Global Warming – What Can We Do to help? Part 3
What can an individual do to help?
The list of ways to cut back on emissions is probably as long as the many ways that energy is expended but there are several obvious and relatively easy ways to achieve improvements:
In the US about half of greenhouse gas emissions come from power plants while about a third comes from transportation. Any activity that cuts back on power usage or reduced use of transportation would have a positive impact.
Using energy efficient electrical appliances including compact fluorescent lights instead of traditional globes would help. In the US energy efficient appliances in more than 50 categories can be identified by their “Energy Star” rating.
Similarly using more fuel-efficient cars or perhaps even reducing the use of cars and opting for more “green” transport methods such a bicycles, using public transport or even walking could help.
Using vehicles that run on renewable fuel sources such as E85 (A fuel containing 85% Ethanol) or bio-diesel.
Ensuring that tire pressures are at appropriate levels and your vehicles engine is tuned to manufacturers specifications would also help reduce fuel consumption.
Switching to greener sources of energy. Using solar power directly where the technology permits. Where there is no option but to use electricity or other traditional energy sources then it may be possible to make this purchase from a supplier who uses green, non fossil fuel sources to produce it.
Planting trees to offset the effects of the carbon dioxide emissions created in the production of the energy and other products one consumes is another alternative. It isn’t necessary to do this oneself. Around the world there are organizations that are gearing up to do this on behalf of the many millions of concerned consumers. So for instance a power company could estimate the greenhouse gases emitted to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity and then allow its customers an opportunity to pay to offset these emissions and become “carbon neutral”.
Other ways of conserving energy would include cutting back on waste thereby saving on the energy that would be expended on replacement of the wasted item – Recycle and reuse whenever possible.
Saving on water consumption – A huge amount of energy is spent on purifying water for consumption so cutting back on water waste will help considerably.
Ensuring you have efficient insulation and that cooling and heating appliances are cleaned and primed to work efficiently.
Although individual actions may seem trivial their cumulative impact worldwide can be literally life changing. It is clear that much can be done at an individual level to control global warming. Although they cannot agree on the magnitude of global warming the overwhelming majority of the scientific community agree that it is a very real problem. The time for action is now! The consequences of doing nothing are just too frightening to comprehend!