what will you do...?

Question

to help reduce global warming?

yes, i am aware that same people don't believe it exists. but the consequences of doing nothing is far greater than making a few subtle lifestyle changes.

Answer 1

Since your question asks what we will personally do to reduce global warming, here is a list of what I have personally done:

1. Bought a car that gets 40 MPG. It cuts CO2 emissions by 50% over a 20 MPG car.

2. Added insulation to my attic to bring it to a R55 rating, more than needed for my area.

3. Had my old low SEER central air conditioning system removed and installed a SEER 19 system.

4. Put an insulation jacket on my gas hot water heater.

5. Added additional venting to my attic.

6. Use ceiling fans to keep the thermostat set a little higher.

7. Planted several trees to increase shading in my yard.

8. Had window sunscreens installed on the West-facing windows of my home.

9. Replaced most of my incandescent light bulbs with flourescent, both CFL and circline tube bulbs.

10. Recycle everything I can in the City waste collection program.

11. Try to remember to take my reusable cloth bags in the store when shopping so I can reduce the use of plastic bags -- take the plastic ones to recycling station at store.

12. Replaced my old refrigerator with a new energy star model.

13. Bought a front loading washing machine and run it using cold water. The front loader really wrings the water out of clothes and I notice that the drying time for the clothing has been cut at least 50% compared to the old top loader. Plus the front loader uses much less water.

That said, I am not yet in the firmly convinced about global warming crowd. I do these things to save energy because I think that is simply wise given the autocratic contries that control the world's oil supplies and I like saving the money on energy costs. Economics and bad regimes. Who needs global warming to encourage conservation? Not me.

Answer 2

If it were only "a few subtle lifestyle changes." I have head environmentalists who believe in global warming say that Kyoto is not enough. That since developing countries do not have to cut emissions, the industrialized leaders have to take up the slack by cutting emissions by 60-80%. He then suggested things like banning planes, and cars in cities. The automobile workers union are afraid of losing their jobs, is that "a few subtle lifestyle changes" for them?

I will not have a problem if the government wants to close down the coal fired power plants and replace them with nuclear or hydro. The problem is that environmentalists are against those as well. Alternative sources like solar and wind are still years away and are currently unreliable. What is more, manufacturing plants can not run on solar and wind power.

Answer 3

Nothing. I will continue my life as I always have. I've walked or biked more miles than I care to calculate - from way back before you did those things to "stay in shape". (Funny byproduct is that you stay in shape without having to workout or set aside time to exercise.) My "fleet", which includes a hybrid, probably hits in the high 40s in mpg (I've been driving Civics for over 25 years, now.) I've planted numerous trees, shrubs, fruit and vegetable plants (growing food for my family and to share/trade with others) I compost. I recycle. I try to limit my consumption. I build instead of buy. I incorporate energy saving appliances and passive heating and cooling in my home. I harvest rainwater. I use manual and electric lawn and landscaping tools. I take part in community clean-up campaigns. I'm sure there are other things I do, but I think you get the point...

But I don't do it for global warming. If tomorrow they told us we are definitely cooling - everybody, even the die hard alarmists said that we were cooling, I would still keep on doing what I thought was right for the environment. I would still keep trying to live my life while decreasing my negative impact on the environment. Do I think I'm perfect or that I don't need to do more? Not a chance. I'm still selfish and more materialistic than I want to be, but I am just a work in progress.

Do you need some catastrophic set of consequences to steer you towards doing better for those around you and the world we ALL share?

Will you do less if that catastrophe is more than a little exaggerated?

Answer 4

Ok, so you say that the consequences of global warming are going to be really bad, but to stop it, we only have to change a few things in the way we live? How, may I ask, is that going to work? How will driving a hybrid and switching out a few light bulbs change the climate of the whole earth? Yes, I know that more people than just me will do it, but still, get real. The atmosphere is miles and miles high, even if people say it's thin and fragile. NEWS FLASH!!! It's not so thin!

Basically, I'm not going to do anything, because it's not going to help anything. Coincidentally, nothing even needs to be helped!

Answer 5

Some easy things to do is to:

Buy Local. If you can buy from a farmers mart. The fuel to transport fruits and vegetables can be enormous. Shop at neighborhood shops so your fuel usage is less, or none at all if you walk or bicycle.

Seal up your home. 70% of energy is spent to heat and cool homes. Stop up all the leaks and insulate. Install double glazed (or triple glazed) windows. These actions are often available for a rebates from your energy company.

Drive a more economical car, preferably an electric vehicle of some sort.

Solar-voltaic panels will make most of the power for your home or small business.

