Global Warming: A Reality and What We Can Do About It

Don’t let the cartoon mislead you, Global Warming is no laughing matter. Many people, myself included, have heard about in passing and never attempted to know about it greater detail. That was until I saw An Inconvenient Truth.

We have all heard those jokes about Al Gore and his Global Warming documentary. Jay Leno said “According to Time magazine, global warming is 33% worse than we thought. You know what that means? Al Gore is one-third more annoying than we thought.” On his Daily Show, Jon Stewart said “If any of you at home are wondering about the former vice president’s seeming largess, I will have you know, he has not gained weight. He is so passionate about saving this Earth, he is trying not to exhale. … Here’s an inconvenient truth: cake isn’t a food group.” In spite of all the humor around it, Global warming remains a serious problem. The average temperate of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans has been increasing in the recent decades and will continue to do so if we don’t do anything about it. But many of us are unaware of what we can do to help. So that’s what this blog is for!

Here is a list of 10 simple things (source: www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/) we can do to help …

1. Use less hot water
   It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.
2. Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
   Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
3. Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
   Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million to
   
4. Buy recycled paper products
   It takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests worldwide.ns of carbon into the atmosphere every year!
5. Plant a tree
   A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%. The Arbor Day Foundation has information on planting and provides trees you can plant with membership.
6. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
   Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.
7. Eat less meat
   Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.
8. Buy organic foods as much as possible
   Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!
9. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
   You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.
10. Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
    Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has more tips for saving energy on heating and cooling.

(For more ways to help Click Here)

Every little change we make will accumulate to make a huge global change. True, Climate Change is a global crisis, but its cure starts with every individual. Its my resolution to make those changes, and I intend to keep it. What about you?