What an average person can do to slow down out of control Global Warming
1, Use Less Electricity.Most of the electricity that is sent to your house is produced by burning fossil fuels like Coal, Oil and Natural gas. The more you use, the more fossil fuels are burned to create that electricity. The burning of these fuels creates Carbon Dioxide CO2. CO2 is a Greenhouse Gas which acts like a barrier to thermal radiation while allowing the higher frequency radiation, light, to freely pass through. Simply put, visible light passes through CO2 unhindered, falls on the earth, people, pavement, roof tops, lakes and oceans etc. These things absorb the light and get warm and release this warmth in the form of lower frequency Thermal Radiation. CO2 is opaque to Thermal Radiation thus, it can't escape back out into space. The result? The temperature of our environment goes up. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more energy is trapped. CO2 is not the only Greenhouse Gas but it is the most abundent. BTW, Glass is also a very efficient substance for allowing light to freely pass but it's not very transparent to thermal energy. This is why a Greenhouse is made of glass.
Here's how to use less Electricity;
Turn lights off when they're not needed, same with ceiling fans. My house has 2 outside lamp posts. 1 is halfway up the driveway and the other is by the back corner of the house. They have a sensor which turns them on when it starts getting dark out in the evening and they go out when the daylight reappears the next day. They are very convenient for when you come home late at night. The bad part is they light up my bedroom like it was broad daylight so in order to get some sleep I have the close the blinds. That's not the worst part. Are you ready for this? Each lamp post has a 500 watt bulb. So they are normally on for 9 hours a night. Do the math, 500X2X9 = 9000 watts a day, 7 days a week. That comes to 3,285,000 Watts a year, 3 Million, 285 Thousand Watts. And guess who pays for that? It didn't take me long to unscrew the bulbs from these 2 lamp posts. If I need lots of light outside at night for whatever, I just reach up and screw the bulb(s) back in and the light comes on.
Comments (9)
My well water has a slight amber color due to a lot of Iron in the water. I doubt I will ever suffer from Iron deficiency anemia.
Waayyy too little, Waayyy too late...
Anything done now is merely rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic.
One way of looking at it -
Global Warming is NOT the problem.
Global Industrial Civilization is the problem.
Global Warming is the solution.
I have a couple of indoor/outdoor Thermometers and when the Sun goes down and the outside temp falls below inside, I open all my windows. I do the opposite in the morning. I have a box fan if it gets hot and if it gets very hot I'll turn on the AC for about an hour to lower the temp inside. My electric bill runs around $35.00 a month. There was a woman behind me online as I paid my elect bill she observed my transaction and exclaimed "Man I wish my electric bill was 36.50 a month instead of $200." I just smiled as I walked past her on my way out.
Wearing a sweater inside and using an extra blanket or two in the winter is another.
Additionally planting trees around the house contributes on several levels.
They help shade the home from sun rays, thus keeping the home cooler in the summer
and it helps block cold winds a bit in the winter. They also help convert carbon dioxide to
oxygen. There's also the added visual appeal especially in autumn (foliage color changes)
and spring (for flowering varieties). They give curb appeal, which can translate to higher sale prices and greater pride in ownership for the occupants. If one also plants fruit bearing trees that can yield more benefits, as the owner becomes less dependent on fruits of a less than organic upbringing and save purchase costs which in part involve energy consumed in transportation too.