For the Sake of Our Children and the Grands

Sisters showing how much we should value this earth

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that periodically summarizes climate science, concluded:

ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct. The oceans are rising at a pace that threatens coastal communities and are becoming more acidic as they absorb some of the carbon dioxide given off by cars and power plants, which is killing some creatures or stunting their growth.

Why should/shouldn't you care about this? If you love a child: your own, your grandchildren, your neighbor's, your niece or nephew or any child you heart, then do care deeply about the devastation that is climate change. The concern scientists have been ringing an alarm bell to deaf ears for years and now things are becoming critical. Daily species are becoming extinct and worse, our water and food supply are being threatened. Don't the nay sayers to climate change read the reports by credible scientists?

As any of you know that read my blog I am solution oriented and don't appreciate it when negative articles are written with no solutions being offered. So I will start with the obvious solutions:

1. Have smaller families. Zero population growth can help keep the looming catastrophe at bay.
2. Ride a bike or make a supreme effort to drive smaller vehicles less often. Use public transportation.
3. Fight the big companies who are trying to import coal around the world. This is one of the big problems in China, the air quality is literally killing their population and still they want more coal. No.
4. Fly less often, it is a great user of fossil fuels.

This is from the Union of Concern Scientists:

1. The car you drive: the most important personal climate decision.When you buy your next car, look for the one with the best fuel economy in its class. Each gallon of gas you use is responsible for 25 pounds of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Better gas mileage not only reduces global warming, but will also save you thousands of dollars at the pump over the life of the vehicle. Upgrading from a 20 mpg car to a 40 mpg car can save you 4,500 gallons of gasoline over the car’s life span. At today’s gas prices, that’s a total savings of more than $18,000. 
2. Make your house more air tight. Even in reasonably tight homes, air leaks may account for 15 to 25 percent of the heat our furnaces generate in winter or that our homes gain in summer. If you pay $1,100 a year to heat and cool your home, you might be wasting as much as $275 annually. Take advantage of the free home energy audits offered by many utilities, which can help you identify (and reduce) the most significant air leaks.
3. Buy and USE a programmable thermostat. This can reduce your heating and cooling emissions by 15 percent and save you $180 a year. During the summer, a setting of 78 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal during the hours you are at home, and 85 degrees when you are away during the day.
4. Eat less meat, especially beef. Food accounts for a sizable portion of our emissions. If you want to make cuts here, your best option is to reduce your consumption of meat, especially beef. That’s because a pound of beef is responsible for some 18 times the emissions of a pound of pasta. An average family of four that decides to cut their meat intake in half could avoid roughly three tons of emissions annually. Learn more about the effects of your meat choices. 
5. Use power strips in your home office and home entertainment center. These will curb “phantom loads” and save a surprising amount on your electric bill. Keeping your laser printer turned on when not in use could be costing you as much as $130 annually. Learn more about power strips and other smart tools for saving energy.
6. Upgrade your refrigerator and air conditioner, especially if they are more than five years old. New ones are twice as efficient or more. For fridges: if they’re old an upgrade can pay for itself in as little as three years in energy savings alone. Look for the Energy Star label when you shop for a new fridge or any other appliance, especially freezers, furnaces, air conditioners, and water heaters, which use the most energy). These items may cost a bit more initially, but the energy savings will pay back the extra investment within a couple of years.
7. Get an electricity monitor.Identify where the energy hogs are in your home, which can help you save hundreds of dollars annually. Electricity monitors can be found at most hardware store or you may even be able to borrow one from your local library.
8. Change those light bulbs. New LED light bulbs can give the same light for 15 percent the electricity. That adds up to more than $100 in savings for most families each year. 
9. Wash clothes in cold water. They get just as clean with today’s detergents. But hot water washes use five times the energy—and create five times the emissions. This could save you nearly $100 a year.
10. Buy less stuff. Reduce, re-use, and recycle—it’s not just about pollution, but the strategy will lower your emissions too and help combat global warming.
11. Let policy makers know you are concerned about global warming. Our elected officials and business leaders need to hear from concerned citizens. Sign up for the Union of Concerned Scientists Action Network to ensure that policymakers get the timely, accurate information they need to make informed decisions about global warming solutions.
12. Spread the word. If all Americans reduced their emissions by 20 percent we could shutter 200 of the nation’s 600 coal plants, a great step in fighting the worst consequences of climate change.

Obviously I'm on board for spreading the word. If you are feeling negative or helpless about the state of the world, get active. Don't just sit there, do something...

Our beautiful earth deserves the best as do the world's children

susansmagicfeather copyright 2014 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved