PLEASE SHARE
ELECTRONICALLY ♻ DO NOT PRINT[1] Revision: Sunday, December 5, 2021
Personal Environmental Action Plan
Web
Page: https://www.goese.com/environment/action_plan/environmental_action_plan.htm
Download
PDF: https://goese.com/downloads/environment/How_to_Stop_Global_Warming-Prioritized_List.pdf
Author:
Dan Goese
(humanist, cyclist, engineer, former marketing pro, environmental activist,
pseudoscience critic)
DO NOT FEEL HOPELESS!!
Your votes, habits, choices & activism
all have a real impact on the
environment & our future.
🐝 The livelihood of
that bee you saw dying on the sidewalk is more crucial than you might think!
About
This Document
I’ll
bet you do NOT like being told what to do. Please think of this as a list of ideas
that I hope you’ll consider, appreciate and share. Many people suffer from
environmental anxiety, which is worsened when lobbyists and corrupt politicians
push governments in the wrong direction to support coal, fracking, and drilling
for oil in parks and natural preserves. When dealing with anxiety, the
impulse to do something proactive is a very healthy thing. This list is
provided to help anyone who wants to do something about climate change,
deforestation, pollution, and the resultant loss of biodiversity. If the list
helps you think about this issue more frequently in a positive, proactive way,
we’re already making progress!
For
an effective change to the alarming trends in...
·
concentrations of atmospheric carbon
dioxide (CO₂)
& a long list of pollutants[2]
·
global warming
·
ocean acidification & the loss of
coral reefs
·
the growing loss of biodiversity (i.e. thousands of species going extinct)
·
deforestation
...dramatic change is needed
ASAP at all levels of government practices,
policies, research funding and legislation (regulations, incentives,
conservation) and the corporate/industrial
world (environmental options like renewable energy/materials, reducing other
harmful gas emissions, more effective carbon sequestration methods). However, your individual actions can help, and certainly won’t hurt! According
to the EPA, transportation and electricity generation are roughly tied for
“first place” in the generation of harmful greenhouse gasses. You can
personally have an impact on both of these sources of CO₂ emissions. Climate
change repercussions will ultimately cause more deaths than the coronavirus
COVID-19 strain, but because it is emerging so slowly over many years, getting
people mobilized to fight this threat is a bigger challenge. We have already
started a warming trend we cannot stop, so much of what needs to be done now is
to help accommodate the human race in this “new” harsh environment.
These
ideas for an action plan (starting below)—suitable for every adult in every
developed country on the planet—are listed in order of impact and practicality.[3]
1. Vote for political
candidates who make the mitigation of global warming a top political agenda
and are willing to turn that agenda into action and laws that force us all to
make the necessary changes. Find and support those candidates and politicians
here: https://www.givegreen.com/
Governments and corporations must actively move to more environmental, carbon-negative
policies. This is not always the “popular” path. Many industries lobby politicians
to make laws and policies that are immutably bad for the environment...only because
they’re profitable for corporations. Individual efforts alone will not be enough to avoid a
“highly probable” environmental apocalypse before the year 2150. Research
the candidates you can vote for, and make your local, state and federal choices
accordingly. If you don’t have time to do the research, it’s generally a safe bet that the
Democratic candidate is more environmentally attuned than the
Republican one is. I’m very happy to have a Congressional representative (Scott
Peters) who worked as an environmental attorney for 15 years and now works in
Congress to fight against the terribly anti-environmental policies that Spanky
Bonespurs (Donald tRump) and his cabinet members are pursuing to keep the
fossil fuel industry happy. I wrote about Congressman Peters in my blog at www.EnvironmentalApocalypse.com
after attending a town hall meeting where he addressed environmental concerns.
