…for a Klondike bar? It might be a bit of a diversion from the theme, but it got polar bears and ice. So, we can pretend we are still on topic.
So, let’s assume we all agree that climate change (regardless of its causes) is an issue which needs to be addressed. From where I sit, it looks like politicians are not likely to get anything substantial accomplished for quite a while. So, it is all up to us – mere mortals. What can you do to address the issue?
Here is my 5-year plan (yes, I know – my communist underbelly is showing)
1. Do not vote republican
2. Drive a fuel efficient car
3. Better insulate my house
4. Put solar panels on the roof of my house
5. Investigate moving back to Russia – when all of you down here are swimming in the waters of melted glaciers, Siberia will be nice and ready for occupancy.
34 comments:
We can all do little things to help the environment, such as alternative electricity (solar, wind, hydro) or drive fuel effiecent cars. I also feel that at the high school level, we can car pool to school so less cars are at the high school (better parking too).
But one point, Isn't Siberia further North than New York, so it would be underwater too?
it's about altitude, not just latitude.
and yeah... each of us can do thier small parts.
check out www.earthday.org
you can caluclate your ecological footprint, which is the impact you have as an individual on the Earth.
IT tells you how many acres you use up as an individual, and how many earths we would need if everyone lived like yourself.
For the average American, that would be 5 planet earths
I did not ask what we could do. I ask what you are willing and will do. It is easy to discuss theory. It is a lot harder to take verifiable action(s)
well i'd go for the fuel efficient car and solar panels. @ 3rdkind there is something like that already, buses. Not too sure right now of what else i would do.
Glaz,
I liked your five year plan, and i too don't plan on voting for a republican, but i will also choose not to vote for democrat (unless Kucinich wins the primarry). Spineless democrats like Gore talk about things like climate change, but never actually act on what they say. In Gore's informative yet annoying self praising movie he talks about how he knew what a big problem climate change was in the 1970's, and how he was at the origional Kyoto meetings (notice he doesn't say he was pro the kyoto treaty then, because he wasn't). Well Gore was vice president of the united states for 8 years, and you know what he did to stop climate change, absolutely nothing. If anything Clinton and Gore made the problem of climate change worse by paving the way for NAFTA and the WTO which vote down every singal environmental and worker safety law as a barrier to free trade. Democrats are the same way with the war in Iraq. They all say they're against the war in Iraq, yet they (except Kucinich) keep voting to approve more funds to continue militarry operations!?!?!?! If you vote to fund war, you are pro war. Democrats are just as bad as republicans when it comes to war, climate change, helath care, and just about every other issue thats worth caring about.
Well personally I think a two-party system is very very stupid. Or at least to the degree that we have it. While group polarization is good, I think that to have it at such an extreme level can really hurt more than help.
But back on the subject, the problem is that my parents honestly don't care. They won't even buy green lightbulbs because they find it to be silly!
I'm pretty good though. I walk to school every day (driving would be ABSURD. i would have to park further away from the school than where my house is. no joke.) I usually drive with others (ok I can't drive. But if I did, I would definitely give people lifts all of the time.)
I think a big problem though, with being a teenager and not having full control over how you live your life, it can be difficult to try and be ecologically friendly, especially if you have parents that combat the idea just out of ignorance and a lack of will to want to change that.
Using fluorescent light bulbs instead of the incandescent ones is definitely something that can make a difference and that I've already done to many lamps and such in my house. Also, I try to only buy things with recyclable packaging.
I wouldn't go so far as to assert that Gore is spineless... he was one of the first to hold congressional hearings on global warming in the 70s and 80s, and in the 90s he was involved in the GLOBE program and he WAS supportive of the kyoto treaty. He certainly has created great awareness of the issue more recently and I think that in itself hardly makes him spineless.
It is unfortunate however that this crazy political atmosphere makes it so that hardly anything gets accomplished and it's taken this long for many people to even acknowledge that global warming is a very pressing issue that needs to be addressed immediately
Steriotype train coming through. Republicans refuse to recognize the existence of global warming, Democrats will throw public money at it until they can go on T.V and say they tried. Let's all go Libertarian and start riding bicycles. We can kill the temperature increase and the obesity problem simultaneously. After all, if we really are all doomed to a waterworld future, they'll be the most buoyant; and I don't want the competition for resources.
