How You Can Stop Global Warming

Additional Information

Read More About Chosing A Carbon Offset Provider.
• A good report from cleanair-coolplanet has come out recently regarding how to choose a carbon offset provider. We highly recommend reading this if you decide to fund a project independently of our site.
What is a REC? (renewable energy certificate) What is the difference between a REC and a carbon offset?
• When green energy is produced it can be abstractly thought of being composed of two components:
  1. The energy itself. But "green" energy is no different from "regular" energy – in both cases the energy is composed of electronic charges.
  2. The "greenness" of the energy – that is the fact that less or no carbon was generated in the production of the energy.
• Each of these components can be sold separately – the energy can be sold to the power grid to be used by homes or business, and the "greenness" of the energy (i.e. the lack of carbon production) can be sold as a renewable energy certificate (REC).
• A renewable energy certificate (REC) is a certificate representing the environmental attributes of 1 MWh (megawatt hour, i.e. the use of 1 megawatt of energy for 1 hour) of electricity produced by a renewable energy source.
• However, it is sometimes difficult to determine the equivalence of a REC versus the electricity you use. For example, if you live in California, where a portion of the energy in the state is product by natural gas you may be generating less CO2 per megawatt hour then if you lived in a state which burns more coal, which products more CO2 then natural gas.
• Therefore, buying a REC for an equivalent amount of energy used in each stats does not actually offset the proper amount of carbon relative to what you use. So when becoming carbon neutral, it is frequently better to focus on the tons of carbon you prevent from entering the atmosphere, rather then the amount of renewable energy in megawatt hours that you help produce.
What is the right way to measure environmental impact of your actions? Do RECs accurately reflect your impact?
• We think one of the more straightforward ways to compare environmental impact is by looking at the tons of CO2 offset or an equivalent thereof (for example methane, another greenhouse gas generated agriculturally, has approximately 4X the greenhouse impact of carbon per ton).
• Thinking of impact in terms of tons of carbon emitted, instead of RECs (which are green megawatt hours of electricity) allows you to have a common standard to assess your impact. Other approaches are less comparable. For example, if you live in California, where a portion of the energy in the state is product by natural gas you may be generating less CO2 per megawatt hour then if you lived in a state which burns more coal, which products more CO2 then natural gas. Therefore, buying a REC for an equivalent amount of energy used in each stats does not actually offset the proper amount of carbon relative to what you use.

Easy Tips For Making A Difference

You don't need to make all the changes listed below to have an impact on decreasing greenhouse gases. We suggest you choose 1-2 changes to begin with and build from there. For example, changing the light bulbs in your home, or carpooling more frequently are both great ways to start to make a difference for global warming.

Electricity & appliances

• Turn off home electronics.
  • Turn off your lights, computer, television and other appliances when you are not using them. Make sure to turn off the lights as you leave a room. This will not only help save energy – it will also save you money.
• Unplug appliances and home electronics or use a power strip.
  • Up to 5% of your electricity bill may be due to appliances that soak up energy while turned off but not in use. This includes your TV, computer, cell phone charger, and stereo. Easier still, plug all the appliances into a power strip and turn the power strip off.
• Buy efficient appliances
  • Don't buy an appliance that is larger then what you need. The extra large refrigerator is likely to help contribute to an extra large energy bill.
• Look for Energy Star products.
  • Energy Star products use less energy then their standard counterparts. You can find energy efficient TVs, fridges, air conditioners and much more.

Lighting

• Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs).
  • Lighting can account for up to 12% of consumer home use of energy. CFLs not only use significantly less energy – they can last 15 times as long as a normal light bulb and save you money. To calculate your potential energy (and dollar!) savings check out this calculator
• Turn off lights, use dimmers or motion sensors.
  • The easiest way to decrease energy usage of lighting is to turn off the lights when you are not using them! You can get into the habit of turning of lights as you leave the room, use dimmers to decrease lighting to the levels actually needed, or use motion sensors in your yard to ensure the lights only go on when needed.

Heating

• Turn your thermostat up 2 degrees during the summer and down 2 degrees during the winter.
  • This wont make much of a difference to your activities or comfort level, but will save a lot of energy and money – a few degrees in either direction can save you a few % off of your electricity bill.

Laundry

• Use cold cycle for laundry.
  • By using cold water for your laundry you can save the energy that would have heated your water.
• Air dry your clothes.
  • Similarly, drying your clothes on a fold out clothes rack or other surface saves energy compared to using a dryer.

Buy green energy from your power company

• Many power companies now offer for you to pay a little more in order to get greener energy – for example to have subset of your energy generated by wind power. Contact your local power company to learn more.

Recycling

• Buy things with less packaging.
  • Less packaging means less weight which means it likely cost less energy to transport the item to a local store. Less packaging is also environmentally friendly for other reasons such as less junk to go into a landfill.

Fix It Up Around The House.

These home improvement tips can help reduce your energy costs.
• Install solar panels.
  • Some states such as California have programs where the installation of solar panels is subsidized. Use solar panels to decrease your long term energy bill and help make the world a cooler place.
• Seal windows and doors.
  • During the winter, heat can leak out under the crack of doors or poorly sealed or thin windows. You can caulk the cracks around your windows or close the gap under your doors to help insulate your home – keeping it warm and less of an energy hog.
• Plant trees.
  • Trees help to absorb carbon out of the atmosphere over the long term, as well as the shade of a tree can help cool your home during the summer decreasing AC needs.

