

Don’t have your fridge and freezer set lower than they need to be, regularly defrost your freezer, don’t put hot food into your fridge or freezer.

There’s lots more tips and advice on these sites...

Natural Resource Defense Council http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/genergy.asp
Energy Saving Trust http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/
Carbon Trust http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy
Energy Quest http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/saving_energy/index.html
US Government http://www.energy.gov/energyefficiency/index.htm
Alliance to Save Energy http://www.ase.org/
UK Government http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Energyandwatersaving/DG_064371
Rough Guides http://www.roughguides.com/savingenergy/
Salt River Project http://www.srpnet.com/menu/energy.aspx

Answer 2

Here's some serious suggestions that YOU as a citizen of planet earth can try. I offer these as humbly as possible. It is up to every person - rather than leaving it up to our governments - to change their lifestyles to prevent the horror which is being predicted from actually happening.

I would also strongly suggest you watch "An Inconvenient Truth" - Al Gore's documentary. There are some very startling facts and scary footage about the whole climate change debate. There are also some very sound suggestions as to what CAN be done.

Here's a few things which I suggest:

1. Eat organic / locally grown foods...stops the production of more harmful chemicals, cuts down on transport costs and it's better for you as well! Also, make sure that the eggs you buy aren't from a battery farm!

2.Try going vegetarian as well...cows and cow farming is a big environmental / ethical nasty. I read a report recently that suggests that cows farting accounts for 3 times the amount of emmissions that cars do!!!

3. Buy ethical and fair trade goods. This helps increase the poorer nations citizen's basic wealth which in turn helps them to afford to achieve these kinds of changes as well!

4. Try to break your addiction to your motor car. These beasts are one of the worst things for the environment that we've ever had the misfortune to deal with!!! Try using public transport or ride places you'd normally drive to.

5. Use low energy light bulbs in your home. Consider buying high efficiency appliances (fridges etc.). Use gas to cook toast and heat water - toasters and kettles are huge consumers of power!

6. When it gets cold, put another jumper / sweater and thermal leggings on instead of switching on your heater.

7. Turn your television off at the wall at night, rather than leaving it on standby. This simple procedure can stop about 40kg. of CO2 getting into the atmosphere every year.

8. Consider buying "green" power from your energy supplier. It's not really "green" per se, but the premium you pay is used to subsidise people who are building sustainable homes and installing solar or wind generation equipment. The power so created is fed back into the main grid.

9. Go see your local politicians and question them about what they're doing in parliament to affect change. Tell them that you're worried and that their answers will shape how you vote in the next election. It's a long shot, but if you live in a country with a parliamentary system, it can be a grand way to get change happening. Look at the Green Party and the amount of effect they've had across the globe since their inception in the mid-eighties. It might not appear much, but at least we do have a choice these days! "Never underestimate the power of the individual".

10. Finally, do an "Ecological Footprint" Test...it will show you how much you consume, based on your own lifestyle and residence...it's pretty scary, but very worthwhile.

Please see the people who post replies that "Global Warming is a myth" as ostriches with their heads in the sand. we ALL need to wake up to what is going on and accept the evidence.

Hope this helps!

Love and Light,

Jarrah

Answer 3

Adopt TAGP(tm)

1) Use at least ten times as much electricity as the national average
2) Take a limo when you need to go across town
3) Take a private jet or fly first class for longer trips
4) Pontificate endlessly about what everyone else must do to solve the problem

Answer 4

Here are some I sent to Al Gore:

Putting the technology together to start cleaning up and reintroducing new ozone to the atmosphere is possible. The cost and size of this project means taking a long term commitment. I am proposing the biggest cleanup in history. Al, I do not see any proposal that is realistic or proven at any cost, not even Washington can solve this problem. But if every person on earth does his or her share, we may be ok. Never-the-less, I see governments acting like a deer in a car’s headlights and people doing the same thing. The inevitable is almost upon us. Cleanup and change is the only option.
The first cleanup machine starts with a ten billion dollars investment. Ten year later with twenty-five machines operating, these machines will produce enough ozone to replace both holes at the poles. But more importantly, these machines will remove chemicals that deplete the ozone. Beyond making ozone, decreasing the poisons that deplete ozone, these machines reduce the major greenhouse gases and unbelievably we can have all this for fewer than one hundred billion dollars.
Beyond cleaning up our atmospheric mess as I am suggesting, we humans must do a better job reducing or cleaning up carbon monoxide, collecting and storing methane and ethane for fuel, burning less of everything, cleaning up our forests and using more solar insolation. Solar steam electric generators are the type of systems we need and are 90 percent efficient and near 100 percent if heat recovery is used. I believe nearly 30,000 MW are needed in the USA and Mexico over the next 30 years. This opens the door to new electric cars, new construction vital to our way of life, new bullet trains, and these industries produce new high paying jobs. From small scale solar generators on malls, to 2000 acre collector sights, these systems are viable and ready for production. The Federal Government must give up some land, money and have less regulation to help save the planet from disaster.
Al, spreading the message that we can help ourselves is a key to the development of these businesses. Washington can help: the businesses need grants, patents, land and regulations. Congress must create a pollution surcharge. From gas, coal, diesel, wood to cooling towers, from cattle, other ranches to cigarettes, from agriculture burning to airplane passengers, this surcharge can fund parts of these projects and many stationary pollution control devices in general.
Your personal support is very important to getting the atmosphere cleanup started and developing sights for solar generators.