Honestly, I'm not going to go crazy over global warming. I just don't have the energy. I know that a complete change in the way I life my life will have absolutely no effect on the environment on the large scale. All it will do is make me feel superior. In a way Balzac is right. Throwning money at global warming does not actually help the environment. I don't have the hate for Al Gore that some other people on this blog seem to, but I know that no matter what he does, you can't make three billion people change their lifestyles.
well my family's already taking small steps.
we drive cars that get 30+ miles to the gallon and try our best to car pool whenever possible
my whole house was recently outfitted with energy star appliances and our shoddy insulation was replaced
we're pretty steadfast liberals (not atypical in croton) and will factor eco-friendliness heavily into choices during the primary and next year's election
Try and spread awareness without forcing my yuppie liberal agenda down anyone's throat
Everyone could realistically try to only have one light on in the room that they are in, and turn lights off in the rest of their house/place of business. Also, if replacing light bulbs with more environment friendly ones was a law, we could reduce emissions on an incredible scale. It's barely even an inconvenience.
i myself am willing to ride my bike or walk instead of driving. this is especially easy for me becuase i live in town and it will also save me some gas money. I am also willing to communicate to my friends and family the importance of cutting back on fossil fuel emmisions and to make car pooling a priority. I think basic things such as this are easy enough for all of us to do and if done in any kind of great magnitude can really abate the severity of this widespread and pervasive problem.
I think that you and everyone else in the world should either help invest fiding better technonlogy for making solar powered cars or maybe even hydrogen powered cars so that it stops poluting the o-zone and so that the glaciers by siberia won't melt.
aaronburr, i don't really agree... at all. I think if everyone thought like that, obviously nothing would change. But every change starts with the individual.
Honestly, how much of an effort is it to turn off the lights when you leave a room. Small changes aren't really affecting us, maybe, but it definently affects the 3rd world that will suffer because we're not too lazy to turn of a lamp.
I try to take shorter showers to use less hot water. To use a fan instead of an air conditioner and in the winder, keep the heat as low as bareable and use a lot of blankets.
About thirty five industrialized countries have committed to reducing their output of greenhouse gasses to varying degrees... unfortunantly america isn't one of them.
Personally, i do try to help make a difference. Some people might think oh its just one person not helping but every person adds up to a big group and we could really help a lot.
i try to take shorter showers and recycle as best i can. Unlike tom halsall its a problem for me to not to drive a car places because i live so far away from everything but i could car pool places instead of me always driving. Little things like that i think can make a difference.
First I have to say that I like glaz's five year plan. Secondly I would definitely get a fuel efficient car (given that I had the money). At the current moment, I try to car pool as much as possible and my family are big recyclers. While I live in the middle of no where, walking to school or into town isn't exactly the best solution, I do try and bike to friends houses when the weather is nice. Replacing incandesent bulbs with florescent is a good idea in theory, but what about those people who are bothered by the sound that florescent lights make? Turning off lights when your not in the room is something that is easily done with little inconvience. Something my family has done is turning our water heater down from about 150 to 125. Sure I can't take super hot showers but it cuts down on the oil use to heat our water. Turning down the heat from 70 to 62 when your not home in the winter is easy to do and saves energy and money (especially how high oil and gas prices are now), similarly in the summer, turn off the AC. When you get home you can turn it back on, or install a schedule thermostat so that you dont have to think about when the heat or AC gets turned off. Easy to do, saves on energy (and money).
One thing that has started to drive me crazy actually is when a family member leaves the lights on- I can't say I'm perfect and always remember to turn them off, but sometimes I come down my driveway and see that the basement light is on and my basement is basically for storage so their is no purpose for having it on for more than a few breif moments...anyway, I seriously plan on trying to get my family to be aware of the lights in my house, especially my sister...
and when I drive and have my own car, I plan on investing the money in a fuel efficient car.
and I should probably start walking to school but I don't wake up early enough! I'll work on that. At least I always walk home.
