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Can we stop it?

2007-07-19 21:47:44 · 24 answers · asked by Moumita Dasgupta 1 in Environment Global Warming

24 answers

There are several things that can be done including reducing dependency on fossil fuels, recycling, becoming more energy efficient, offsetting carbon emissions and using technology to combat global warming.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AT HOME
● 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.

● 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.

● Similarly, turn down water heating by a few degrees.

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

● Turn off heating and air-conditioning when the house 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 dishwasher.

● 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.

ENERGY EFFICIENT TRAVELLING
For many people a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Each gallon of gasoline burned produces 10kg (20 pounds) of carbon dioxide. A motorist driving 15,000 miles a year in a vehicle that delivers 30mpg will produce 5000kg of carbon emissions whereas a vehicle returning 50mpg will produce 3000kg.

● 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.

FUEL SAVING TIPS FOR DRIVERS
By driving carefully and keeping your vehicle in good condition you can save up to 30% on your fuel bills and cut greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. Below are some tips for increasing fuel efficiency.

● 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 services.

● Turn the engine off when stopped or waiting.

MORE ENERGY SAVING TIPS
Natural Resource Defense Council - http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/genergy.asp
Energy Saving Trust - http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/
Carbon Footprint - http://www.carbonfootprint.com/index.html
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

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CARBON OFFSETTING

Each of us leaves behind what is commonly referred to as a 'carbon footprint'. This is a measure of the environmental impact in terms of the amount of greenhouses gases produced; it is measured as the equivalent number of units of carbon dioxide. The global average is 5 tons per person per year, in developed nations the average is 11 tons and in the US it is 19 tons.

Carbon Offsetting is one way to reduce or eliminate your carbon footprint; in most cases this involves calculating your greenhouse gas emissions and planting trees so as to absorb an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. Some websites where you can calculate your carbon footprint and purchase offsetting are:
The Woodland Trust - http://www.carbonbalanced.org/
Carbon Footprint - http://www.carbonfootprint.com/USA/calculator.html
The Carbon Neutral Company - http://www.carbonneutral.com/pinfo/carbonoffsetting.asp
My Climate - http://www.myclimate.org/index.php?lang=en
Atmosfair - http://www.atmosfair.de/index.php?id=9&L=3

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GEOENGINEERING (CLIMATE ENGINEERING)
Ambitious schemes have been proposed that would manipulate our climate through geoengineering. These contentious schemes include constructing a giant sunscreen to block out some of the sun’s heat and artificial trees to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If these schemes are successful they could prevent global warming from getting worse and may be reverse the warming trend.

● Human Volcano
Volcanic eruptions emit large quantities of sulphur dioxide that blocks out some of the heat from the sun. Following the massive eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 the average global temperature fell by 0.5°C. One proposal is to simulate natural volcanoes by firing pellets of sulphur into the upper atmosphere where the particles of sulphur will reflect back some of the solar radiation.

● Sulphur Blanket
Nobel Prize winner Professor Paul Crutzen has put forward a scheme which, like the Human Volcano, uses the principle of sulphur to block out some of the suns rays. Professor Crutzen's idea is to launch rockets into the stratosphere (10 to 50km above Earth's surface) and release one million tons of sulphur. This radical plan could have drawbacks including an increase in acid rain and damage to the ozone layer. At low levels sulphur dioxide is a toxic gas and in the past was emitted in large quantities from factories; ironically the Clean Air Acts, which reduced industrial pollution, removed much of the cooling sulphur dioxide from out atmosphere.

● Solar Mirrors
The US National Academy of Sciences has proposed a scheme that would involve positioning 55,000 gigantic mirrors in space. Each mirror would be 100 square kilometres in area and the effect would be to reflect some of the sun's heat energy back into space. For the time being neither the technology nor financial resources exist to enable such a scheme to go ahead.

● Global Sunshade
A similar scheme to the space mirrors idea involves placing a giant sunshade in orbit between the sun and Earth. British astronomer Roger Angel has proposed creating such a shade some 1.5 million miles from earth, at the point where gravity from the sun and the earth balance. His sunshade would consist of 16 trillion individual glass discs, each one microscopically thin and weighing just one gram. On board each disc would be a tiny camera, computer and solar sails allowing each disc to align itself so as to refract light from the sun just enough so it misses Earth. Angel proposes using electro magnetically propelled launches, each one delivering a million discs into space.

● Moving Earth
Perhaps the most ambitious of all schemes so far proposed is one to actually move planet Earth into a different orbit. It has been estimated that if Earth were 1.5 million miles further from the sun then the reduced heat energy received from the sun would compensate for anthropogenic global warming. Dr Ken Caldiera of Stanford University, an opponent of geoengineering, has calculated that the energy required to move the Earth this far would be the equivalent of 5 quadrillion hydrogen bombs (5,000,000,000,000,000).

