Though it's easy to cower in your basement wearing your duct tape bodysuit and motorcycle helmet feel defeated, here are 10 small things, and one really big thing, you can do to change the changin' climate for the better:
- Sharing is caring. Sharing your
bedhome with others cuts back on energy use, as does living in a multi-unit dwelling, choosing a house sized to your needs, and, of course, choosing an energy-efficient home. Keeping proximity to work, school, the grocery store, and a goodpubpublic transit line in mind is also important. - Home is where the heat is, but you may be wasting it. You can perform your own energy audit to find places where you might inadvertently be letting energy slip through the cracks. Caulking your windows, buying energy-efficient appliances, and buying green energy are good ways to start.
- Let there be lighting. Swap your old light bulbs for compact fluorescents. They last 10 times longer, meaning fewer of them end up in landfills; use two-thirds less energy, meaning less carbon released into the atmosphere; and emit less heat than standard bulbs, so they're safer and cooler. They cost a little more up front, but in the long run, they save you money and guilt -- and they look funky! Hell, you could even do some renegade replacing around town while you're at it.
- Car-ry me home. Carpool, bus, bike, or walk more often. You could even Segway to work. If you have to drive, choose a fuel-efficient vehicle, and maintain your car to get the best mileage possible. You can also share a car.
- Re, re, repeat after me: Reduce, reuse and recycle. But emphasize the first two -- the third really just creates more crap.
- It's in the bag. Use reusable bags for shopping, carrying your stuff around, and giving gifts. Paper or plastic? Neither!
- A market improvement. Eat local and/or organic whenever you can -- local products weren't shipped from somewhere on the other side of the planet, and organics are better for the land, and your health. Farmers' markets, local grocers, and community supported agriculture programs (CSA's) are convenient ways to shop smarter.
- Vegetate. Meat production consumes more resources -- land, water, and oil -- than production of vegetation for food, so eat less meat. Even one meat-free day a week helps.
- All the write moves. Write to your representatives. Whether you want to encourage them to support renewable-energy research, raise fuel-efficiency standards, limit greenhouse-gas emissions, or protect your local park, they need to hear from
taxpayerstheir constituents about what really matters. Find your representatives' info here. - One of us. One of us. Join, support, or otherwise help an organization working on environmental issues. There are lots of folks doing good work to stop climate change. The bigger the crowd, the better. One particularly punny, nonprofit online environmental magazine comes to mind.
Finally, and most importantly, tell everyone else what you're doing, and why you're concerned about climate change. Lifestyle changes are good, but mean little in light of the ginormous problem that is global warming. We need major social and political changes on the local, state, federal, and international levels, so step it up. Talk to your neighbors, parents, friends, lovers, colleagues, pets -- anyone who might like to call this planet home a little longer.
Comments View as Flat
WWAGD?! Posted 3:57 am
02 Feb 2007
Item 12: Celebrate
Global Heating will take us out of a worldwide cold spell that has hampered mankind since our most recent round of civilization.
Global Heating will:
Increase health and longevity
Provide moisture for the Gobi, the Sahara and American Southwest
Increase the health, quantity and potency of our crops
Decrease our fossil energy needs
Increase the amount of land available for housing
It will not:
Raise the sea levels
Cause catastrophic temperate changes
Almost all mankind will benefit from Global Heating.
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services.
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LeadByExample Posted 7:54 am
02 Feb 2007
What You Can Do
The energy-efficient home link takes one to LEED.
LEED homes in my opinion are not energy efficient because the air infiltration standards are not nearly stringent enough. The 3 levels of air infiltration are .35 ach (air changes per hour).25 ach and .15 ach. At .35 ach, a 3.000 sf
home in Minneapolis will have a heat loss due to air infiltration of a whopping 31,486,106 btu's annually. Even at .15 ach the loss is 13,494,045 btu's, not near airtight enough to be called energy efficient. These high levels of air infitration will degrade insulation performance and will make for an arid winter indoor environment. If it is not energy efficient is is not green, don't care what it's made from, better to model after the European Passive House.
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bookerly Posted 12:48 am
03 Feb 2007
OTH
Sarah,
loved the little crossed out places, nice humor!! (especially the pub!).
Great suggestions, all in the right direction.
You can add number 13.
13) Share a shower, use less water, and less energy to heat it!
14) Take cold showers, especially if you're sharing, this may be a good idea, or maybe not... hmmm....
15) Wear less clothing. (There is a Chinese joke (at least according to my students), a man wants to lose weight, he sees an internet ad, and signs up. A beautiful nude woman shows up, hands him a piece of paper which says, if you can catch me, you can have me. He chases her around and around the house, never quite catching her, day after day. He starts to lose a lot of weight though. One day, he thinks he can maybe catch her, but instead a very heavy nude woman shows up with a piece of paper that says, if I can catch you , I can have you. He starts running). This may lead us to burn more energy trying to keep warm, or trying to run away from other people. Or chasing them, depending on where on the wheel we are. (smile).
16) Pull your car to work.
17) Carry your kids to soccer practice. On your back.
18) Eat only meat, but only one ounce a day.
19) Run your car only on your own fat.
I am sure there are many more, but thought I would leave you with these!! Thanks Sarah, for all the fishy humor.
patrick a beijing
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amazingdrx Posted 1:26 am
03 Feb 2007
20)
Join your local democratic party and get greener planks in your state party platform. The deadline to submit local district suggestions to the state committees is approaching fast.
21) Get a renewable energy referendum on your state ballot. Proceeding state by state on reform has worked on a number of issues.
This blog is a great resource for both of these initiatives. It would be great to torture test the wording here. And it might even encourage others to take similar actions on their own.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 2:01 am
03 Feb 2007
Whoops
A substitute for lucky 13.
Try to encourage wing nuts to speak freely as often as possible. Even people who have zero interest in global climate problems will go green eventually, just to make sure no one thinks they agree with the nut wing.
The constant loony drumbeat of denial has become our ally!
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 2:01 am
03 Feb 2007
I meant 12
Whoops again!
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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willa Posted 2:16 am
03 Feb 2007
15
Patrick,
I realize you're just recounting something you've been told, but it's offensive anyway. Being healthy and environmentally conscious and all does not require treating women as objects or treating fat women as frightful and disgusting.
Okay, I seem to be on a roll today. I'll stop now.
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