If we "better insulate" our homes. Yeah it's a good idea and all but now in the summer, your house will be atleast 20 degrees warmer so you're going to use more energy by trying to cool you house down. In the winter yeah it's fine because you house will stay warm, but i don't think that people in New York or where ever would like their house to be warm ad sticky in their own home.
I like your theory Glaz. Personally it might be a little hard to resist the american urge to buy a sports car, but my goal is to at least have a fuel efficient car. Then i would definately buy a really well insulated house and definately cover it with solar panels. I also heard about this new paint that is being developed. What it is in a sense is really a paint-on solar panel. It does the same things as a regular solar panel but it conects to wires running through the paint that pull off electrons and create energy for the house. Good show on discovery channel.
I am not really freaking out about global warming. I think it is important for us to take notice about it and start to cut down on things like driving. I would be willing to start making changes in my life, but I feel it would be hard to get everyone to start making changes. I feel we should all slowly start to change little things. Even the smallest bit can help.
Personally, I would be willing to use windmills as a source of electricity. Though it would be hard considering the wind is not always strong, it is a measure that I would be willing to implement to help the environment. Also, I would be willing to have a job where I could work from home. Though I wouldn't interact with other employees that much, it would be a great commute and would save a tremendous amount of energy i would use driving to work. Thirdly, I would be willing to work in the dark. The natural light of the sun would allow to see where I'm going, and this measure would also save a lot of energy. Not every light in the house needs to be on at all times.
Well, to reflect on one thing that has been said a lot, voting democrat would be better for global warming than voting republican (by the way I'm going to use a lot of political stereotypes). Though there are a lot of democrats running for election that are complete scumbags, voting democrat would be much more likely to help the earth because most democratic representatives actually believe in global warming, and have there own plans. Most republican representatives don't even see global warming as an issue, nor do they have plans to stop it. So even if the democratic plans are superficial or wishy-washy, at least there's a chance to get something done.
As for one of my major ideas, people have to stop using gas leaf blowers. An EPA estimate found that one leaf blower operated for an hour gives off the same amount of volatile organic compounds, or hydrocarbons, as a typical passenger car driven 100 miles. Electronic leaf blowers barely pollute the atmosphere at all, and they are just as functional as a gas one. Then there's the rake, which obviously doesn't pollute at all!
geoff, I see your point, but are you really just not going to do anything about our dying world because you're living on the idea that it's too "hard" to do something. We might not have enough time to just start slowly, and every little personal thing we do won't make that much of a difference in our lives, but could make a huge difference on the grand scale.
I'm just an optimist.
I think that the best thing that we can do it to educate. Sure many people have ideas such as installing solar panels on their roofs, but that hardly has an effect if only one person does it. Sandy Koufax stated the idea of using less electricity through not using lights as often but that is so hard to enforce people to do, and there is always going to be annoying people who would never do that. If we educate the public, people would know better ways of preventing global warming and truley understand how it is effecting us. Carpooling or using more public transportation is a large factor. It eliminates the amount of gas being used and also helped to stop many of the fuems which come from cars to stop being produced. Politicans do not market to one person becuase that one vote is not going to help them win, they market to a demographic so that they win many many votes. By creating a public campaign which helps to educate you are making a true impact on global warming or other natural disasters.
Well Ms. Glazenburg, it looks like you got a nice utopia going. Do not mistake five points for five years in your plan. Mine is even simpler: stop climate change.
I am being sarcastic to make a point. People understand the reality of climate change and have a general idea on how to combat it on a low level. The problem lies in the willingness, or lack thereof, of the global community to sacrifice their/our luxuries in order to adjust to the changing climate. No matter how many plans and propositions that are made, the main problem is going to be the opposition that we pose to ourselves. I guess in more ways than one this is a human, rather than a natural, problem.