He also agreed during that meeting to have a separate meeting with attendees
from www.350.org
to focus on solutions. Since that meeting he
introduced the bipartisan, bicameral “Super Pollutants Act,” which would
protect methane (CH₄)
regulations that the Trump Administration is trying to roll back. (Methane is a
much worse greenhouse gas than CO₂ is.) Even your local candidates can
have a big impact. For example, in our local city council elections this year,
one of the candidates is listening to rich constituents (with nothing but
first-world problems) complain about electric scooters proliferating around
town. To get their votes, he’s proclaiming that he’ll outlaw them. I’ve seen
how these scooters—which will never cause the traffic congestion or pollution
that cars do—help those who can’t afford a car or can’t find sufficient parking
help citizens travel short distances (e.g. from mass
transit depot to class). These scooters are a progressive part of an evolving
transportation system that this particular politician wants to outlaw so people
have to use cars to get anywhere. Learn more about helping environmentally conscious political candidates
at the website provided by the League of Conservation Voters at https://www.lcv.org/
and review a history of how legislatures are voting on their scorecard here. http://scorecard.lcv.org/
2.
Learn
more & spread the word. Read, watch, and
learn more about the climate crisis and our environment. Spread the word by
talking with others and joining protests to bring more attention to (and action
on) the dire situation we’ve gotten ourselves into. The more you learn about
humanity’s environmental impact, the more you’ll want to do about it. Share this list
by copying this link and sending it in emails and texts to people you know...
https://goese.com/downloads/environment/How_to_Stop_Global_Warming-Prioritized_List.pdf
Become an effective environmental evangelist, but in a gentle way that won’t
make people avoid you. (Remember that it’s not everyone’s #1 concern...yet.)
With friends and family who will listen, share what you’re learning about our
ecosystem and biodiversity. Share your ideas on how we can all have an impact.
We can do more with a larger army. You can decide for yourself where you stand
on the causes of global warming if you keep an open mind while exploring films
and publications. No matter what contributes the most to the current warming
trend, the fallout from ongoing climate change has been observable for decades.
Here are my current recommendations:
▶
WATCH: Chasing Coral, a
Netflix documentary. https://www.chasingcoral.com/
As a scuba diver I’ve noticed the death of coral reefs over the decades, but I
didn’t realize how widespread the issue is. This film discusses the cause and
ultimate effects of this global loss. Coral reefs are like the “canary in the
coal mine” of our entire ecosystem.
▶
READ: The Uninhabitable Earth,
by David Wallace-Wells. Time will tell if the dire predictions in this book are
exaggerated, but so many of the “climate change” effects of global warming
described by the author are self-evident and already covered in the news. The
“alarmist” accusations by some critics[4] of
the book may turn out to be valid, but the author acknowledges the
multidimensional complexity and controversies surrounding the topic. I hope the
predictions about what the world will look like in the year 2100 are way too
pessimistic. If not, millions if not billions of lives will be lost, and our
great grandchildren will be fighting for their lives, wondering why we didn’t
do more to reverse the current warming trend...even if it was entirely caused
by nature! No matter the cause of the warming, the warming has been the cause
of four out of the five mass extinctions that have taken place on earth.[5]
▶
STUDY IN DEPTH: Biodiversity and Climate Change:
Transforming the Biosphere (2019 edition), by Thomas E. Lovejoy, Lee Hannah, and
Edward O. If you care about the plants and animals and don’t mind reading a
textbook-like tome, this is for you. Wilson adheres to non-alarmist (but still
very scary), dry, peer-reviewed scientific review of what has already happened
and what is very likely going to happen to all the species in our ecosystem as
the climate continues to change. If you’re studying the effects of climate
change, this reference work should be in your library.
3.
Minimize
waste.
This is an overriding theme to keep in mind if you don’t read any further down
this list. If you’re mindful of the energy, material and water you consume,
you’ll be doing future generations a favor. Examples include:
a. Food
— Don’t buy or cook more than you consume. It takes a great deal of energy and
water to deliver that food to your kitchen. Compost food byproducts (e.g. eggshells, banana peels, apple cores) to use in your garden
if you’re fortunate enough to have one.
b. Water
— Don’t leave the water running when you’re not using it, even if you live
where there is no water shortage. It takes energy to filter, process and deliver
your cold water, not to mention the energy that goes into your hot water.
c. Electricity
— Turn the lights/AC/heat off when you’re not directly using them.
d. Gasoline
— If you can turn your car off when you’re waiting for someone or reading
messages on your phone in a parking lot, please do.
