I've followed the primary global warming threads on and off for a while, and must say that while it's a very interesting debate going on, it doesn't offer many opportunities to touch on the issue that concerns me the most. I want to start a discussion on what the average person can do about global warming; not debate whether or not it's real, not debate its severity, and not debate whether or not humans are contributing. I'm assuming for the sake of argument that the mainstream scientific understandings of climate change are presumed to be accurate, that climate change is a real threat to the world, and that human activities and negligence are causing it. I'm more interested in steps individuals can take in their everyday lives to help solve the problem.
I did try asking this in the old thread, but I only got a handful of replies before it got buried. This, incidentally, is similar to the main objection I had to Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. He spends half the time trying to scare the crap out of people, half the time talking about himself, and devotes only 30 unnarrated seconds at the end listing things people can do to help solve global warming. I already agree that it's a real problem. Yet if one of his main arguments is that AGW is everyone's responsibility, I would like to know what I can do, personally, to take responsibility.
Climate change affects me in many ways. I live on the east coast of the USA, which was hit in 2012 by superstorm Sandy. Trees were ripped up, homes were smashed to pieces, and some people were without power for weeks. We donated spare goods to some of the victims who were hit hardest. I know firsthand of tropical diseases that are moving farther north, as I came down with a severe case of West Nile back in 2010. I've seen more erratic weather patterns, droughts and heatwaves in the summers, and severe snowstorms in the winters.
What are your thoughts? What do you think people should do? What changes have you already made to your habits and lifestyle? Where can we go from here as individuals, and as a society?
I did try asking this in the old thread, but I only got a handful of replies before it got buried. This, incidentally, is similar to the main objection I had to Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. He spends half the time trying to scare the crap out of people, half the time talking about himself, and devotes only 30 unnarrated seconds at the end listing things people can do to help solve global warming. I already agree that it's a real problem. Yet if one of his main arguments is that AGW is everyone's responsibility, I would like to know what I can do, personally, to take responsibility.
Climate change affects me in many ways. I live on the east coast of the USA, which was hit in 2012 by superstorm Sandy. Trees were ripped up, homes were smashed to pieces, and some people were without power for weeks. We donated spare goods to some of the victims who were hit hardest. I know firsthand of tropical diseases that are moving farther north, as I came down with a severe case of West Nile back in 2010. I've seen more erratic weather patterns, droughts and heatwaves in the summers, and severe snowstorms in the winters.
What are your thoughts? What do you think people should do? What changes have you already made to your habits and lifestyle? Where can we go from here as individuals, and as a society?
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