● Cloud Seeding
Cloud seeding isn't a new concept and is one that has been tried with some success as a way of bringing rainfall to dry areas. One variation on this theme is to launch a fleet of self-propelled vessels to sail the world's oceans and spray a fine mist of seawater particles into the atmosphere. Marine Stratocumuli clouds form over much of the world's oceans and they're particularly effective at reflecting sunlight back into space. Professors John Latham and Stephen Salter from the UK believe that by increasing the number of such clouds, enough heat from the sun can be reflected back into space to offset global warming.

● Artificial Trees
A school science project provided the inspiration for Professor Klaus Lackner's concept of using artificial trees to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Air passes through the device and hydrogen sulphide absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, each 'tree' could remove 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The carbon dioxide would need to be permanently stored and the professor believes this could be achieved by drilling holes thousands of metres deep into porous rock beneath the oceans; the CO2 would be injected into the holes where it would permeate the surrounding rock.

● Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are microscopic marine plants, invisible to the naked eye but visible from space as blooms of green ocean. Like all plants they photosynthesise - taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Increasing the quantity of phytoplankton will result in more carbon dioxide being absorbed and when the plants die they sink to the ocean floor taking the carbon with them. Professor Ian Jones of Sydney University advocates that by using nitrogen rich urea to enrich parts of the oceans low in phytoplankton their numbers can be significantly increased.

● More About These Schemes
Some of these ideas formed part of a BBC documentary 'Five Ways To Save The World' you can read more about them on the BBC Website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/6298507.stm watch the programme trailer http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6360000/newsid_6364700/6364731.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm or watch the programme in full from Google Video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=286000425078890061

2007-07-20 03:26:33 · answer #1 · answered by Trevor 7 · 0 1

Global warming is one-half of the climatic cycle of warming and cooling.
The earth's mean temperature cycles around the freezing point of water.
This is a completely natural phenomenon which has been going on since there has been water on this planet. It is driven by the sun.
Our planet is currently emerging from a 'mini ice age', so is becoming warmer and may return to the point at which Greenland is again usable as farmland (as it has been in recorded history).
As the polar ice caps decrease, the amount of fresh water mixing with oceanic water will slow and perhaps stop the thermohaline cycle (the oceanic heat 'conveyor' which, among other things, keeps the U.S. east coast warm).
When this cycle slows/stops, the planet will cool again and begin to enter another ice age.
It's been happening for millions of years.
Humans did not cause it.
Humans cannot stop it.

2007-07-20 01:49:48 · answer #2 · answered by credo quia est absurdum 7 · 0 0

To quote Maddox:

"I have an idea. We should all sit down on the least impressionable piece of land we can find and try not to kill anything or to hurt anyone's feelings and eat only tofu and sing happy songs about dancing fairies and flowers and children and smiles and laughter. We should be so happy that it hurts. We should live in harmony with the animals and we should spend hours hugging old people and riding the 'It's a Small World' ride at Disney Land, and we should protest against people that wear fur, because wearing fur is mean. We should all sport those wonderful 'Mean People Suck' stickers on the back of our cars.. oh wait, cars are mean, I meant to say bikes made of 100% recyclable eco-friendly materials that don't harm anything. Then everything will be great. Is that what you people want? FORGET IT. IT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN."

People are going to pollute and contribute to harming the environment. At least, I know I am. Also, global warming doesn't exist.

2007-07-20 06:09:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

1.The simplest way to sequester carbon is to preserve trees and to plant more.
2.Carbon dioxide has traditionally been injected into oil wells to force more petroleum out of the ground or seafloor. Now it is being injected simply to isolate it underground in oil fields, coal beds, or aquifers.
3.Deep ocean waters could also absorb a great deal of carbon dioxide.
So by 2 and 3, we conclude that there should be less use of Petroleum . Hence, we should use E-Bikes.
4.Solar power, wind power, and hydrogen fuel cells also emit no greenhouse gases. Someday these alternative energy sources may prove to be practical, low-pollution energy sources, although progress today is slow.
5.Prevention of Nuclear explosions in open air.
6.Educating People and spreading awareness among people about Global Warming and it's prevention.
7.Every time a consumer buys an energy-efficient appliance; adds insulation to a house; recycles paper, metal, and glass; chooses to live near work; or commutes by public transportation, he or she is fighting global warming.
8.The most important action we can take to curb global warming is to consume energy more efficiently. Energy efficiency is the cleanest, safest, most economical way to begin to curb global warming.
9.Using less energy for the same task puts money in the pockets of families and reduces pollution that warms the planet and endangers our children and our communities.

2007-07-20 07:48:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Since the sun is what causes global warming the only way to stop it is to make the sun stop burning. The earth goes through cooling and warming periods naturally, and this warming period is well withing natural variances.
Be glad we are not in an ice age. Food grows better in warm times than on icebergs.

2007-07-20 02:22:23 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Responsible Choices
The choices we make and the products we buy test our commitment to maintain a healthy planet. When we burn fossil fuels—such as oil, coal, and natural gas—to run our cars and light our homes, we pump carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. This thickens the heat-trapping blanket that surrounds the planet, causing global warming.