4. Eat less meat.
Or eat no meat at all. Meat of all kinds requires a lot of energy and water to
produce, and beef is the heftiest offender. I highly recommend watching two
movies that have had a profound effect on what I consume for environmental and
health reasons:
⬛
Forks Over
Knives (2011) https://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/#gs.mjxmrq
⬛
The Game
Changers (2018) https://gamechangersmovie.com/
Due to the huge cow population required to satisfy the world’s demand for beef,
cows are a huge source of methane.[6] Atmospheric[7]
methane (CH₄) is 21 times more potent at
trapping heat from the sun than carbon dioxide (CO₂) is. While methane is less prevalent in the atmosphere than CO₂, it is—per unit—the most destructive
of the so-called “greenhouse gases,” which is a term used
to describe the heat-trapping pollution we have added to our atmosphere,
accelerating earth’s radiative forcing. Radiative [or “climate”] forcing is the
difference between insolation (sunlight) absorbed by the Earth and energy
radiated back to space.
To add to the water/energy/emission faults, global demand for beef has caused
large parcels of the Amazon and other forests/jungles to be sold to ranchers to
raise beef cattle, taking away our second-largest (after the oceans) source of
oxygen generation and CO₂
collection. Without accounting for this horrible deforestation, USDA and other
data show a vegetarian diet leaves about half the carbon
footprint of a “meat lover” diet. Many people think we need animal protein to
function properly. That doesn’t appear to be the case. There are even
professional bike racers who are vegan[8]
and those guys/gals are subjected to insane levels of stress and exertion. If
you want some animal protein in your diet you can get that from eggs and
cheese. Ⓥ After watching Game Changers (the movie), I
decided to switch to a vegan (herbivorous) diet for multiple reasons. If you
have a vegetarian in your family, you probably already know there are
countless, delicious vegetarian recipes and ready-to-heat meals that can make
you and the planet healthier.
5. Donate to family
planning organizations that help men and women around the
world [who do not want to conceive] obtain family planning (birth control)
products & assistance. A 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) study found
that about 214 million women of reproductive age in
developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using a modern
contraceptive method. In some countries, this topic brings us back to
the “vote” action item above. Some religious fundamentalist politicians would
like to outlaw birth control of any kind, which makes no sense to any thinking
person who is interested in ever having sex. Birth control is the most profound
way a woman can retain control of her body and her life. Capitalists who want a
“bigger economy” (read: more customers) also find ways to fight family
planning.
a. Population growth is the #1 contributor
to our destruction of the environment.
b. Countries,
states and cities that make it easy for people of all ages to purchase low-cost
condoms obviously have a much lower level of unwanted pregnancies.
c. Read
more here: http://populationgrowth.org/
6. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
♲
This suggestion is heavily tied to the “minimize waste” recommendation. The
bottom line of this whole problem goes like this:
💠 TOO MANY PEOPLE CONSUMING TOO
MUCH
Our material recycling processes—whether that of metal,
paper, plastic, electronics, or whatever—are very inefficient. This is why the “reduce” and “reuse” mantras should be
heavily emphasized so there is less for us to recycle. Just the same, recycling
(when done properly) can save energy and reduce the amount of new material
production required. Not only that, but most paper is still being produced from
“virgin” pulp that does not include any recycled material, which means CO₂-reducing trees are
being cut down to make your paper. Do your best to reduce consumption and reuse
items that can help displace the production of more stuff that consumes energy
and fills methane-generating landfills. Granted, the funding and status of many
municipal recycling programs are abhorrent and the countries we’ve dumped our
“recycled” plastic on have been overloaded, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t
try. These factors just emphasize how much more important the “reduce” and
“reuse” aspects of this are. Be mindful when you sort your recyclables. Don’t
toss dirty items or items they don’t recycle into the bin. If the recycling batch is too
spoiled with non-recyclable items, the screeners may put the whole batch into a
landfill, negating all those recycling efforts. And remember, all those
little receipts printed on “thermal” paper are NOT recyclable.
7.
