Apr 10, 2011 6:12:15 PM cite

My top 10 tips are: 1) Enjoy at least one meat and diary free day a week. And try to buy more organic and seasonal food. 2) 10% less flying - get the train instead, holiday closer to home or have a longer holiday instead of lots of short ones! 3) 10% less driving - work from home one day a week or use public transport/cycle to work on one day. 4) Reduce heating bill by 10% - put on a jumper/wear thermal underwear and turn the thermostat down by 1degree to save 6%, get better loft insulation, ventilate more effectively and stop droughts to make a huge difference. 5) Reduce electricity bill by 10% - no more wasteful standby (in Germany we have 3-4 powerstations who operate just to provide enough electricity for our TVs etc left on standby) and make sure your fridge and freezer are being used efficiently! 7) Save water - all water needs to get pumped to and from our houses, plus warm water creates even more CO2 - so have short showers not baths, buy a watersave shower head to save 50%, and use the water saving toilet flush. 8) Buy better things - when shopping ask "do I want this or do I really need this" and if you really do, then look for fair trade, energy saving, quality long term use products. Things REDUCE-REUSE-REPAIR-RECYCLE in that order and rather share with friends and use freecycle than buy new. 9)...so this will help reduce rubbish. Separate and recycle all rubbish where possible and avoid excess packaging. Think creatively - use soap instead of showergel, sold shampoo and deodorant instead of plastic packaged brands, carry 1 refillable water bottle for tap water instead of mineral water bottles, take your own cup to starbucks etc. 10) Enjoy meeting new people through car sharing and freecycling, being healthier and fitter through walking, cycling and eating better, saving money on heating and electricity bills and overall being happy to be a part of a global community of people building a sustainable future....1010global.org Have fun.

by KatieGriggs

Feb 13, 2009 3:06:37 PM cite

Global warming is a natural occurrence, and as humans we must learn to adapt. If you may have opposite opinions, please see: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_global_warming_a_natural_occurrence , http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010615071248.htm , http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/260607_b_Warming.htm , I sincerely believe that the media simply played it up more than it should have been.

