LIVING AS IF WE REALLY UNDERSTAND GLOBAL WARMING

Environmentalists who often complain about business' and governments trashing the environment rarely talk much about the stuff they themselves are doing to lessen their impact on Mother Earth. Sure, we're all doing something but are we doing enough? Are we living as if we really understand just how serious our situation is?

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "We face a true planetary emergency," said Gore, who called the climate crisis "a moral and spiritual challenge". And, although an environmentalist, he got the Peace Prize because humanity is already experiencing resource wars for oil, water, and arable land. Are environmentalists contributing to those problems?

Sea-level rise is probably the most disastrous effect of global warming. 2007's summer Arctic ice melting inspired a New York Times headline: "A Melt So Vast and Rapid It Unnerved the Experts." Scientists, once skeptical of cataclysmic melting, are "much more open to the idea that we may have passed the point where it's becoming essentially irreversible".

That condition occurred and was reported in the NSIDC Monthly Highlights for August 2009. Mark Serreze, with NSIDC colleagues Julienne Stroeve, Andrew Barrett, David Kindig, and Andrew Slater, analyzed observations and model simulations to look for the signals of Arctic amplification. Their conclusion: it has arrived."

NOAA's Arctic Report Card for 2010 confirmed that "Return to previous Arctic conditions is unlikely." Record high temperatures across Canadian Arctic and Greenland, a reduced summer sea ice cover, record snow cover decreases and links to some Northern Hemisphere weather support this conclusion. "

We often ignore the connection between the environment, energy, and the economy. However, it can be easily argued that any waste of energy is fiscally irresponsible. With the age of cheap oil over, and the economy in the worst shape since the 1929 Great Depression, energy waste can also be called "insane". The massive amount of waste in western culture, especially in North America, is so ubiquitous that many will foolishly argue that waste is minimal and will always be present. To those who know better it sounds eerily like the denial of addicts and alcoholics trying to defend their insanity.

"Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil."
-- (President George W. Bush, State of the Union, January 31, 2006.) Serious, indeed! It is serious enough to potentially make life in 2050 unrecognizeable to adults who are alive today. If there was ever need for the "Precautionary Principal" to be made into universal law, it is now. (http://www.sehn.org/precaution.html)

What will it take for those of us who notice these historic earth changes to make appropriate lifestyle changes? Does the seashore have to move to Philadelphia and Washington, DC, and swamp lower Manhatten  before we take serious action? If the power of example is as effective as studies suggest, dear reader, your personal response to climate change and peak oil is an essential part of the solution. And ending cognitive dissonance is essential to a well-balanced mind.

Now that we know how thin the ice we're on is, stepping out of the problem requires knowing exactly where we stand. Who is up-to-date on the news of this extraordinary situation? Important energy and climate news is often absent from US sources. The Energy Bulletin regularly gathers the latest energy news (file://localhost/ttp/::www.energybulletin.net:) The BBC (at http://www.bbcamerica.com with links to the IPCC, the Stern Report, and the Hirsch  Report on the economics of climate change, consistently does a better job than most US news sources. For online eco-news Grist does a good job at http://www.grist.org. There are many other fine sources but if you want to be reassured by the great denial machine, go to: http://www.foxnews.com/.

Few among us know how much CO2 we put into the air and fewer know how to calculate their carbon footprint. The folks at NativeEnergy do and you can access their calculator online at http://www.nativeenergy.com. They even sell carbon credits, the environmental version of indulgences. The Sierra Club has published a report on the top CO2 and energy use calculators in their magazine. (I don't have that link, but you can rate a host of them collected by Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com/carboncalcs who posted 80 of them in September of 2009.)

After finding out how many renewable energy credits you'll need to offset your footprint you can log on to http://www.powerscorecard.org or http://www.GoCleanEnergy.comto compare the products offered by the various electricity providers. Then, you can choose a provider and sign up. It's relatively inexpensive and good for relieving any guilt feelings that occur after calculating your carbon footprint.

You can reduce your footprint by choosing energy-efficient appliances. The American Council For an Energy Efficient Economy (http://www.aceee.org), and Consumer's Union (http://www.consumerreports.org) can help with that. They have some of the latest information on energy efficient appliances and techniques. The U.S. government does a pretty good job with their Energy Star program (and a new water saver program) athttp://www.energystar.gov

If you are only ready to do one thing give up eating red meat. In "Diet For a New America", author Jon Robbins shows how this is the single best way to live lightly on planet Earth at http://www.foodrevolution.org/.

Getting rid of our gas hog and replacing it with a high-mileage car will help when gasoline hits $10 a gallon. With oil hovering around $100 a barrel and gasoline hitting $4 a gallon for the second time in three years, this will be sooner than later. At least we'll be able to afford the drive to the grocery store. Our media ignores peak oil stories but you can Google them online at http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=3&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=peak+oil+news&oq=peak+oil. The gas money you save may help you afford the groceries.

Another simple step to be part of the solution is replacing our incandescent light bulbs with highly efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs. Lighting can be as much as 20% of our household energy bill and incandescent bulbs waste 70% of that. CFL's have become easily available and many are priced well under a dollar.

Although California has already outlawed the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs, the federal government will be outlawing the 100 watt lamp by 2012, with the rest following in fairly quick succession.

Another simple step is turning down the thermostat a bit in the winter and up in the summer. Turn it down more when you leave the house. A good digital seven-day programmable thermostat, such as the ones Consumer Reports rated "best buy" (http://www.luxproducts.com/thermostatscan help. If you or the kids can't remember to turn off the lights when leaving the room occupancy sensors will also help.

Once you've done this much you will likely discover what to do next. You're now an example to others and part of a growing legion of earth-friendly Americans who are making the exponential shift to sustainable living.

There are many occasions besides the winter holiday season when gifting is appropriate and traditional. Why not give gifts that keep on giving? A compact fluorescent light bulb can save the user as much as $75 over the life of the bulb. Not bad for something that often costs less than $1.

LED holiday lights use a tenth of the energy consumed by conventional ones and are available from http://www.gaiam.com/realgoods. In fact, since LED lamps are becoming more affordable, their 90 percent reduction in energy use is a must for lights that are on for much of the time. Be sure to purchase good quality lamps because there are a lot of cheap ones on the market that have burned out in months instead of the 50,000 to 80,000 hours that well made LED's are rated at. In 2011, the CREE  Lighting Company was one of the standards for commercial and some residential lighting http://www.creeledlighting.com/ but the majors, like Phillips, Sylvania, GE, are putting out moderately priced quality LED lamps.

Those of living in certain areas of the country can take advantage of government sponsored home energy efficiency programs. A whole house systems approach offers the best chance for large savings. With between fifty and ninety percent of the energy used in North America wasted for lack of efficiency and conservation the average homeowner can save more than $1,200 a year. In the Delaware Valley, the Metropolitan Caucus, which covers the five county region including Philadelphia, has initiated a program that offers up to $15,000 for home energy retrofits and improvements with unsecured loans at under one percent interest. More information is available at: ecasavesenergy.org/energyworks.

With all of these measures you might even save enough to splurge on a couple of bottles of 2002 vintage Dom Perignon champagne for News Years Eve or another special occasion. That's at http://www.moet.com; enjoy!

By Larry Menkes © 2011