What are the simple things you can do and contribute to help reduce global warming?

Question

Share your simple ideas? I always use ceramic cups instead of foam cups in office. And I reuse plastic bottles for drinking water.

Answer 1

Here are some of the easy things I do that make the way I live "greener":
1.) Buy Used Things instead of New: Go to the classified ads, thrift stores, second hand clothing stores and garage sales to buy clothes, furniture and almost anything else that you want. I also "dumpster dive", taking good quality things or things I can paint / repair from the trash and cleaning / fixing them instead of buying new items (My big t.v. is from the trash, as is a stool, a bookshelf, a dresser, etc.) Not only will you save a lot of money, but you'll also be keeping a lot of used items out of the landfills and NOT contributing to the manufacture of new items.
2.) Recycle everything. Find a pamphlet on recycling in your city and separate out your recycling as you throw things away.
3.) If I can reuse it, I do:
* Jars with lids are used for holding nuts, bolts, screws, nails, garden seeds, drinking "glasses", "watering containers", "vases" or to hold pet or human dry food so that mice and other pests cant get in it.
* Newspapers line my birds cages and are then composted with the poo. Newspapers are also torn up and used as bedding for my elderly rat.
* Plastic containers with lids are used as "tupperware". I wash my ziplock bags and reuse them, and even plastic utensils.
* Grocery bags are re-used for trash bags or recycling containers, which I then never have to buy, and often used as poop pick up bags for walking the dog. I also use them to put food inside, twist close and use as "freezer bags".
4.) If it can be composted, I compost it: coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, vegetable and fruit scraps, weeds, garden waste, bird cage papers, rat and rabbit "litter" - anything organic that I or my pets create goes into the compost bin that I built out of 5 discarded wooden pallets.
5.) If I dont want it, but it can still be used, I wash it and give it away or sell it. This goes for clothing, furniture, dishes, toys and everything else I own that can be re-used. I post free things on www.craigslist.com because someone else always needs them.
6.) I feed my vegetable and bread scraps (as species appropriate) as treats to my rabbits, bird, rat and dog. They all love fresh food that will go bad before I'll eat it, and they can often digest things that human can't.
7.) Carpool, combine my shopping trips into one outing and ride my bike to reduce fuel use.
8.) I save money, eat healthier and save the environment by making big meals, then dividing them into reusable tupperware like containers and putting them in your freezer. When I need to eat a meal, I just reheat them - instead of going to a fast food restaurant or buying individually packaged microwavable meals. Cooking large meals can also be a social activity you do with friends - or have a potluck and divide up the food items into your containers!
9.) If you are interested in gardening, try raising your own vegetable garden like I do. You'll be raising food without pesticides, fertilizers or chemical weed killers, it will be cheaper and healthier to eat. Your food wont be shipped, processed, packaged or require a drive to the grocery store. It also puts all that good compost to use.
10.) I re-use water. I fit a hose to my washing machine, when it drains I either soak my dishes in the kitchen sink with the water (rinse with clean water), water my house plants with it or water my garden with it. The laundry soap I use is biodegradeable, and the plants use the extra phosphates for healthy growth.

Answer 2

If it were necessary the earth could be cooled by deploying membrane reflectors into orbit using the space shuttle. Membrane reflectors have been developed(*) which weigh only less than 20 lbs which, when deployed in space cover an area larger than a football field. Over a number of years, enough of these could be deployed to reflect enough solar energy away from the earth to have a cooling effect on the earth. I certainly do not support such a venture however unless we fully understand the potential consequences in weather patterns. (*) I am familiar with such reflectors developed ( about 30 yrs ago)under government contract by Sheldall Corp( the company that made glad bags) for the purpose of using them to reflect ( i e redirect and focus) microwave energy from one point on earth to another) as an augment to the power grid. The idea was not practical for many reasons but the technology could be used to cool the earth. I expect there has been further work done in this area.

