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What can individual people do about global warming?

Frozenwolf150

Formerly SilentKnight
Frozenwolf150
Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Messages
4,134
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?
 
At this point, I think the best way to help is to attempt to calmly discuss the matter with those who seem to have made up their minds as AGW deniers using mistaken or limited information. Votes for important issues must be won now. I find there are two broad categories of AGW deniers:

  • salt-of-the-earth often elderly victims of the "echo chamber" of misinformation
  • entrenched political or religious hacks with an ax to grind
I have some success with the former, and avoid the latter like the plague. My experience is that, among retirees I know, their input of information is quite limited. I show them my obviously genuine concern, and with their fear of "the liberal enemy". Most people care about truth at the end of the day, but it is this "us vs. them" mentality that has been instilled in them that must be fought with compassion.

I ask what sources inform their opinions and suggest that perhaps a couple of other sources, showing the other side might be of interest. I have managed to get a few old friends from, "It's a liberal hoax" to "Yeah, but we can't do anything about it." To me, that's progress.

A 91 year old friend told me the other day that I sound like his 17 year old grand daughter spouting climate change stuff.

ETA: The problem of climate change is of such magnitude that only by winning the hearts and minds of the entire world's population through legal and cultural changes, hopefully with the US as a leader, can any real progress be made. We are really about 50 years too late for most simplistic measures to do any good.
 
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We have to be willing to give up stuff that we're simply not willing to give up. A self-proclaimed treehugger/earthperson buddy of mine is always carrying on about reducing our carbon footprints. She's very active, going to sit-ins, demonstrations, and what-not, and is a very persuasive speaker. She drives an SUV and a pick-up, and owns a couple of houses that she cools on the grid and heats using natural gas while burning oak in her fireplace (The fireplace is an ambiance thing). She camps in a fifth-wheel camper with all the bells and whistles, and flies to Jamaica at least once a year. To be fair, I'm not willing to give up my goodies either, though I'm not all in-your-face about reducing carbon footprints and such. I like refrigerated air, a hot shower, cruising to Dallas for the fun of it, and building the occasional bonfire. I don't want to give them up. I am the scum.
 
We can travel the globe, raising awareness of the problem.

And, since the work is so important, we should be allowed to travel first-class all the way.
 
Your individual actions regarding things like eating "ecologically friendly" food, driving only when necessary and riding your bike otherwise and so on are in the grand scheme of things completely inconsequential with regards to climate change. Global warming isn't going to stop just because you decide to buy the "eco-friendly" potatoes one day while shopping either.

If you really want to do something about it become an activist and try to get the elites and leaders who actually have enough authority to make large-scale changes happen. It's the same with voting: you might have the most educated and reasonable opinion of all people but you are still just one vote, that is unless you start publicly shaping public opinion and getting people to vote the way you are. If you don't you really shouldn't bother voting at all.
 
Arcade22 said:
Your individual actions regarding things like eating "ecologically friendly" food, driving only when necessary and riding your bike otherwise and so on are in the grand scheme of things completely inconsequential with regards to climate change. Global warming isn't going to stop just because you decide to buy the "eco-friendly" potatoes one day while shopping either.
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This is such a ridiculous statement. There are very few people who believe that by living a more responsbile lifestyle they are going to fix climate change individually, but a large number of people, each living their own more responsible lifestyles, are an improvement. It's this sort of absurd, drop of water in an ocean, kind of argument that causes people to continue behaving in counterproductive ways.

I'm the first to admit that a single person has very little impact in the way that he lives his own life, but this sort of thinking is extended quite far up the scale of impact. You hear politicians and business types complaining about fuel efficiency standards in the US because only a very small fraction of the world's CO2 comes from US cars, for instance. They're right, but the likely alternative, doing nothing, while waiting for the extremely unlikely alternative, waiting for global standards to emerge, is worse.

Saying that one person's behaviors are completely inconsequential but that a group's are not is contradictory, if nothing else. A group's behaviors are the sum of the individuals in it. Choose to be in a group that behaves responsibly and start chipping away at the problem, even if the chips you take out are incredibly small.

Frozenwolf150, your easiest routes to start on are the ones that are going to save you money anyway. Depending on the type of house/apartment/whatever you live in, try to make it more energy efficient. Recaulk windows and doorframes, improve insulation, use CFL or LED bulbs. Next time you buy a car or have to replace an appliance (or doors/windows), buy the slightly more expensive but significantly more energy efficient version. Turn your thermostat up a degree or two in the summer and down a degree or two in the winter. Even if you don't fix the problem, you'll save some cash and produce less CO2.
 
Do your individual actions. Drive less. Use public transportation more. Reuse, recycle, and compost things that make sense to do so. Buy factory-farmed produce shipped on a train from California or whatever the local closest equivalent is.

It seems pointless, because what one individual can do is so small on an individual basis, but a lot of individuals make a culture, and things get done differently in a culture where people think differently.

Take a tip from the Second World War. Think, "Is this trip really necessary?" Shop once a week for groceries, or shop European style and carry what you buy by foot.
 
aggle-rithm said:
We can travel the globe, raising awareness of the problem.

And, since the work is so important, we should be allowed to travel first-class all the way.
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No, you should have your own private jet. After all, you are out to save the world.
 
My electric bill is $40-$50 / month
My auto gets 35MPG highway
My natural gas bill $15/mo summer, $110/mo winter.
I've spent a good deal of money on insulation, LED lighting and upgrading heating systems.

Have I done enough enough?
 
The most effective single thing an individual can do is decide to not create more individuals. 7 billion are more than enough, thank you.
 
Refuse to eat any CAFO animal product. Then if you can, grow a garden and recycle food scraps in a compost bin to use as fertilizer so you don't need Haber process nitrogen. Try to limit your excess fossil fuel consumption with things like solar hot water, economical car or even better, bicycle and/or public transportation whenever possible, various things such as that. But more important, tell people why, and vote for politicians willing to do the infrastructure changes required.
 
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Pulvinar said:
The most effective single thing an individual can do is decide to not create more individuals. 7 billion are more than enough, thank you.
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When it comes to change, the most effective single thing an individual can do is to affect the actions of more than one other individual. Of course, one of the best ways of doing that is by setting a good example.
 
MontagK505 said:
My electric bill is $40-$50 / month
My auto gets 35MPG highwayMy natural gas bill $15/mo summer, $110/mo winter.
I've spent a good deal of money on insulation, LED lighting and upgrading heating systems.

Have I done enough enough?
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how many miles a year do you drive?
 
Most people don't want large families, and population is set to level out in the coming years, so world population is not such a big issue.

Energy efficiency often leads to more consumption (Jevons Paradox). If you can save money by cycling or using LEDs etc fine, but efficiency has limited effect at best. when it comes to saving carbon emissions.

What we can do easily is not become rich. Wealth breeds consumption, and pushes up energy use, and by extension carbon emissions go up.

Limit what you make in terms of money, but live well and enjoy the free things in life. Its not just holidays abroad that pushes your carbon footprint up, its your bank account.

If you do have oodles of money, consider renewable energy technology to invest in.
 
Once upon a time there was a little village in a wine growing area. The local (equivalent of a) council decided on a new idea: they would celebrate the grape harvest by each grower taking a bottle of his wine and pouring into a vat in the village square, so the the local population could try the years harvest.

So the vat was put out.

Do I really have to write the rest?
 
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