by odinthecrab

Dec 1, 2006 9:22:16 PM cite

Everyone write this letter: To my electric power company, I draw the line here. This is my commitment. My future power will be generated by sustainable and safe technology. I am considering no longer purchasing power from your company. I am considering installing my own power generation equipment. I am considering helping others build and install their own windmills and solar panels. And I am even considering supporting, or even helping start local alternative energy companies all over the country. It doesn't have to be this way. You can do the right thing – and build alternative power generators instead of coal fired power plants. Personally, I'd rather not be bothered with having to generate my own power. But I will not continue to support a system that perpetuates the production of tons of deadly pollution, strip mining ecocide, and Global warming devastation. You haven't fooled me, with your “clean” coal stories. I know that 90% of the coal fired power plants in America's immediate plans for construction are not even close to clean – and that nobody has yet to build even one truly “clean” coal power plant. You haven't fooled me with your “cheap” coal stories. Once we build all of these coal fired power plants, and commit to decades of coal dependency, it's obvious the price of coal will go up – and in fact, there's a substantial risk of Enron style price gouging. You also haven't fooled me with your “cheaper than alternative energy” stories. We taxpayers are stuck with the bills for all of the subsidies and tax breaks that make coal fired power plants appear cheaper. If our government had any common sense, coal would be heavily taxed and alternative energy would be subsidized. Someday soon, this will happen, and coal won't be so cheap anymore. But most importantly, no matter how cheap coal may appear on your ledgers, we all know that coal is far more expensive to everyone and every thing on Earth in the long run. Much more than your bottom line is at stake – but your bottom line is at stake. Your decision to build coal fired or alternative power generators will determine my, and many others' decision to purchase power from you. Please, make the right decision. And don't try to fool me with nuclear power until you've figured how not to generate nuclear waste. Thank you, Address __________________________________ _____________________________ City, State, Zip _____________________________ What we have here: is the greatest opportunity ever in history – and it only involves you writing a couple of letters. We have an opportunity to avert the worst cluster of disasters humanity has ever witnessed – Global warming and mass ecocide. That's right, we can make a difference. We must at least try. This is critically important. Our efforts might even avert what could possibly end up being the last straw for our civilization. Let's face it, every civilization before us has collapsed. Our odds aren't that good. Are we next? It's starting to look like it. Will it happen soon? I don't believe that it has too. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it won't be the worst disaster in human history. But, all indicators are that global warming is really bad – and if it gets as bad as some scientists predict, it could lead to mass extinctions (an article in National Geographic suggests as many as a million species). Let me remind you that humanity is not above being one of those species slated for extinction. So... we've barely recorded a rise in the Earth's temperature, and we get hurricane Katrina – and all the others, including a big typhoon in China just a few of months ago (that wreaked more havoc than Katrina). In the Oceans, increased hurricane severity isn't the only sign. Seventy percent of the Oceans' coral is sick, dying, or dead. Red tides and dead zones have popped up from out of no where. The worse things get, the less we seem able to do. So, just how bad does it have to get before we notice and take action? Allow me to speculate for a moment; but if we can heat the atmosphere, and we can heat the oceans, maybe we can heat our Earth's crust too. If so, maybe even the Tsunami of 2004 was avoidable. If so... expect more. If not, our planet is likely way too near a total Environmental collapse for any of us to feel comfortable the status quo. I think most of us already know that burning coal for power has been very bad for the environment. We also know that it is an avoidable process. Neither wind, solar, geothermal, wave, or tidal generators produce any greenhouse gases. And, alternative power generators have no equivalent of the smoking trains or barges that deliver coal – and the smoking bulldozers, loaders, and trucks that mine coal. In spite of what the coal companies try to tell us, the technology for alternative energy is available here and now. There are existing examples of all of these alternative power generation methods, making a profit, somewhere on the planet. I have listed some of them on my blog... and no, I haven't listed allegedly “clean” coal. Even if the coal power industry built only “clean” coal plants – and they have yet to build even one, there is still this matter of strip mining ecocide . Or, as Discover magazine quotes a local from the Appalachian coal mining area; “Even if you could get marshmallows to come out of a power plant's smokestacks, you can't wash the blood off coal.” But what can we do?... We can assert ourselves. The most important thing Americans can do now is let our power companies know how unhappy we are that they intend to build more coal fired power plants. We are the customers. We make the decisions. And we've decided that this is a bad idea. The time is now. The opportunity may be passing us by. Because; after they've started construction – once they've spent real money, it will be ten times harder to stop them. Actually, up until now; I've been a little lazy myself. I would rather pay a reasonable bill and turn on a switch to get my power. But, this is losing its appeal to me. I don't want to be responsible for Global warming, pollution, and destructive mining practices. If they continue to build coal fired power plants, I won't buy any of their power. I'll put up my own windmills and solar panels. And I'll store the energy, either in flywheels or generate hydrogen... I really don't want to bother, but I will. And there are probably millions of others, maybe even you, who feel the same way. The problem for the power companies is that they don't know what our tipping point is. They don't know when we'll decide that we've had enough. They don't know how close they are to driving us away as customers. We need to let them know – before they spend billions of dollars on out-dated, polluting, water wasting power plants – that we won't buy power from. Write you local power company, and let them know where you stand. Many of the people within that company want to build alternative energy generators. Give them a stronger voice. Imagine, just writing a letter could change history. This is your opportunity to change the power companies' minds, and maybe even save our civilization. Together, we have far more influence than you ever thought possible. Tell others. E-mail your friends. Notify organizations that you think might care. Post it on your blog, website, MySpace, or YouTube – whatever. But, do it now. This opportunity won't last long. Just think, if enough people write their power companies, we could force them to stop the construction of all the coal fired power plants in the US – and significantly slow Global warming. Rick Spilsbury – for more info: noshootfoot.blogspot.com