I think global warming is a serious issue and that not enough people share my opinion. I think it would be a good idea for the government to offer incentives for doing environmentally friendly things such as walking when possible or car pooling. They could also make hybrid cars very cheap to encourage use. What ever happens, i just think it is important that more people become aware of the problem and care enough to fix it because if everyone works together alot more be accomplished and things will start flowing in a positive direction.
go vegan. seriously. More gas and energy goes into making a pound of meat than a pound of grain. Its healthier too.
Eat locally, less gasoline and fossil fuels used to transport food the better.
Dont get a drivers liscense, ride a bike, its good for you. Less fossil fuels.
Theres my plan. I have been doing it for about a year and a half.
I could always do something which requires little to no effort, yet can make a big difference. Stuff like using energy saving light bulbs, getting a programmable thermostat, and turning off lights or electronics when not in the room. A little effort, when done by many people can go long way.
To adress the issue of climate change, there are almost an endless amount of things i can do. I already try to bike or walk everywhere i go, and i rode the bus to work during the summer. But even small things like turning off the lights when i leave a room can have a big impact over time. Basicly, doing anything to limit my ecological footprint, no matter how small helps.
i could also go vegan/vegetarian because on a whole, the meat industry is extremely harmfull to our environment, and i dont just mean in an "oh my gosh the poor cows" kind of way. The amount of energy required to raise, feed and transport cattle is astronomical. An enormous waste considering the fact that if we used the land for grazing cattle for planting food for ourselves, we could feed many, many more people.
So obviously there are a lot of things we can each do to make an impact. Often times it is extremely discouraging to try and make your own impact- just like the earth's movement down when somebody jumps- the impact is hardly noticeable. Our problem is cyclic; it’s hard to make an impact by you, and at the same time, if we each didn’t go it individually at first, then who would make up the masses?
Right now, as an initiative to save the world on the scale of CHHS, the wellness committee is working to start the promotion of the use of water fountains and reusable bottles instead of having each student buy a Poland Spring bottles from the vending machines. If each of us bought a Nalgene to fill up everyday- we could save an awful lot of Poland Springs water bottles...while small, our school is still a bigger body than just one or two of us. I think the idea is a worthwhile pursuit. It’s hard because the ideas suggested were to have a paper cup dispenser near the water fountain- and that wouldn’t be very environmentally friendly- so the idea is in the works- go tigers Nalgene bottles!?
Another idea that is being pursued, is to figure out a way for all cans and bottles to be able to be recyclable and refunded - It always bothers me that most of the bottles I dispose of are not 1 or 2- which are the only types of plastic croton collects- if croton doesn’t collect it, croton shouldn’t sell it. I'm hoping to look into this idea a little more and eventually write to our local government. if somehow this worked out, and we got croton to change its recycling program for the entire village why, that’s a bigger impact than one or two of us alone could make too.
Saving the world one person's habits at a time is a long journey- and going at it alone won’t do the trick...
We can't jump by ourselves to move the world- but then, what if we all jumped together?
I agree that driving fuel efficient cars and not voting republican would be useful tatics in this matter.However i truly believe unless some scientist discovers some machine to totally eliminate it,Global Warming is inevitable. No matter what anyone has to offer as a plan it wont work. The only thing we can do is "stall" it but there is not way to totally stop it.
I agree with "the3rdkind" in that solar,wind, and hydro energy would ultimatley help in the slowing down of Global Warming but i still believe that no matter what Global Warming will still occur in its highest form no matter what.
In response to alphabetaparkinglot i think that being conscious of your ecological footprint is a good thing. We dont realize that things we do in our daily life could have a strong affect on the environment. If we are more aware of the things that we do maybe then people would be willing to make changes.
i would be willing to ride my bike more often and when driving to the sdame location as someone carpool
I want to focus on the second step of your plan driving a fuel efficient car. Recent developments have produced hydrogen fueled cars. Much more efficient and environmentally friendly than our cars today. Billions and billions of dollars are spent each year to keep the oil business going in our counrty. Money that could and should be used to help mass produce hydrogen powered cars. However the oil companies in our country are so powerful and will not allow this becuase they will lose massive ammounts of money. Instead of keeping our environment safe we are making the oil companies even wealthier. Thats somehting to think about....
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