“Money
Talks” Part 1: Donate to environmental organizations
that are doing something about global warming.[9] They
help raise awareness of environmental abuse issues, and many of them work
through the legal system and by other means to get governments and large
corporations to shift in a direction that will make bigger improvements than we
can as individuals. NOT all environmental organizations are created equal. If
you’re looking at one that supports biofuels or biomass[10]
energy production, it probably has connections to “new energy” tycoons that
want to control the “beyond coal” market without particular regard for the
environmental impact.[11] I recommend donating to one of
the organizations below rather than buying carbon offsets.[12] Unfortunately,
some of these organizations send you lots of paper through the mail after you
donate—which isn’t congruous with the environmental cause—but you can ask them
to stop.[13]
(If they don’t stop, cut them off. I had to do that with the Nature Conservancy
because their flow of paper mail was relentless.) If you don’t feel you have
the spare change to donate, there
are NO-COST ways to contribute, like switching your default search engine to
Ecosia, which contributes ad revenue to tree-planting efforts around the
world. (see https://www.ecosia.org)
a. Give Green
(https://www.givegreen.com/)
offers an easy, strategic way to support environmental candidates and
accelerate action on climate change. Corporations change their polluting
behavior when laws and lawsuits force them to. Otherwise
they’ll do whatever is most profitable for them while they weave a “green
story” for you. The laws won’t change if we keep electing politicians who do
not make the survival of our environment a priority.
b. Rainforest
Action Network (RAN), (https://www.ran.org) who were among the
first environmental organizations to call out the extensive fraud surrounding biofuel
and dubious biomass energy projects.
c. Union
of Concerned Scientists (“UCS” at https://www.ucsusa.org) constantly exposes politicians and corporations for
practices that are bad for our health and our environment.
d. Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC; https://www.nrdc.org)
e. Environmental
Defense Fund (EDF; https://www.edf.org)
f. 350.org
(https://350.org/)
has put feet on the streets and voices in political and corporate meetings to
raise awareness of environmental issues and legislation.
g. Conservation
International (https://www.conservation.org) buys up land to keep it out of the wrong hands (e.g. governments & mining companies) and advises many
corporations on how they can be better stewards of our planet.
h. Greenpeace
(https://www.greenpeace.org)
has been pursuing a multifaceted approach to advocacy for biodiversity and the
environment.
8. “Money
Talks” Part 2: Move your investments into environmentally-sound assets.[14]
Take your investment dollar away from funds & corporations (like oil &
gas companies) that support the destruction of our environment through
continued mining of fossil fuels. Invest in ETFs or individual companies that
are focused on renewable energy or reducing consumption (per-capita carbon
footprint). Consider carbon credits/offsets.[15] They
aren’t a cure, but some effort is better than no effort or regard
for the environment.
9. Adopt
instead of making more humans. This recommendation meets criticism[16]
but there’s no getting around the fact that the root cause of our problem has
been the population explosion over the past two centuries (~7.8B
in 2020 vs. ~1.1B in 1820). So
if you want to have children but aren’t 100% committed to producing all your
own, consider adoption. The environmental benefits of adoption over creating
more humans is undeniable, and the societal benefits resulting
from you giving that child a loving home are tremendous.
10. Volunteer
at any of the many environmental and family planning organizations.
11. Go Paperless with almost everything.
Your printed newspapers, magazines & bills often kill[17]
trees—including those in virgin, old-growth[18]
forests that have been developing for thousands of years—for virgin wood pulp.
Oceans and forests
are our best bets for reducing greenhouse gasses until we discover more efficient,
synthetic means of carbon capture. Deforestation accelerates the destruction of
our ecosystem. Pulp/paper manufacturing is one of the greatest sources of
pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Get your news, entertainment, bills and
catalogs online. Read the news on
your computer, phone, or tablet (rather than having fossil fuel-burning cars
and trucks deliver them to your home). Remember the
“reduce” and “reuse” parts of the environmental mantra are more important than
the “recycle” part. Use real plates, cloth napkins and a handkerchief to
stop killing trees to make disposable products.