by No Shoot Foot

Oct 19, 2006 8:44:26 AM cite

Hello Nancy. This is a question that I'm sure many people have thought of often throughout lives, and perhaps especially in the past few years--I know that I, especially recently, have thought about this often, and have found the answer to be paradoxically complicated, distant and vague, as well as simplistic and tangible. How do we help to wrong the rights of environmental degradation? More importantly, how do we help others to do the same? I am currently taking an introductory course on environmental anthropology, and we discuss weekly different issues concerning our construction of the environment (both societal and personal), past civilization's impact on the environment, cultural interaction with the environment, and, most immediately, environmental issues today. I have felt myself becoming more and more acutely aware of such issues, and of how my actions daily impact the environment around me, as well as the environment of the future. Because of this, I have taken several small (but absolutely deliberate) steps to begin to do my part to protect the environment and understand how I interact with my natural surroundings; I no longer buy water bottles at the store, but rather use the same bottle every day; I use my own coffee cup rather than asking for a paper one at the shop; I ensure that all of my room mates have turned off all of the lights and electrical appliances when we leave the house and at night (a habit that is hard for them to break—most of them leave their TVs blaring when they leave for class, and feel “more comfortable” with the lights on at night); and have begun insisting on recycling and composting whenever possible. However, although I’ve purposefully taken these steps and plan on continuing to expand my actions—and although I can feel my consciousness of the environment, environmental issues and my relationship with these issues growing exponentially—I am still having a hard time incorporating my personal views into my interactions with others. I think the hardest part for many of us in convincing our friends, families, colleagues and perhaps even strangers to participate in environmental awareness, action and activism is not explaining to them why this is necessary—most people, at some level, can be convinced that there are serious and immediate environmental problems that must be dealt with by someone—but of convincing them that these issues are so serious, so immediate, and so personal that that someone is them. In Vancouver, Canada, where I currently go to university, most of us lead plush lives of convenience and immediate fulfillment—we know that there are environmental issues out there, that issues of global warming, deforestation and endangered species are placed at the top of the list of major concerns of non-profits, governments, and citizens alike—but we don’t interact with these issues on a daily basis, and thus we often don’t understand how we impact them, and, perhaps more importantly, how they impact us. What really made me interested in environmental degradation—and my relationship with this degradation—was the tie between environmental issues and reproductive health. Someday, I would like to have a child. And I would like to have a healthy body to house this child in, a healthy home for it to be brought into, a big background year for it to play in, and most importantly, I want my child to be healthy, physically and otherwise. While attempting to understand ecofeminism, I stumbled across a document discussing lowered sperm count in men, contaminated breast milk and increased likelihood of endometriosis in women due to toxic exposure. I immediately got both very sad, and very angry—if this is what it’s like for women’s reproductive health now, what will it be like it ten years, and in twenty? What will it be like when my children are trying to have children of their own? Will I be able to have this healthy child? Will I be able to have any control over the health of my child? This rather clichéd argument of saving the world today for the children of tomorrow suddenly made perfect sense, and called me to action. Although this example will not mobilize all people to become environmentally conscious, my point is simple: it is absolutely essential that when discussing these issues with your others, that you help them to understand how environmental degradation affects their own personal life, how it affects them today and will affect them tomorrow. Why should they take the bus instead of drive their car? Why should they recycle? Why should they urge their governments to take action and invest in renewable energy sources? Do not make this an ideological argument, an argument about what we should be doing, about what is right—make this an argument of urgency, make this an intimate issue, an issue that affects them every day. Give them concrete examples, make them see what is going on, don’t let them be blind, don’t let them lead lives of complacent ignorance. If you truly believe that global warming, or any other environmental issue, is an issue we should deal with today, if you truly believe that it is something that, whether we like it or not, we already are dealing with today, make other people understand this. Make them take this issue into their own hands.

by marajenn

Sep 29, 2006 7:57:22 PM cite

First of all: Is there really a global warming? I ask this question, because I don't see it in my life. I live in Germany and most of the time the weather is as cold as it used to be. I think "Global Warming" is something like the ozon hole. For some years it was a big deal and now? Nothing. Did it disappear? Nobody knows and science keeps silent. Anyway... Suppose there is a Global Warming. Then - outside resolutions are ineffective. People have to change "inside" mentally and stop focusing on undesired things and learn to discipline their thoughts to see mainly beauty, health and knowledge. So many people are so concerned about disagreable stuff and although they want help and change, the only thing they attain is more disagreable stuff, because: What you battle against gets stronger!

by mbl

Sep 11, 2006 3:58:52 PM cite

first off make sure you are really sure you want to fight for a specific point of view. you will have to base it with facts, events or statistics, otherwise people might not really listen. A sane mind will not do something just by being told to do so. A sane mind demands reasons. Reasons you can give. Of course there is always those who dont understand or dont want to. Do not try to convince such a person about your point of view, because it will be lost energy for you. You will notice when someone is open to listen to you. To improve your situation in a discussion, ask yourself why you want to fight global warming. Just talking about a topic without relevant specific information does not solve a problem, it becomes more a charade. Show reasons, give examples and work out possible solutions. Then people might understand you and your point!

by Foossa

Sep 10, 2006 3:38:36 PM cite

You've done the first step already by acknowledging that this phenomenon actually *does* exist! You're further down the road to change things than so many others are. So the first thing you can do, IMO, is to convince others that we're facing a real threat here, not only environmental propaganda. Make them aware, make them think, make them realize the facts! Only then they will be ready to make use of the options we have to truly stop global warming, like switching from planes and cars to trains, supporting the development and establishment of alternative energies...