Geo-Thermal heat pumps take the consistant temperatures from the earths crust and heat/cool your house using just the electricity from your solar panels.

These suggestions got more complex as the list grew longer. You can choose the level of commitment you want from the list.

Answer 6

I strongly think that GLOBAL WARMING EZISTS AND WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT I am only 13 and I know soooooo many things that will help the greenhouse gasses and global warming have less of an effect on us and our planet .
I........
-recycle (cans, plastic, paper anything that can, is)
-reuse stuff (water bottles)
-and walk instead of having someone drive me to places only 3 blocks away.
-turn off lights when they are not in use.
- use paper not plastic when shopping
- My parents don’t own a hummer or gas guzzling car.
-ride the bus to school and carpool home.
-pick up trash around my neighed and the small creek behind my house
-no one in my house smokes
- use L.E.D lights instead of normal ones
And a lot of other things that I forgot now.
Doing these things is how I was grown up and they aren’t that hard! Walking to the store is good exercise for me and gets me of the TV.
If everyone does these things to the best of there ability than we will have a fighting chance on fighting global warming!!!!!!

Answer 7

Since my studies have convinced me that Man is not the major factor, and we are tampering with a natural cycle with the Earth's inertia behind it, one that naturally will be ending in a major deep freezing episode of about 100,000 years duration, I think that we are in danger of making very serious mistakes, by "consensus" from very limited and very carefully selected facts. We could push the Earth over the edge into a premature ice age.

Most of this furor is made by computerized predictions that cannot go back, and given known data from then, make predictions that explain the last 12 centuries, let alone predict the future for more hundreds and thousands of years.

And many warming prediction sites are, from what I read, inside growing big cities, not the general countryside, so are biased by buildings, asphalt, and a growing concentration of vehicles and people.

And I disagree...the consequences of costing so many people their whole livelihood, mass relocations, enormous amounts of exotic materials for low-energy cars, lamps, buildings, and solar cells to put all over, will be an economic dislocation far worse than even we all moving to the newly-deiced and fertile fields being uncovered...if Warming is real and allowed to happen.

The MWP did not demolish society...made for more crops. More commerce. The LIA really cut back on humanity, and caused much suffering, but it went away as the sunspots came back! Pure coincidence I suppose.

The "subtle" lifestyle changes are: inability to move far, and then only at high cost. Poisoning the environment with dangerous exotic materials needed to make the new machinery to be "green". Vast loss of life in the displaced native cultures so big corporations can make tons of money in monoculture of such things as Oil Palms, which, ironically, cause the CO2 to rise.

Many new laws against things we like; BBQing over coals, travelling the world to see and appreciate new cultures and sights, laws on what you can grow, what you can eat and drink without infringing on some "warming" prohibition, and on the good side, totally banning smoking for the pollution, and drinking alcoholic beverages as not being the best use of grain for alcohol.... And I can think of more.

Read Orwell's 1984, and then consider rephrasing your question.

And remember, each question you ask, and each answer you read, is contributing to electric energy loss (converted to Global Warming Heat) and the pollution to generate it and replace it.

Throw away, properly, your computer and your TV and your cell phones...they all take lots of energy, and on disposal release lot of toxic materials. Shut off and toss your air-conditioners and refrigerators and freezers; they take precious energy. And you do not really NEED them to live.

And no shopping...big stores consume tons of energy both in the store area and transporting things in to sell. And no cosmetics or ungents and fine fabrics. You will be beautiful enough as nature made you.

I can think of more little very minor changes in lifestyle...I am sure you can too. Would YOU like to be first..and let us all know in a year or so what all you you did, how much energy you saved, and how good you are feeling about your new life and all? Just these few little changes that saved so much energy and slowed down the accretion of CO2. And point with pride at the little downward blip your contribution made in the Global Warming?

Just don't watch Big Al's jet airplane as it criss-crosses the skies!! Instead, plant lots of trees so you cannot see him enjoying himself around the world up there.

Answer 8

I just saw this on an Wall Street Journal article about a new website: "Carbon Diet Plan, which lists ways to improve one's ecological profile "and provides inspiration for your friends to do the same."

Answer 9

If were i wanna go is close then i walk or skateboared over there...i walked 15-20 blocks not to get in a car and burn fossil fuels in a car!

Answer 10

Tell farmers about sustainable farming ,water harvesting and organic pest control,
Talk to kids about Environmental awareness
I have made a lot of gardens
I answer in yahoo
I have planted thousands of trees by now
And i have worked for 30 years +
develloping eco tourism ,and selfsustainable human and animal environments.
And send this message a lot and
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Even if global warming cannot be stopped , 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...