12. Buy recycled paper or
paper from nearby non-tree sources. OK, so we can’t always
go paperless with everything. If
you’re not using recycled toilet paper, paper towels and printer paper, chances
are you are contributing to the unbridled deforestation conducted by the
lumber and paper industries due to the demand for cheap, virgin pulp paper. Those
fancy paper napkins that don’t use any recycled paper are literally causing the
death of trees that should remain standing to help sequester CO₂. There are so many recycled and tree-free
“rapidly-renewable fiber” paper options available...just look for them. I’m
finding that they are not necessarily more expensive anymore. Unfortunately, when this paper is
shipped from Asia, the delivery of this "green" product on cargo
ships is burning heavy bunker fuel (aka “black yogurt” for its consistency),
which emits soot that captures heat when it settles on ice, accelerating the
melting of the polar ice caps. The USA needs to get its hemp, sugarcane and
bamboo production up to help make paper from more readily-renewable resources
and byproducts. Finally, minimize your use of colored paper, as that adds a
greater bleaching challenge to the recycling process as the most in-demand
recycled paper color is white.
13. Think before you
print. Do you really need to make a paper copy of
that? Make your “default printer” a PDF file generator and share your output
electronically via email rather than in “hard copy,” which is more of a pain to
archive than electronic files are anyway. Fortunately, generations after the
baby boomers are naturally migrating to mobile devices and computers as “paper
replacements” more than the boomers have.
14. Replace
your incandescent lightbulbs. LED bulbs use a small fraction of the energy.
Once again, saving energy allows us to burn less fossil fuel, which helps us breathe
cleaner air slow down global warming caused by gas emissions.
15. Install solar panels
on your home and business. Install much more than you anticipate needing to
assure that your home’s contributions to the reduction of CO₂ emissions go beyond
your energy usage. Most areas of the country allow you to actually contribute
energy to the power grid when your solar panels generate more than you’re
using, even if you don’t include a battery system. Tell your representatives in
government that you believe in government incentives to get more people to
install solar panels on their homes. Natural gas may be the most efficient way
to heat your water for coffee or tea, but if you have enough solar panels then
using your microwave or electric stove can be a cleaner way to go.
16. Commute by bike.
This is even better than an electric car, and in some cities
it might get you there faster. I’m so happy to see the booming electric bike
market in San Diego getting commuters out of their cars and onto electric
bikes, bypassing traffic jams in the bike lane. Try it. You’ll be healthier and
happier.
17. Buy an electric,
plug-in hybrid (PHEV), or hybrid car. If you drive often
in stop-and-go traffic and you have a conscience, you know how terrible it
feels to be spewing toxic gases into the atmosphere while getting nowhere. Many
gas/diesel models now stop the engine when the vehicle is stopped for a few
seconds. That’s a start, but kluge at best. I can’t tell you how much more comfortable
I feel having a car that isn’t spewing fumes when it’s stuck or rolling slowly in heavy traffic. If you install enough solar panels on your home
to charge your EV/PHEV and power everything in your home, you’ll feel even
better, knowing that the sun is powering your car instead of the natural gas or
coal that’s burned to deliver electrical service to your home. The available selection
of EV/PHEV cars is growing every year. If you can afford to put up enough solar
panels and you drive an electric car, your commute and errands can all become
carbon neutral or possibly even carbon negative. Donate your old car to an
eco-centric charity (for the tax deduction). If you can’t afford an electric
vehicle, make fuel efficiency a major decision factor in your next purchase and
a part of your driving habits.[19]
18. Use mass transit when
you can. Have you explored the bus and train options
available for your commute and travel plans? Flying consumes a great deal of
energy by comparison. What is the most environmentally sound way to travel on
vacation? Assuming that your travel is fully booked, the diesel bus comes out
on top, followed by the high-speed train, then a car with three people in it,
then the medium-sized aircraft, followed in last place by the cruise ship. But
trains and buses have an average occupancy of only 40%, which would go up if we all used them. Ideally, we'd all have
electric cars that are charged entirely by environmentally-produced energy,
like solar panels on our roofs and charging stations powered by the wind and
the sun.
