Tuesday, December 2, 2008
What You Can Do
Burning fossil fuels to power our homes and run our cars creates global warming pollution. Big and small changes can add up and make a real difference in the fight against global warming. Print out a booklet of tips [PDF] or handouts to share!
At Home: Use Less Energy
Home energy accounts for 21 percent of America's global warming pollution. If we make smart choices, we can cut more pollution than the entire emissions of over 100 countries!
Change a bulb: Better energy-saving lights
Greener power: Re-thinking home energy
Full list of tips: How to cut pollution at home
On the Road: Be Efficient
When it comes to global warming, how and what we drive are two of our most powerful choices. Transportation is the biggest source of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, more than factories or homes.
Save fuel: Use less gas with your current car
Choose green: Buy a clean, efficient car
Neutralize the Rest
Even if you are already driving efficiently and using less electricity, there's more you can do. Buying offsets, or credits, neutralizes what we can't cut.
Let's make it a great day!
Kerri Joseph
Saturday, November 15, 2008
The Science of it is that we are in a downward spiral. I say "we", as in our world, our planet and must make some needed changes. The climate system is very complex. Each system depends on the other. The snow is melting and the sea levels are rising , yet we chose to ignore what is taking place right before our own eyes. The Artic is the world's air conditioner. It is warming up faster than any region.
Nineteenth-century explorer Fridtjof Nansen called the Arctic "nature's great ice temple," a place teeming with roaming polar bears and a forbidding landscape frozen since "the earliest dawn of time.
The Arctic is critical to the globe's climate and influence temperatures everywhere.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but the Arctic plays a primary role in distributing heat around the world through what is known as the "heat pump." The ocean's currents circulate heat throughout the world, through a system known as the "great conveyor belt." Two main forces keep the conveyor moving: winds and ocean density differences. The Arctic is key to the density differences.Also speeding up the Earth's warming is the loss of Arctic ice. Like a mirror, ice bounces sunlight back toward space, preventing sunlight from heating the surface. Winds carry the cooler air down from Canada into the U.S., cooling our climate.
While the Arctic melt has profound effects on the region's people and ecosystems, it also spells trouble for the rest of the world. For instance, the changes to the ocean's circulation system would mean that though some places will get much warmer, other places, such as Europe, which won't get the warmth from the Gulf Stream, will get much cooler.
One of the thaw's most pressing concerns on the world beyond the Arctic is sea-level rise. When melting glaciers spill into the ocean, sea levels around the globe rise. The booming cities and counties along the East and West coasts house half of the U.S. population and are among the communities that will be most threatened by melting ice.
Currently, the retreat of the world's glaciers is adding enormous amounts of fresh water to the ocean. Between 1961 and 1997, for instance, about 890 cubic miles of ice has been lost. That means that melting glacier ice has added about 980 trillion (or 979,994,261,211,428.5) gallons of water to the oceans. That would be like dumping more than a million Olympic-sized swimming pools into our oceans.
Must I say again, we must change our views on this very important issues and pay attention to our changing planet!
Nineteenth-century explorer Fridtjof Nansen called the Arctic "nature's great ice temple," a place teeming with roaming polar bears and a forbidding landscape frozen since "the earliest dawn of time.
The Arctic is critical to the globe's climate and influence temperatures everywhere.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but the Arctic plays a primary role in distributing heat around the world through what is known as the "heat pump." The ocean's currents circulate heat throughout the world, through a system known as the "great conveyor belt." Two main forces keep the conveyor moving: winds and ocean density differences. The Arctic is key to the density differences.Also speeding up the Earth's warming is the loss of Arctic ice. Like a mirror, ice bounces sunlight back toward space, preventing sunlight from heating the surface. Winds carry the cooler air down from Canada into the U.S., cooling our climate.
While the Arctic melt has profound effects on the region's people and ecosystems, it also spells trouble for the rest of the world. For instance, the changes to the ocean's circulation system would mean that though some places will get much warmer, other places, such as Europe, which won't get the warmth from the Gulf Stream, will get much cooler.
One of the thaw's most pressing concerns on the world beyond the Arctic is sea-level rise. When melting glaciers spill into the ocean, sea levels around the globe rise. The booming cities and counties along the East and West coasts house half of the U.S. population and are among the communities that will be most threatened by melting ice.
Currently, the retreat of the world's glaciers is adding enormous amounts of fresh water to the ocean. Between 1961 and 1997, for instance, about 890 cubic miles of ice has been lost. That means that melting glacier ice has added about 980 trillion (or 979,994,261,211,428.5) gallons of water to the oceans. That would be like dumping more than a million Olympic-sized swimming pools into our oceans.
Must I say again, we must change our views on this very important issues and pay attention to our changing planet!
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