Tip of the Week

How about bringing your own bag when you go shopping? There aren't enough people doing this yet. There's a bag ban that's coming up in San Francisco in late November/early December. Philly, Boston, Phoenix, and many other cities are considering them. But the bans need to be universal. There's no excuse for not taking your own bag. Many European nations have required this for years. I gave a friend one of my ChicoBags when she was heading back to Europe recently and she loved it and said that it came in handy because it was so small that she could pop it into her purse, it was lightweight, and it didn't take up space in her suitcase. If people can take a reusable bag while traveling, they can certainly use them at home. Nearly every market is selling reusable bags and there are tons in catalogs and on the internet. There is no excuse for non-use. Besides, the only thing worse than having a zillion plastic bags pile up at home is dumping them out into the environment.

I've watched the arctic tale which made me worry about the endangered arctic animals. I'll take the tips to fight against global warming.

not on the top ten list is my favorite CO2 reducer. Ride a bike! No emissions, no wear and tear on the roads, great for your health, easy on the wallet, commute on a bike and save the price of the gym, no imported oil needed. It does take a bit more time but not nearly as much as you'd think. Try it for a few weeks and you'll hate getting in the car. You'll lose weight, strengthen your heart lungs and legs and feel better for it. By the way... I'm 54 and started riding two years ago, so don't think you're too old.

Three points:

- If I do everything on this list (even though some of it does not apply to me) I will cut out 2.75 tons of CO2. This is only about a 10% reduction. Will a 10% reduction really reverse the affects of so-called human-caused Global Warming? It seems unlikely. In order to reverse the effects, we would need to STOP PRODUCING CO2 entirely and do something to reverse the effects (unless for some crazy reason the Earth could compensate on its own (gasp)).

- So if I beleive humans are cuasing Global Warming, am I to simply take this article's word that these steps I am to take will actual produce the amount of reduction it is saying? What are the formulas used to first calculate I am generating 22 tons of C02, and then what are the formulas are used to calculate the savings for each tip. Lastly, if I do these things, how can I ACTUALLY confirm I am saving this amount of CO2?

- Just to put into perspective how rediculous all this "cutting out CO2" is, you could save .8 tons a year if you stopped breathing (remember you output CO2 just by existing. IS this accounted for in the 22 tons?). If you did that, you would actually be saving the full 22 tons (since you would be dead)! Now that's an elegant solution!

Let's not forget that nuclear power plants produce zero emissions and create electric power in the cheapest way. This includes construction, decommissioning, cleanup, and waste disposal. Further, using the fuel recycling system successfully used in several countries already, the nuclear waste is reduced to less than 5% of that produced by the open cycle system used in the U. S.

Maybe it's been said before, but the tables may turn for the better if we charge extra for using plastic/paper sacks at the grocery store, charge extra in tax and at the pump for gas guzzling automobiles and diesel belching trucks, really add to charges for such heavy carbon loaders as 4 wheelers, jet skis and other "luxury" vehicles.

The LEAD study commissioned by UN and several major countries in 2006 already pointed out that the livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, higher than transport. Be a vegetarian on a large scale would definitely be helpful. This would mean actions at the government level.

Use of renewable energy and planting trees would also be helpful.

It's time to act as the arctic ice is going to disappear soon in a few years' time as point out by NASA scientist Jay Zwally in December 2007 .. "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions." Jay Zwally, NASA, Assoc. Press. ...

http://neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov/calendar/calfiles/ICESat1.ppt

Where I live, I'm amazed to see people still cutting down trees becuase they're inconvienient. I think the Feds should establish a problem to require 5% of all agricultural land returned to trees. Sure it doesn't ultimately remove the CO2, but it would serve as a buffer and help buy us some time.

I gotta point out that a.christian's "Let's think about this... " posted by a.christian on 2008-02-11 11:10:49 is right in one big way: the little things are pretty insignificant. As a.christian says "would need to STOP PRODUCING CO2 entirely and do something to reverse the effects". But rather than smirk and ridicule the millions upon millions who see a need & opportunity to improve the way human beings behave, these little things are the beginnings of a mental shift, a change of perspective.

And this is a starting point for human beings to become far more connected to the way a living world works than we have come to be over these past couple of centuries of anomalous behavior. How is this not a very good thing? Isn't this where our cosmology and DNA understanding and psychology and creativity in the arts, and so on have been driving us all along?

I find it sadly amusing that a.christian feels so disconnected from this existence we call "the world". Look at how our relationship to it is criticized: ... "(unless for some crazy reason the Earth could compensate on its own (gasp))." ... as though somehow by acting in compassion with the earth and its living systems we are denying nature its own strengths. Alas. Does a.christian truly not realize that WE are a part of that very Earth !?!

Ah, well. These are going to be tough times in the coming decades, and centuries. Best to set aside these minor differences and get on with setting ourselves into some kind of oneness with the Earth.

P.S. My Tip #11: it is BUILDINGS which consume the majority of our energy and produce the majority of our CO2 (out of the various sectors of activity in which humans are engaged). We spend over 90 percent of our lives INSIDE them, and we keep adding more power-consuming gear to them at a faster rate than we improve their efficiencies. So take this on: question every act of building, of transportation systems, plants, offices & residential construction. Instead ask: why must we do this? Can we not spend half the money instead on renovations, improved infrastructure, distributed power generation and turn waste management into a resource loop i.e. Waste Equals Food, as in all the rest of nature. Gradually by improving the quality of life on this planet people will have fewer offspring, so the rate of producing more stuff will also diminish. Go on, read one of the excellent treatises on this, such as Paul Hawken or Wendell Berry or see "The Story of Stuff".

and for all of us, just buy less STUFF, reuse what we buy or already have, share instead of "own and rarely use" all that other stuff.

Be at peace with your selves, and thus with all else.

I actually took my spring break to try and find ways to improve the mpg of my truck and I wrote about it on a blog @ greenergas.blogspot.com... I hope some of the information is helpful, it was a really fun side project and I think a lot of people could use it to their advantage.

Cheers, Justin

National Geographic shame on you for subscribing to popular consenus and not science. As an earth scientist I am saddened by the new communism of global warming eventually all these "tips" will be government mandates and people who jumped on this bandwagon will wonder where their freedoms went.

National Geographic shame on you for subscribing to popular consenus and not science. As an earth scientist I am saddened by the new communism of global warming eventually all these "tips" will be government mandates and people who jumped on this bandwagon will wonder where their freedoms went.

...for only thinking about what "rights" may be taken from you. What right do we have to destroy our earth by caring more about our "freedoms" than life? We are all just trying to do our part to help - in whatever small and insignificant way we can. And yes, I'm an earth scientist too.

Please add to your list leaking air ducts, where the average house has a 30% energy loss through leaky air ducts that need to be professionally sealed. Also many house have "semiheated" spaces: furnace rooms, utility rooms, walls adjecent to attached garages, that have no insulation whatsoever. Payback on insulating these spaces is less than one year!

Kill all the humans!!! let animals sort them out! I don't know,lol STOP FARTING! ;-)