19. Carpool.
It’s not always an option, but look into it! Try the eRideShare phone app. You
could save a ton of money, make new friends who live and work near where you do,
and greatly reduce your contribution to the problems we’re facing.
20. Consolidate your
travel. So you live in
America and have always wanted to see Dublin and Paris? Combine your trips to
reduce the fossil fuels burned to fly you over the ocean. If you’re not already
donating to one of the organizations I listed on page
2, you can help offset your travel carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets at
websites like https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx.
21. Minimize your travel
by cruise ship. Do you need to burn fuel to literally
move your resort or amusement park with you as you travel? The International
Council on Clean Transportation estimates that even the most efficient cruise
ships emit 3 to 4 times more CO₂
per passenger-mile than a jet. Also, most cruise ships run on dirty, heavy fuel
oil. Some have begun using “scrubbers” to remove toxic sulfur oxides from their
exhaust, but the scrubbers discharge the pollutants into the ocean.
22. Buy local.
This isn’t just about supporting your local economy. If your food, drinking water, wine, beer, and
other routine items can be sourced locally, less energy is consumed in
delivering those goods to you. Your choice of type of food (e.g. no meat) may have a bigger environmental impact than
the shipment does, but flying food from distant countries rarely makes sense
from an environmental standpoint. I love Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, New
Zealand, Australia, and Chile...but nowadays I try to buy all of my beer and
wine from California and Oregon because I’m aware of how much CO₂ and pollutants are put into our atmosphere to ship those items
from other countries to us here in California.
Buying local also helps boost our local economy. California produces some of
the best beer and wine on the planet! Vodka from Russia? NFW,
for obvious reasons. Tito’s vodka is better than all the others and it’s made
in the USA.
23. Plant trees.
Or donate to an organization that does. Or volunteer with an organization that
does...which can be good, mood-lifting outdoor exercise. After the oceans,
forests are our biggest source of clean air best available means of CO₂ greenhouse gas reduction.
24. Turn it off.
Turn off your lights and appliances when you’re gone for any length of time. It
will save you money and reduce wasted combustion of fossil fuels. Turn off your
car when you’re sitting in a parking lot or waiting for someone unless the weather
indicates a need for AC or heat. Open a window and get some fresh air.
25. Widen your comfort
zone. If you make an effort to climatize and dress accordingly, you can lower your heat in the
winter and use less AC in the summer, saving what is probably the largest
portion of your energy bill. Just a couple degrees difference can save
thousands of pounds of carbon emissions each year.
26. Try a space heater
at night in your bedroom. If you’re heating your whole home at night, you’re
probably using a lot more energy than
necessary.
27. Turn your water
heater temperature down. You can still enjoy your same hot
shower...it will just have less cold water mixed in.
Your water heater will last longer and you’ll save money. Despite your water
heater’s insulation, it takes more energy to raise the temperature higher and
store [about 60 gallons of] the hotter water.
28. Use less water.
Even if your town isn’t experiencing a water shortage, remember that the
gathering, treatment, and delivery of your water requires a lot of energy (especially when you’re using
hot water). Minimize the use of sprinkler timers that water your yard even on
rainy days. Convert to plantings that require less water.
29. Boycott
corporations and organizations that cause the greatest damage our ecosystem. If
you’re brave and have the time, feel free to shame them on social media (e.g. Twitter) for their horrible practices. Here is a
sampling of the worst culprits who waste energy, promote population growth, and
cause deforestation on a massive level.
a. Bitcoin
— Because of the algorithms they use, Bitcoin causes computers around the world
to consume about as much energy as the entire country of Ireland. Other cryptocurrencies
have the same problem, which can be reduced with a change in their algorithms.
b. Fiji
Water — Buying water from overseas is just plain silly, and Fiji Water is the
worst because they like to pretend they are
environmentally oriented while their customers fund the shipping of plastic
bottles from China to Fiji, then shipping full bottles from Fiji to nations
around the world. For every sip of that water, the customer is supporting the
combustion of more than that amount of fuel just to deliver it.
