On global warming and you

10 May 2006

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

I love the scientific ins and outs, really I do, but what oh what can we do about global warming? And I mean us ordinary folks with a house and mortgage and some percentage point of kids and a few compact fluorescents and maybe even a hybrid in the driveway. We're right there with you, so please don't leave us hanging.

Peter Kelley
College Park, Md.

Ask Umbra continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

Dearest Peter,

Right. Sorry. I got frowny last month, and forgot to put a "we can do it!" sheen on everything. (Which reminds me -- has anyone else noticed that everything in mainstream grocery stores looks shellacked? The food, of course, but especially the magazines. They use some new super-shiny cover paper, and it's creeping me out.)

Make yourself heard.

Photo: iStockphoto.

Basically, all the activities we are advised to do, and which I earnestly pass on to you in various witty or boring ways, are related to global warming. Things like driving less, driving efficient vehicles, replacing light bulbs (this truly does make a difference, it's not just thrown in as a less-overwhelming choice), buttoning down the house, and replacing appliances are our household-level choices if we own homes and cars.

But we should also get politically active. We can write to government officials and to companies -- letters such as, "Dear Power and Light Company, I wish I could buy green energy from you and I know 200 friends who feel the same way," or "Dear Representative Smooshbug, you can be assured that no one in my precinct will vote for you unless you work to improve CAFE standards this year, with love, your newly appointed precinct officer." If you're not sure what to say, check out the letter-writing campaigns run by local and national organizations. Most states, including yours, have a League of Conservation Voters, or a local group dedicated to climate-change issues, such as your Chesapeake Climate Action Network. The national organizations from which I constantly steal data -- the Union of Concerned Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Defense -- all have "action" areas on their sites, and will gladly welcome you to their ranks. You know other groups, too, I'm sure.

Same old, same old, right? Here's one more: the workplace. No, two more: the workplace and the municipality. Workplace energy efficiency will help with carbon emissions if you are at a traditional office. If your business involves making objects or driving places, there's even more room for improvement. No advice will fit all workplace situations, but volunteering to lead a team-based energy audit of the office and propose efficiency (read: money-saving) improvements should be met with gladness in most businesses. The feds offer tips at their energy-efficiency and Energy Star sites.

Also, as you may have read, our Emerald City of Seattle is leading a Kyoto-inspired greenhouse-gas reduction effort at the city level. Municipalities across the country have joined the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and perhaps you can goad yours to join too. Scope it out. Power to the people.

Seattlely,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (5 comments)

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Buy Clean Power

You can find out how to do this, state by state (some states you have to buy offsets - which do reduce GHGs and promote development of more renewables - instead of the power) by going to www.renewUS.org.

Just another resource.

Bill B.

by bburtis at 1:55 PM on 10 May 2006

"Bagginses! We hates them forever!"

Some lovely ideas here. Remember also green rooves, which are catching on in big cities; Chicago is apparently in the forefront in NA.

(Rooves -- you know, the tops of buildings. The plural of roof. Or is that too Tolkienish a form? But Tolkien himself is said to have said, when his word "dwarves" was challenged as not being in the dictionary, "I wrote the Oxford English Dictionary." A slight exaggeration, but only slight.)

Businesses will have to figure out for themselves whether the research and implementation of any let's-make-the-office-green project will be worth the hours of dedication of salaried employees doing the research and implementation. My own back-of-an-envelope calculation suggests they should have no problem.

But all the same, we should all consider ourselves as Ring-bearers: hoping against hope, we continue on toward Mount Doom, with our ever increasing burden, knowing however that we are doing the right thing. And, hopefully, we have a Samwise Gamgee looking out for us.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 4:00 PM on 10 May 2006

Climate Change and You

Each one of us has the potential to make a significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Umbra lists several worthy ideas, you can also get some pretty good ideas from May's "Vanity Fair" of all places. Undertaking as many of these simple lifestyle changes as possible will dramatically reduce our individual carbon footprint.

If you want to do more, you can engage your city in an effort to reduce emissions from its municipal operations. Cities are listening to their residents and are responding. Why? Because becoming more energy efficient saves them a ton of money. Energy for heating, lighting, cooling, and vehicle fleets are significant costs for all cities.

People all around the country are urging their cities take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If you want to learn about how that is being done, contact us at KyotoUSA (kyotousa@sbcglobal.net) and we'll describe what has worked for us. If you want to get your hands on some good organizing material check out the Sierra Club's Cool Cities program (http://coolcities.us/).

This is a very do-able approach to making significant reductions in greenhouse gases and raising public awarenenss. In fact, it's the one place where we can all make one hell of a difference.

Tom Kelly
KyotoUSA

Tom Kelly

by kyotousa at 4:36 PM on 10 May 2006

Nothing ...

... substitutes for political engagement.

grist.org

by David Roberts at 4:39 PM on 10 May 2006

Consider the costs of war to the environment

Make sure the military is held to environmental standards in American and abroad (I hesitate to say US standards, because they are not always the highest standards anymore).

Want to see energy wasted and large chunks of the environment destroyed? Nothing like an invasion to really damage a large chunk of the planet quickly.

Demand the US government spend money on environmental cleanup in places where we have damaged the environment with our military.

patrick

by bookerly at 6:03 PM on 10 May 2006

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