Driving tips.

You can save hundreds of dollars per year by adopting these driving tips.
• Drive less often.
  • The less you drive the less carbon you emit, and the more money you save on gas.
• Carpool.
  • Share a ride to work, school, to the gym or on nights out with friends.
• Telecommute.
  • Work from home 1 day every two weeks and decrease your energy consumption.
• Ride your bike or walk.
  • Riding your bike or walking a work is a great way to save gas as well as to keep in good shape.
• Drive less aggressively.
  • Rapid acceleration and deceleration can decrease gas mileage by 33% on the freeway and 5% in the city. This can cost you an extra $250 per year.
• Drive slower.
  • Driving 5 miles per hour faster then the maximum speed limit can cause a 6% decrease in fuel efficiency.
• Stop idling your car.
  • If you idle for more then 10 seconds consider turning the engine off completely. Otherwise you are expending energy while just sitting there.
• Trade in that SUV.
  • Downsize your car from a gas guzzling SUV to a more compact fuel efficient model.
• Buy a hybrid.
  • Hybrid cars will help you use less energy per mile and save you money on gas.

Travel Tips

• Fly less.
  • Flights can be one of your biggest individual contributors to CO2 production and global warming. By flying less, you can decrease your greenhouse gas generation. Click here to buy a flight offset.

The science of global warming

What is global warming?

Global warming has been definitively linked by the worlds leading climate scientists to human activity.
• Global warming is an ongoing increase in the earth's temperature due to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) which are generated by non-renewable energy sources such as gas and oil. CO2 and other gasses trap heat from sunlight in our atmosphere, warming the planet. This means the more "non-green" energy you consume, the more greenhouse gas pollution you generate, and the more temperatures will continue to rise.
• Every year, a portion of the CO2 in the atmosphere is absorbed by plants and other photosynthetic life in the world’s oceans. However the current amount of CO2 emitted every year by humans into the atmosphere is more than plant and other life can absorb. This means that if we decrease the amount of CO2 we emit every year to levels close to what plants and other life absorb, we can reverse the global warming trend by removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. If you and others like you reduce your use of non-renewable energy sources we can reverse the climate threatening trend we are now on.

Impact of global warming to our planet

Health

• Global warming is leading to an increase of incidence of certain existing diseases, such as asthma, as well as hotter temperatures are influencing the emergence of diseases to new areas, such as the 1993-1994 hantavirus in the US and the emergence of yellow fever in new parts of Columbia. The World Health Organization estimates that in the year 2000 global warming caused 6% of malaria in some middle-income countries.
• Asthma induced by smog is likely to increase with global warming. Smog caused damage to, and inflammation of our lungs and respiratory system, which in some cases leads to asthma attacks. Smog is generated when stagnant air, heat, and sunlight combine with nitrogen oxides to form a variety of volatile chemical compounds. Hotter days each more days with the right conditions for smog to form, leading to more asthma attacks and therefore more hospitalizations.

Destructive Weather

• Hurricanes. Scientists believe that global warming is contributing to more, stronger storms around the world leading to loss of lives and billions of dollars in property damages. An example is tropical storms and hurricanes in the gulf region of the United States, such as Hurricane Katrina, which create billions of dollars of damage and the loss of many lives.
• Heat waves:
  • With rising temperatures will also come an increase in heat waves which can kill ten of thousands of people and have severe economic consequences to a country’s agricultural base. For example, the 2003 heat wave in Western Europe resulted in 27,000 deaths including 14,000 deaths in France alone. The related drought and wild fires generated $14.7 billion in losses to the European countries affected. Similarly, India was also hit be a massive heat wave in 2003 with 1,200 people dead. Global warming increase the likelihood of these catastrophic events.

Severe Droughts:

• Severe droughts will follow. Agricultural land will be destroyed due to extreme temperatures and a lack of rain/precipitation. For example, in 2003 Italy experienced an 18% decrease in wine production due to drought.

Environmental Catastrophes

• Extinctions of species:
  • One estimate states a million species may go extinct by 2050 due to global warming (2). Scientists have found dramatic declines have already occurred in certain amphibian populations (which are considered a "canary in the coal mine" or early indicator of ecosystem danger for many ecosystems). Similarly, polar bears have increasingly become endangered as polar ice melts and more and more bears drown as they need to swim farther to reach ice shelves.
• Rising coastlines:
  • As Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland-based ice melts due to increased temperatures, ocean levels will rise. Greenland alone has enough ice to raise sea levels by 7 meters globally (21 feet!) which would lead to parts of the worlds current coastlines (for example, parts of California, the Netherlands, etc.) to be underwater. There is still debate about the rate at which this change will occur. However, it is clear that major glaciers are receding due to higher temperatures, and that cracks are emerging in the arctic ice shelf as it begins to melt.

Read More

General information about climate change and global warming:

http://www.carbon-financeonline.com/

http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.fightglobalwarming.org/

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/

http://www.ghgprotocol.org/templates/GHG5/layout.asp?MenuID=849/

http://www.pewclimate.org/

http://www.wri.org/

Facts and figures:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=global_footprint

http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/

How to choose a carbon offset provider:

http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/default.asp

http://www.realclimate.org/