What else can I do reduce my daily impact on the world and to help in the fight against global warming?

Question

I was always into warming and the threat that we are to the Earth. I just saw An Inconvinent Truth and it opened my eyes even more to what we are doing to our planet.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can reduce my daily impact and live in harmony with nature?

Answer 1

For a starter, please do your best to ignore the ostriches who have posted answers here. There IS a massive problem which we are all facing and good for you for coming here to ask for help.

These are some of the things which I've tried and found to be very easy and workable ways to reduce my personal impact. I hope they help you in your quest to "go Green"!

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.

4. Try to break your addiction to your motor car. These beasts are the worst thing 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.


Hope this helps!

Love and Light,

Jarrah

Answer 2

Oprah and John Travolta each own five jets. Make them quit flying them daily and using oil to extreme excess. Al Gore Heats, Cools, and everything else to an 11,000 square foot home for him and his wife and they are almost never there. The average American has a 1,900 square foot home or less and we are asked to turn out thermostats down. An Inconvenient Truth is those asking us to sacrifice and conserve use a million times more resources per day that we do. The best thing we all can do is to revolt until these and other hypocrites stop their waste first. Just cut out their waste and 1,000,000 of us could do nothing.

Answer 3

Global warming is a joke. All of the planets have global warming right now.

Most global warming theorists have never heard of the term "solar variability". Solar variability caused the earth to leave the ice age in less than 20 years, and it caused the earth to have a little ice age several hundred years ago.

NASA: "Rapid changes between ice ages and warm periods (called interglacials) are recorded in the Greenland ice sheet. Occurring over ONE OR TWO DECADES, the warming of the Earth at the end of the last ice age happened much faster than the rate of change of the Earth’s orbit."
NASA link: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Paleoclimatology_Evidence/Images/gisp2_temperature.gif

NASA data has proved that the "Little Ice Age" was caused by less light reaching the earth ("solar variability", which means changes in the sun).

NASA's data about the little ice age. http://tinyurl.com/227h3p or ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/da... (This data can be copied and pasted it into Excel to chart it.)

Other facts:
1) 6,000 years ago, the earth was hotter than it is today. 6,000 years is less than a second when compared with the age of the earth.
2) Temperatures dropped in the 1950's and 1990's when CO2 levels were increasing.
3) 140,000 years ago the earth had record CO2 levels and there were no gasoline powered cars.
4) 20,000 years ago, Canada was one big ice cube and half of the U.S. was covered with Ice. The grand canyon was formed by melting ice ages over 20 million years.
5) The temperature of the Earth has only increased by 0.65 of a degree in the last 110 years. There were faster increases in temperatures around 10,000 years ago and there were no gasoline powered cars during that time
6) NASA scientific data has shown most of the changes of temperature are due to changes in the Sun. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all have global warming right now
7) Also, strong hurricanes are normal. Hundreds of years ago, they used to sink ships off of the coast of Florida.
8) THIS GLACIER DIDN'T EXIST 7,000 YEARS ago. And that was after the Ice Age.
"A few thousand years ago, there were no glaciers here at all"..."Back then we would have been standing in the middle of a forest"
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,357366,00.html
9) Russian Expert Predicts Global Cooling from 2012
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/02/06/globalcold.shtml

Answer 4

It is always a good idea to be conservation minded. This can be done in a million ways -- often very little impact of any one thing, but together it can add up.

But don't be fooled by the hype on global warming. There are lots of misconceptions about the topic.

Answer 5

lets see....
Don't smoke, don't burn stuff, don't drive your car, don't use energy, don't breathe, plant trees, save bugs, save animals, and it might help if people died. The Lord doesn't know how to run this earth as he didn't create it, it evolved. Therefore us evolvers must try to save it. We must save the earth!
Maybe somehow we could build a big space machine thingy that can push the sun farther away!!! yea!!!
(I'm totally being sarcastic here)
global warming is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.


Come on, your actually LISTENING to Al Gore?

Answer 6

First of all global warming isn't happening nor will it ever.
BUT there is pollution and you can help stop it
just make sure you recycle and try to car pool and things like that
also try to get your friends into it also because you can't save the earth alone

Answer 7

I think u are crazy. If u want to live like that is ok but it is not 300 million here but there are about 6 billion of a large amount hate u and want to kill us. Focus on the real problem the Moslem's want u dead and all the things u have.

Answer 8

Start walking, riding a bike or using public transportation as much as possible.
Not only will that reduce your impact on the environment, but will save you money as well; in my local newspaper this morning it was estimated that people spend 21 % of their income on transportation - yikes!

Answer 9

first of all, one person alone doing it will not effect anything. Everyone has 2 unite 4 the decrease of global warming

Answer 10

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 lights when not in use.

Similarly, turn down water heating by a few degrees.

Fit individual thermostats to radiators and don't heat rooms that aren't used.

Insulate walls, lofts, hot water tanks and pipes.

Turn your heating and air conditioning down, a small difference will be barely noticeable.

Sign up to a green energy supplier, one that produces energy from renewable sources.

Turn off heating and air-conditioning when the house or office is unoccupied.

Wash full loads of 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 full loads in the dish-washer.

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

Consider installing a renewable energy system such as solar panels or a home wind turbine.

Use rechargeable batteries; don’t leave rechargers on for longer than is needed (including mobile / cell-phones).

Boil only as much water in the kettle as you need.

Buy locally produced organic food where possible, there's less transportation and the farming methods are more environmentally friendly.

Look where goods were manufactured and avoid buying those that have been flown or shipped long distances.

Recycle and reuse as much as possible. Sign up with mail preferential services to stop junk mail.

Avoid buying products with excessive packaging.

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

If your fridge or freezer is over 15 years old then consider replacing it (check with local authority regarding disposal of old one).

Work from home where possible.

Eat less meat and dairy produce, farming produces large quantities of greenhouse gases.

Drive a fuel efficient vehicle, if you have more than one vehicle then use the most economical one more often.

Consider walking or cycling when going to work or taking the kids to schools, if you have to drive then consider car sharing.

Use public transport where possible and consider taking a coach or train instead of using domestic flights.

When replacing your vehicle look at diesel and liquid petroleum gas models.

Combine multiple journeys into one and do your weekly shopping in a single trip.

Stagger journeys where possible to avoid rush hour traffic and hold ups.

Avoid harsh braking, accelerate gently and drive at a steady speed.

Keep tyres inflated to the correct pressure.

Remove bike and ski racks when not in use, also remove detachable roof racks, luggage boxes etc.

Carrying unnecessary weight wastes fuel, declutter your vehicle.

Use the correct gear and use cruise control if your vehicle has it.

Keep your vehicle regularly serviced.

Turn the engine off when stopped or waiting.

More tips and advice...
http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/genergy.asp
http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/index.html
http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/saving_energy/index.html
http://www.energy.gov/energyefficiency/index.htm
http://www.ase.org/
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Energyandwatersaving/DG_064371
http://www.roughguides.com/savingenergy/
http://www.srpnet.com/menu/energy.aspx