c. The
Catholic Church — I was raised Catholic, so I’m pretty familiar with their
efforts to boost the population and shun birth control. In case you haven’t
already boycotted them for the thousands of sexual abuse cases that finally
came to light, look again at the church’s long history of missionaries that
spread the idea that birth control is evil. (Why? To make more evangelists, of
course...to win the stupid religion game.) Remember that population growth is
the #1 “engine” behind our unprecedented CO₂ emissions.
d. Johnson
Controls — The building industry is one that has so many opportunities to
choose strategies and products that have a big impact on the environment, which
makes blatant “anti-environmental” moves especially despicable from a key
vendor like Johnson Controls. In February 2019, a federal court ruled the Trump
administration acted unlawfully in rolling back an energy efficiency rule in
favor of one manufacturer of central air conditioners, Johnson Controls
International, to the detriment of consumers, the environment, and other
manufacturers. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
declared the rollback “arbitrary and capricious.” Builders will be doing us all
a favor if they chose alternative vendors for HVAC systems.
30. Don’t buy purebreds.
As with the “adoption” suggestion above, choosing to have your next pet be a
“rescue” instead of financially supporting the breeding of more pets—while
thousands of unwanted ones are being euthanized—makes sense on more than an
environmental level. Pet population control can help just as human population
control does, albeit to a lesser extent since pets aren’t driving cars and
buying Fiji water.
31. Move
to a more temperate climate. I know...easier said than done, but the amount of
energy you’ll save by not having to use heat and/or AC nearly as often can put
a big dent in your CO₂
emissions. Plus, you’ll probably be outdoors more often and live a healthier
lifestyle.
32. Don’t use aerosol
sprays. Use “pump” sprays instead of pressurized cans,
if you must use a spray.[20] After
chlorofluorocarbons[21]
(CFCs) were banned in most countries because of their negative effect on
Earth's ozone layer, replacement propellants in products like hair spray and
sunscreen spray have included volatile, flammable hydrocarbons (e.g. propane, n-butane and isobutane), imethyl
ether (DME), and methyl ethyla
which are all very bad for the atmosphere. Food stuffs (e.g whipping cream, cooking spray) typically use nitrous
oxide (N₂O, aka “laughing gas”)
& carbon dioxide (CO₂).
Nitrous oxide was recently found to be a major scavenger of stratospheric
ozone, with an impact comparable to that of CFCs. Even medicinal aerosols (e.g. asthma inhalers) use hydrofluoroalkanes (HFA) which
deplete the ozone layer. While a pump spray is environmentally preferable
to any propellant-based aerosol, some propellants aren't as bad as others.
Liquid Hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) propellants are
gaining some acceptance due to their relatively low vapor pressure, relatively
low global warming potential (GWP), and non-flammability.
33. Have old appliances
professionally recycled. When you recycle
your appliance, there’s a lot more than the environmental savings from having
the steel and plastic reused to make new products. Your old AC or fridge
probably used refrigerants that are extremely harmful to our atmosphere if
released. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
compromise our atmosphere’s ozone layer, which is a critical element for
survival of life as we know it. They can be captured in a proper recycling
process. See https://www.energystar.gov/products/recycle
for more information.
Final Comments:
According
to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), human
activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (around 1750) have
produced a 40% increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂), from 280 ppm in
1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017. We are “snuffing out” our planet as we know it
with excess greenhouse gasses, which in turn cause the “greenhouse effect” that
gives us global warming. We must turn this around. Most of the responsibility
for making big changes rest on your elected government officials and large
corporations. But you can help by not exacerbating the problem with careless
waste.
With
this document focused on global warming, I want to clarify that climate change
is only one of several ways we have been destroying our fragile environment.
You’ve undoubtedly heard about PFAS[22],
the so-called “forever chemicals that have a long chain of undesirable health
effects. Any omissions or abbreviations of these effects is not intended to
diminish the gravity of them. I just want to “compartmentalize” my
environmental concerns, and certainly global warming is a big one that deserves
focused attention.
CONTACT ME: Have
feedback? Share your comments and corrections with me (Dan Goese) at my
environmental blog at www.EnvironmentalApocalypse.com
or on Twitter at @dan_goese.
