What You Can Do to Help Solve the Climate Crisis

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This is the most frequently published photograph in history; it is the last picture taken by a human from space and is the only photo we have in which the Earth is fully illuminated instead of partially shrouded in darkness. NASA

Excerpted from An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, by Al Gore (Rodale, 2006), available wherever books are sold.

When considering a problem as vast as global warming, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. But we need to resist that response, because this crisis will get resolved only if we as individuals take responsibility. By educating ourselves and others, by doing our part to minimize our use and waste of resources, by becoming more politically active and demanding change — in these ways and many others, each of us can make a difference.

Below you’ll find a range of practical steps anyone can take to reduce the stress our high-tech lives exert on the natural world. As we incorporate these ideas into our lives, we may find that not only are we contributing to a global solution, we are also making our lives better. Using less electricity and fuel, for example, saves money. More walking and biking improve our health; eating locally grown produce brings enhanced taste and nutrition; breathing cleaner air is energizing and healing; and creating a world of restored natural balance ensures a future for our children and grandchildren.

One way to begin making a difference is to learn how the way we live impacts our global environment. The average American is responsible for about 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions each year. This per capita number is greater than that of any other industrialized country.

To calculate how much CO₂ you produce, visit www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction. Armed with this information, you can take effective action and work toward living a carbon-neutral life.

Save Energy at Home

For most Americans, the easiest and most immediate opportunities to reduce emissions can be found right in their own homes. Most greenhouse gas emissions that originate in the home are a product of the fossil fuels burned to generate electricity and heat. Saving energy is not only a good thing to do for the climate crisis: It can also translate to real cost savings. Choosing energy-efficient alternatives for the home can help families cut their energy bills by as much as a third, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by a similar amount.

ENERGY-EFFICIENT LIGHTING
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reduce your energy use and costs is to replace regular incandescent light bulbs with superefficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). While CFLs cost more upfront, they last up to 10,000 hours — 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs — and use 66 percent less energy. You can buy CFLs at just about any hardware or retail store.