Choosing modern technology can reduce our use of fossil fuels and help protect the planet. These ten steps will help curb global warming, save you money, and create a safer environment for the future.

1. Drive Smart!
A well-tuned car with properly inflated tires burns less gasoline—cutting pollution and saving you money at the pump. If you have two cars, drive the one with better gas mileage whenever possible. Better yet, skip the drive and take public transit, walk, or bicycle when you can.

2. Write your leaders now. Urge them to raise fuel economy standards to 40 miles per gallon.
Modern technology can make our cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas. It's the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming. The less gasoline we burn, the less CO2 we put into the air. Taking this step would also save nearly 4 million barrels of oil a day — more oil than we currently import from the Persian Gulf and could ever extract from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge combined.

3. Support clean, renewable energy.
Renewable energy solutions, such as wind and solar power, can reduce our reliance on coal-burning power plants, the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States. Call your local utility and sign up for renewable energy. If they don't offer it, ask them why not?

4. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
Especially those that burn the longest each day. Compact fluorescents produce the same amount of light as normal bulbs, but use about a quarter of the electricity and last ten times as long. Each switch you make helps clean the air today, curb global warming, and save you money on your electricity bill.

5. Become a smart water consumer.
Install low-flow showerheads and faucets and you'll use half the water without decreasing performance. Then turn your hot water heater down to 120°F and see hot-water costs go down by as much as 50 percent.

6. Buy energy-efficient electronics and appliances.
Replacing an old refrigerator or an air conditioner with an energy-efficient model will save you money on your electricity bill and cut global warming pollution. Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances or visit their website at www.energystar.gov to find the most energy-efficient products.

7. Plant a Tree, protect a forest.
Protecting forests is a big step on the road to curbing global warming. Trees "breathe in" carbon dioxide, but slash-and-burn farming practices, intensive livestock production, and logging have destroyed 90 percent of the native forests in the United States. And you can take action in your own backyard — planting shade trees around your house will absorb CO2, and slash your summer air-conditioning bills.

8. Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!
Producing new paper, glass, and metal products from recycled materials saves 70 to 90 percent of the energy and pollution, including CO2, that would result if the product came from virgin materials. Recycling a stack of newspapers only 4 feet high will save a good-sized tree. Please...buy recycled products!

9. Mount a local campaign against global warming.
Educate your community about how it can cut global warming pollution. Support measures at the national, state, and local level that:

* Make automobiles go further on a gallon of gas;
* Accelerate the use of clean, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind;
* Increase energy efficiency and conservation; and
* Preserve forests around the world.

2007-07-20 20:45:37 · answer #6 · answered by nats 3 · 0 0

i've got considered quite some questions published on the priority of international worming, yet that's by some distance the main smart and shows the terrific information of the priority. on an identical time as enrironmentalists are constantly saving the international from countless issues, all of them come right down to a minimum of one element with is saving the international from the evil firms - and the army too.

2016-10-22 03:42:28 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

Wat's the risk? Scientists should start calculating that if the whole earth is levelled, will the water level be still higher? Or we can dig the ocean and put its soil on the surface. This way the ocean's area would decrease and the land will increase.Eventually ocean will be nothing more than a narrow deep trench.

2007-07-19 23:39:53 · answer #8 · answered by RAGHAV CAT(Creative And Trouble) 1 · 1 1

its easy have gore and his cronies stop exagerating the facts and then there would be no global warming. the cycle that is happening now is just that a cycle that comes around.

they have pulled ice core samples out in areas that had plants in it that would have required a temp 25 degrees hotter in order for them to have grown in that area.

I think we need to take care of our planet we cant trash it just becuase there is no global warming, but gore and his global warming buddies have been caught red handed exagerating statistic and facts. If something is really happening you dont have to lie or exagerate the facts..

AND I WILL LISTEN TO CAMERON DIAZ ABOUT MY NEED TO CUT BACK SHEN SHE SELLS ALL BUT ONE OF HER CARS, STOPS JETTING OFF TO EXOTIC LOCALS FOR HOLIDAYS AND SHE MOVES INTO A HOUSE THAT IS ACTUALLY PROPORTIONAL TO HER NEEDS.... LOOK AT HOW MUCH HER FILM SHE MAKES CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL WARMING... THEY USE MORE RESOURCES AND ENERGY MAKING A FILM THAN ONE VILLAGE DOES IN SOME COUNTRIES FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE ENTERTAINMENT

2007-07-19 22:00:15 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1 1

We cant stop global warming but we can reduce the rate by controlling pollution levels,stopping nuclear tests, plantation of certain trees which release ozone.

2007-07-19 22:16:33 · answer #10 · answered by sachin 2 · 0 2

Do you really mean Global W"o"rming? If so, get rid of all the worms !!!

2007-07-20 03:13:55 · answer #11 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

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