Answer 3

I use an old fashioned push mower (the one without a motor) to mow my yard and get a workout. Using gas to go get gas is ridiculous. I try to make all my trips planned to save miles, I live 1 1/2 miles from work and walk half the time, Don't use air conditioning. Converted all my light bulbs to the efficient ones, cover my windows and close off some rooms in the winter. I recycle all I can (about 50% of all my garbage in weight). Turned off cable TV and watch NetFlix 4 times a week. I like to bar-b-que, but making briquets is one of the worst carbon creating things...I'm going to either use oak chunks or get grill that I saw that only uses 8-10 briquets and burns them slowly. And I always line dry my clothes outside in the summer, in the winter, the vent is plugged and the heat stays in the house

Answer 4

Plant trees
Walk
Cycle
Use less electricity
Turn off all electrical equipment at the wall rather than just switching on to stand-by eg:
Turn off lights, Hi-Fi, TV, computer, air conditioning and heating when not in use, and insulate your walls and ceiling, etc. etc. etc.
Global warming has been occurring since the end of the last ice age. We can't stop it and it's not an unnatural process, but we CAN help to slow it down a little by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Answer 5

Do everything that is good for the environment. Don't waste things try to reuse everything if possible and spread the word. Plant more things for a start in yard and then around your city more trees are better. Don't burn that much stuff outside, reduce it.

Answer 6

- start recycling in your home

- turn off lights and electronic devices when you're not using them...every bit of electricity you save reduces fossil fuel burning at power plants

- ride bikes or take public transportation and car pool when possible

- buy energy efficient light bulbs

These seemingly small actions definitely help, and if everyone would do just a little bit, we would eliminate billions of tons of pollution from ever being emitted into our environment

Answer 7

global warming cannot be stopped but we can stop helping it becoming faster,and being friendlier to out Environment cannot be bad
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The best we can do as individuals is be more responsible ,in our own neck of the woods

Organise well publicized clean up parties ,talk on the radio
Have citizan meetings
Get the shools involved to plant trees and listen to environmental awareness talks,

If you do any cleaning up leave signs behind saying who cleaned,why and ask people not to start dumping rubbish again ,leave a hole or bins ,in case people come with trash ,

We have done a lot of comunity cleaning and if you dont leave alternatives or try to work on peoples guilt feelings (some people actually have those ,but not many)
than your efforts are a waste of time.

That is what we do in Mexico

POSITIVE ACTIONS
Print Tshirts with slogans ,hang posters all over the place (with recycled paper if possible)

Classify trash take out all the organic waste and make compost with it ,the worst you can do is throw it with the trash

70% of contamination is due to organic waste that is mixed in with the garbage .
And it is just as bad in the sewer where it helps to breed rats and in the landfill it poisons the ground

And it is the easiest to take care of
o first of all we have to clasify trash at least keep the organic to one side ,like in a plasic bin with a lid

If you got a few meters of ground ,you only need 1 or 2 square meters in a shallow hole ,in the shade ,that you can wet now and again ,where you dump everything that is organic ,from toilet paper,bones vegetable cuttings ,eggshells,,dead bodies ,excrement ,and cover regularly with leaves to keep humid and to hide any smell
the worms will come and decompose the wastes truning it into beautifull blck soil for the garden of flower pots .

If you are in a apartment ,if you have a balcony get a big plastic bin drill some holes in the side and lid ,

Add a few buckets of sand now and again to put over the trash ,you should realt stir or move the stuff at times to airate it and ensure that the decomposition is overall ,keep moist

This rubbish does not get big very fast and the thing works for a long time with out getting full
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these are Al gores sites
http://events.stepitup2007.org/............
http://www.stepitup2007.org/

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


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´population

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 8

Limit population of future generations. (eg tax benefits for families of two or less children only; including three if one is of the opposite sex of the others)

Answer 9

ride a bike or even walk. If you have to take a car try taking public or even carpooling.

Answer 10

haha.. that is a good question.. use lesser electricity.. don't drive car.. and most important don't keep going online and answer all this question and u will help the world to burn lesser oil.. haha..