Sincerely,

Answer 5

Water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas. If you can figure out how to dry out the atmosphere and eliminating clouds the greenhouse effect would be reduced but I don't know how to do that and I don't see why you'd want to.

Answer 6

here is a list of things you can do to offset your carbons
1. tape off leaky ducts.
2. use weather stripping on windows and doors
3. turn down the water heater 10 degrees
there is a lot more things you can do, this is only a sample. for more you can contact me or any envrionmental agencies around the globe.

[e-mail]

Answer 7

Conserve energy. Doesn't mean not doing things, means doing them more efficiently.

Develop alternative energy sources; nuclear, solar, wind, biofuels. It's a big problem, we'll need them all.

Develop means to capture (sequester) carbon dioxide.

Answer 8

get China to sign the Kyoto Treaty on limiting CO2......they are the largest producer of gasses from burning coal; so bad that they will have to shut most industry near Beijing so the Olympics can happen......

otherwise produce electricity from nuclear plants...France and Japan get about 60% of their electricity from nucs.....and for those that say it ain't safe, well, the US Navy has run nucs for the equivalent of 3,500 years ( number of reactors x number of yeas they've run) with ZERO accidents...

Answer 9

As individuals, the best thing we can do is reduce our energy use: Use compact fluorescent bulbs and turn them off when you leave the room. Buy more efficient appliances, especially your fridge. Buy a more efficient vehicle, and drive less. Better yet, move closer to work so you don't need to commute by car at all. Get a programmable thermostat so you won't be heating or cooling your house when you're gone. Make sure your house can be sectioned off so that you don't need to waste energy heating and cooling the unused areas. But as individuals, we can't do it all. Talk to your representatives at the local, state, and national level, and tell them that you expect something to be done about global warming. Ask them to create policies that encourage investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. And ask them to support market-based policies to limit CO2 emissions, like "cap and trade" programs, or carbon taxes (if you're concerned about high taxes, ask them to make sure the revenue is used to reduce existing income or sales taxes)

To get an idea of the scale of the actions required, I recommend you look at the "stabilization wedge" materials put together by Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala at Princeton. They came up with a list of 15 strategies that could be adopted using known technologies. The important point is that these strategies provide results at a large enough scale, so that if we can do just 7 of them, we will avoid the projected increases in annual CO2 emissions over the next 50 years, and therefore prevent the atmospheric CO2 levels from rising above 570ppm (double the pre-industrial level.)

It might seem a little discouraging as individuals, because a lot of these ideas can't be done alone. But I guess that's the point. There's no simple solution, and it needs to be addressed at all levels -- individual, industry, and government. We must make big changes like these in order to prevent the really catastrophic effects of climate change. But unfortunately, even if we can hold CO2 levels to double the pre-industrial level, we will STILL see effects like loss of coral reefs, changing precipitation patterns, and droughts in some regions.

The 15 strategies are:
1. Efficiency –Transport
Increase automobile fuel efficiency (2 billion cars projected in 2050) … 1 wedge = doubling the efficiency of the all world’s cars from 30 to 60 mpg

2. Conservation- Transport
Reduce miles traveled by passenger and/or freight vehicles … 1 wedge = cutting miles traveled by all passenger vehicles in half

3. Efficiency - Buildings
Increase insulation, furnace and lighting efficiency… 1 wedge = using best available technology in all new and existing buildings

4. Efficiency – Electricity
Increase efficiency of power generation … 1 wedge = raising plant efficiency from 40% to 60%

5. Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) Electricity
CO2 from fossil fuel power plants captured, then stored underground (700 large coal plants or 1400 natural gas plants) … 1 wedge = injecting a volume of CO2 every year equal to the volume of oil extracted

6. CCS Hydrogen
Hydrogen fuel from fossil sources with CCS displaces hydrocarbon fuels … 1 wedge = producing hydrogen at 10 times the current rate

7. CCS Synfuels
Hydrogen fuel from fossil sources with CCS displaces hydrocarbon fuels … 1 wedge = producing hydrogen at 10 times the current rate

8. Fuel Switching – Electricity
Replacing coal-burning electric plants with natural gas plants (1400 1 GW coal plants) … 1 wedge = using an amount of natural gas equal to that used for all purposes today

9. Nuclear Electricity
Displace coal-burning electric plants with nuclear plants (2 x current capacity) … 1 wedge = ~3 times the effort France put into expanding nuclear power in the 1980’s, sustained for 50 years

10. Wind Electricity
Wind displaces coal-based electricity (30 x current capacity) … 1 wedge = using area equal to ~3% of U.S. land area for wind farms

11. Solar Electricity
Solar PV displaces coal-based electricity (700 x current capacity) ... 1 wedge = using the equivalent of a 100 x 200 km PV array

12. Wind Hydrogen
Produce hydrogen with wind electricity … 1 wedge = powering half the world’s cars predicted for 2050 with hydrogen

13. Biofuels
Biomass fuels from plantations replace petroleum fuels … 1 wedge = scaling up world ethanol production by a factor of 30

14. Forest Storage
Carbon stored in new forests … 1 wedge = halting deforestation in 50 years

15. Soil Storage
Farming techiques increase carbon retention or storage in soils … 1 wedge = using conservation tillage on all the world’s agricultural soils

Answer 10

Much of the technology needed to do this is already available! We just need to start putting it to work!