by carcharias

Sep 9, 2006 4:00:41 PM cite

Hello Nancy: Just spread the word, make people conscious, one by one and write articles in the newspaper. Make people aware what causes global warming for all of us to act accordingly. Make also people aware that works in any kind of industry that increases global warming. I know, one grain of sand doesn't make a beach. But many yes. The more we think and act that way, the larger the beach. We just cannot trust or wait for politicians or most of the industry leaders for them to turn the world around. Most politicians are corrupt because of power, for most industrial leaders money is the most important subject on Earth, no matter what. Best regards. Alf Giebler

by alfgiebler

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: Everything depends on little things. It depends on people´s awareness and actions. For example, using aerosol and much plastic... In India plastic bags are forbidden. Why? Because they contaminate the country and, on the contrary, in many European countries we continue to use them. Why? Because it brings money, it´s advertising. We don´t understand that producing much plastic we contaminate our planet in the way that we pollute air and water, we pollute the environment. Every day, every hour and every minute we contribute to climate change and global warming. I don´t mention enormous damage which large enterprises cause by water and air contamination. I don´t mention plenty of cars ... . That´s why each person must change its point of view whether it needs the car if there are only ten meter to the place where it goes to. Thus, we pollute the environment. As a result of our careless behavior we create such conditions when we suffocate on our own waste gas. And I would like to emphasize again that we must raise our awareness, we must change ourselves. And every minute we must think about what we are doing to reduce danger because it is a serious danger. We mustn´t be egoistical but we should take responsibility for all our actions. And that´s not only because we contaminate water where we live and think that there is enough, or masses of water. There is not enough water, there are some places on the earth, where people are sufferring because they don´t have it. On the one hand, we have to consider ourselves as small particles which can damage the whole system, on the other hand, we are particles which can be useful for this system and improve it and which do not only think that someone else would do this. We must do it ourselves!

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I do not know.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: Well. I think that one of the principal solutions is to get rid of cars and to cancel them from our lives and to start to search for other alternatives of movement and mobilisation in the cities. I strongly believe that the collective transport of good quality is the only solution, even though the global warming is not only a consequence of cars. But I think that the planet has to perceive some day that cars have been the worst invention of humanity. Cars destroyed the quality of life and of air in the cities and at public and urban places. Cities have been constructed for cars and not for human beings. When we look at the space which one car occupies at urban places we really see that we have made a fatal error.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: The others could recommend the firms not to continue using chemicals, that they should begin to use organic material, because by this the protection of the ecosystem can be ensured. I would also like to organise people's communities in a way that they protected their environment and used the natural ressources properly, in order to preserve and stop global warming. capacitate the maintenance and protection of the environment and lasting use

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Nancy thanks for the question. Well, I guess first of all what you can do, what I can do, rather than what you can do, is to take full cognizance of the level to which the planet earth is currently being depleted, and to try to understand what that really means to all living things as we know it on this planet. I guess we need to completely revolutionize ourselves: the way in which we live, what we consume, what kind of energy levels we use, we need to rethink that completely without being forced by necessity to do this. What can I do? I can increasingly use my own life and the way I live as an example for others. First of all you know I believe our attitudes begins not necessarily with taking on a program of action which diminishes kind of environmental fallout, but a program begins by changing the structure of the way which we feel about living things, how things live. And if we become cognizant about the necessity and primacy of all other living things, so we will become more sensitive, responsive, to life.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: The issue of what we can do to confront the problem of global warming is growing more urgent. We have seen a pattern of violent weather occurrences, they are called natural disasters, but they are in reality social disasters, where we have seen massive human and environmental consequences. The last several years have seen record temperature levels in the ocean, rising ocean levels, record incidents of, what are considered extreme weather patterns, hurricanes, tornados, and also tsunamis. And if this pattern continues, it’s really hard to imagine how extreme the consequences could be. It’s hard to underestimate how extreme the consequences could be. But, really, I think we have to be sober that the scale of the problem is such that individual decisions really aren’t ultimately the issue in this question that individual choices can ultimately, unfortunately substitute for taking the kind of collective action and drastic action that in fact is necessary, that involve fundamentally transforming the basis of our economies on short-term economic calculations, in particular, the role the consumption of oil has come to play in the global capitalist economy. And in order to begin to address those enormous structural problems, we are going to have to engage in more than consumption decisions or individual decisions or going to have to engage in collective political action to bring about a difference set of priorities and to create new institutions. And so, really, I think the thing that is possible, that is most effective is to find ways to organize it collectively and working with other people to bring about the kind of changes in our priorities that would make a change in how it relates to the environment possible.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 2:10:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala:

by Anuradha Koirala