invites you to ask and answer questions covering social themes of global significance. When you ask in order to understand, when you answer in order to share, this is what we mean by dropping knowledge.
|
This video is copyleft.
We recommend the latest Apple Quicktime Player.
Simon Retallack's
biography
|
QuestionWhat can I do, and tell others to do, to stop global warming? Nancy ClemonsAnswer
Simon Retallack: There are a number of things that people can do. I think the first thing is to appreciate your role in different arenas. I think as an elector, as a voter, as a consumer, as someone that uses energy in the home or in transport choices, we can each make a difference. First of all, I think we must all do our bit to encourage and put pressure on our politicians, our elected representatives to act, to take steps to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels which cause greenhouse gas emissions which causes climate change. And make the switch to clean, renewable forms of energy and use energy more efficiently. That means writing to politicians, telling them that you want to see action on this issue, telling them you won’t vote for them unless they take action on this issue. Wherever you see a politician asking for your vote, ask them, “What’s your plan to tackle climate change or global warming? What do you plan to do about it? Do you think that this is an important issue?” From there, I think, you can do all sorts of things at the community level to encourage action on this, to develop community forms of clean energy: wind turbine, biomass. And I think that we can do a lot as individuals in our homes, too, to take action to reduce our own contribution to the problem of global warming. We can put insulation in our roofs and our walls that dramatically cut the wastage of energy that happens and we can install efficient appliances, efficient energy light bulbs. We can take big actions, particularly, by putting solar panels on our roofs or buying micro-wind turbines. We can buy increasingly our electricity from green energy suppliers. And in the transport sector, we can do a lot to ensure that we either choose public transport when traditionally we’ve used the car, or we bicycle, or we walk or if we have to use a car, we try to find -- I think we should buy the most efficient -- fuel efficient car. Increasingly they’re on the market now. You’ve got hybrid cars like the Prius which you can buy which use much less petrol than conventional cars, gasoline than conventional cars. And when we fly -- if we have to fly -- we can offset our emissions so that the contribution to CO2 that we’re responsible for is counteracted by investments in energy efficiency and in renewable energy projects, but also to avoid flying when we can. When you can take a train, take the train. Flying is the most, carbon intensive form of transport there is. And teleconference if you use – if you fly a lot for work. So take consciousness of your responsibility on this problem and take some action and encourage others to do so, too.
|