What can I, a 16 year old highschool student, do to help the enviroment and global warming?

Question

I was just flicking the channels today when I heard that the UN is issuing its 3 report on climate change. The report said something about how the report states simple things individuals could do to help the enviroment and reduce global warming effects. Can anybody give me any ideas on things I could do?

Answer 1

One thing is not obvious, but it's very important.

Educate yourself on global warming so that you can refute the silly arguments of the skeptics. Here's are two excellent places to start, short and long:

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

http://profend.com/global-warming/

Read the three IPCC reports. They're written by scientists, although the politicians "sign off" on them. The scientists are pretty successful at keeping the science good. The politicians don't make the reports more alarming, they tone them down. Keep current on global warming.

For example, someone above is saying "it's the sun". The first graph above shows that the sun is only about 10% of it, using verified and peer reviewed data. Here's more showing it's not the sun:

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sun-on-earth/FAQ2.html

If one of your friend's says, "it's the sun", point out that the sun is studied all the time and that the global warming scientists have considered it thoroughly and say it's only a minor factor.

Someone else says that fighting global warming is just a way to take money from people. Read this article:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,481085,00.html

and point out to people that it will cost them far less to reduce global warming than to deal with the consequences.

Become a source of knowledge about global warming and spread that knowledge. Fight the ignorance about this issue.

Here's a good book to help you:

http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Global-Warming-Solution-Speakers/dp/155591621X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3095021-7940653?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178299803&sr=8-1

By all means read everything, including the skeptics. Their arguments aren't very good, and they have little data. This is science. Always focus on the data.

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)
Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command

Answer 2

Please don't listen to Gene. He's wrong. You can read who the authors for the WG3 summary are yourself and look them up to see what their credentials are. They are listed here:
http://www.ipcc.ch/press/authors_040507.htm
None of them are politicians. Many of them are professors working in the field they are summarizing.

The actual summary is here:
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM040507.pdf

What you can do is educate yourself - there are three summaries out right now for this year. Later this year the full report will be published. You can also read the 2001 IPCC report (available here: http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/), which is heavy science. Some of it is a bit outdated - in the past six years the scientific understanding has improved a great deal - but it's a good way to ground yourself in the science.

By educating yourself, you make yourself better able to answer those people who pretend that global warming is not a problem and who spread uncertainty and doubt on the subject. This is a very valuable part you can play. However, you should be sure to understand what you're talking about before you become an evangelist - the uneducated can teach no one.

Answer 3

If there really is such a report from the UN, then you should take the trouble to get a copy of it and see what it says. Look on the web or actually write a letter to the UN and ask. Or go to the web site of the channel that told you about the report and check their source.

Answer 4

I am really becoming a fan of Gene. He is right. Do not believe, just because it is a world organization, that it has any monopoly on the truth. Quite to the contrary. It is a political device used by mostly hostile countries run by totalitarian hacks and thugs, who interests clearly are not our own. Regarding global warming, if they could make us use less energy and harm ourselves economically, that would make them relatively more powerful. There is very little science behind global warming and lots of political posturing. Remember Al Gore is no scientist, he is a elitist politician with delusions of grandeur.

Answer 5

Just by doing simple things, like by not throwing your garbage anywhere and not to use aerosol products with chloroflourocarbons or CFC content and tell others not to do so is already a great help in your quest to help save the environment and slow down the worsening of global warming.

Answer 6

global warming cannot be stopped but we can stop helping it becoming faster,and being friendlier to out Environment cannot be bad

these are Al gores sites
http://events.stepitup2007.org/............
http://www.stepitup2007.org/

http://events.stepitup2007.org/............

POSITIVE ACTIONS
if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to slowdown 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

here are a 100 more ways

http://www.eco-gaia.net/forum-pt/index.p...

Answer 7

I work at a school district - check out www.dcsdk12.org and look at the story called "Class project nets huge savings for Mountain Vista High School" The are reducing energy usage in school by making small changes. They are saving the environment and saving the school district money! Good luck - you sound like a great kid!

Answer 8

First of all, the UN report is written by a panel of politicians. There is some input from scientists, but the politicians are the ones who decide what gets published. Look for reports from real science people to find out what's really going on.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_output_030320.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html