THANK YOU!
Thanks for joining me in my
effort to postpone the looming environmental apocalypse.
[1] If you must print this, please find recycled paper or paper that is made from rapidly-renewable fibers (RRF) from brands like ZeroTree.
[2] “Super Pollutants” like black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), & methane (CH₄) are much worse than CO₂.
[3] A subjective, proprietary method of sorting the items was used and the exact order is not crucial. Try it all.
[4] My “follow the money” investigations into people on both sides of the climate-change debate find more fault with climate-change deniers. While many of them are legitimate scientists, some have ties to the energy industry or other economic interests that can be hurt by efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions, and others have not stayed current on the latest scientific findings most pertinent to the topic.
[5] Interestingly, only the mass extinction that the dinosaurs died in appears to have been caused by a massive asteroid. The others appear to have been caused by big swings in global warming and cooling.
[6] Cow burps and manure contribute more methane gas than their farts do. Cows, sheep, goats, giraffes, and deer belong to a class of mammals called ruminants, which have more than one stomach chamber. The first chamber (division) is the rumen. Microbes in the rumen create methane gas as a byproduct, which ruminants burp out.
[7] Earth’s atmospheric methane concentration has more than doubled since 1750. The largest reservoir of naturally-occurring methane is under the seafloor in the form of methane clathrates.
[8] It should be noted that Vitamin B₁₂ (cobalamin) supplements are required in the vegan diet.
[9] Are you currently making donations to feed the poor and heal the sick? In the long run, these environmental organizations will have a greater effect on wellness and safe food production for humanity through their work to keep our environment healthy and stable. Also, some of them (like RAN) work for the people affected, too.
[10] As you probably know, biomass energy’s environmental value is dubious, whether the source is peat, timber, or more quickly “renewable” sources like agriculture or sugarcane.
[11] The movie “Planet of the Humans” by Jeff Gibbs (2020; Michael Moore, executive producer; free on YouTube) leans heavily into them with some partially outdated/inaccurate insinuations/accusations while issuing a mortifying wakeup call to all of us.
[12] See this brief article to learn why: https://grants.ran.org/hrf_faq/whats-wrong-with-carbon-offsets/
[13] The Nature Conservancy—while a respectable organization with an attractive charter—is an especially egregious user of paper mailings to solicit more money after you donate to them. The more paper they mail to me, the less likely I am to continue to donate, especially if they continue to do so after I ask them to stop.
[14] Our investment in "US Vegan Climate” ETF VEGN has outperformed the S&P 500 index over the past two years.
[15] Formerly referred to as "cap-and-trade" in the theoretical framework of the "per-country" cap for carbon emissions in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol treaty.
[16] My wife thinks this suggestion is terribly “out of line,” but I have to disagree with her since overpopulation is the #1 cause of the climate crisis. Just study the history of overpopulation of any species and you'll find we're hitting the "wall" right now. Remember, this is a list of ideas. We didn’t adopt.
[17] Paper advocates claim that if we stop using paper then there will be no motivation to plant new trees to make more paper. Here’s a catch: We can plant new trees then just let them grow and collect CO₂ without us cutting them down. We need all the forests and healthy oceans we can get to maximize CO₂ reduction.
[18] An old-growth, primary or late seral forest is one that has reached advanced age without significant disturbance (e.g. cultivation or harvesting by humans). Demand for virgin paper pushes the logging industry into old-growth forests for a new supply of wood and virgin wood pulp, while environmentalists desperately try to communicate the importance of leaving these forests untouched for the maintenance of biodiversity, water regulation and nutrient cycling, which includes CO₂ capture.
[19] Slower acceleration provides cleaner emissions and gives you better gas mileage.
[20] Using spray sunscreen at a public beach? Look downwind for people annoyed at you for your disregard of their right to clean air. Why not just wipe a non-spray lotion on? That worked for decades when I was growing up.
[21] CFCs & HCFCs are more commonly known by the DuPont brand name "Freon."
[22] See: https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/PFAS_FactSheet.html