Climate Change: Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something!
Nobody told me about Blog Action Day did they?! But I found out anyway.
What’s Blog Action Day?
It’s an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in writing blog posts about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.
This year we bloggers all have to write blog posts on climate change. Here’s my humble contrubution.
Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something
Oh, I know, it’s so easy to sit there and think it’s not your problem. Leave it to the politicians and eco-warriors to sort it out.
Unfortunately it is our problem. At the risk of sounding melodramatic the future lies in our hands.
We all have a responsibility to do something about climate change and the good news is that I don’t think it needs to be too hard.
Imagine if everyone in the world resolved to start making small changes. The net result would be huge.
6 Small Changes You Can Make To Help Combat Climate Change
1. Remember to take your own bags to the supermarket so you cut down on plastic.
2. Turn off your computer, TV, microwave, stereo and all other electrical appliances at the wall when you’re not using them. You’ll reduce your electricity bill in the process.
3. Have a car free day once a week. You’ll find a way to get to work with a friend, by public transport, by bike or on foot. And save money too.
4. Go vegetarian once a week. I recommend omelets for supper. Delicious, cheap and healthy you can make them even tastier by adding cheese, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes or anything apart from meat. This will cut down your shopping bill too.
5. Set your washing machine so your clothes wash in cold water. Most of them probably aren’t that dirty anyway so washing them in hot water is chronic waste of resources.
6. Now hang those wet clothes out to dry. Why stick them in the drier when you can save money and help combat climate change by letting the sun and a fresh breeze dry them free of charge?
Thanks for reading
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Hi Anabel,
Now if we stop those pesky volcanic eruptions, which single handedly release much more CO2 into the air than all of mankind has done since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we’d be able to make a real difference.
I do what you recommend above, except the vegetarian one. :)
Nice point about the villainous volcanoes! But come on Gordie, surely you can go veggie once a week:)
Happily the volcano story is a myth anyway – the sum of ALL CO2 eruptions by active volcanoes amounts to much less than 1% of anthropogenic emissions. There are dozens of CO2 sampling stations around the world and they register not a blip when a volcano erupts.
:)
Well, there we have it. Thanks for the myth busting! Now we just need to think of a way to stop cows farting…
I threw together a nice omelet the other night: goat cheese, fresh rosemary, sundried tomatoes, spinach. Highly recommend…
Climate change has begun and its scary to think what will be its future complication. As my contribution, I plant easy growing plants. That way I can add a little something to the continuous deterioration of our plant life. :-)
Walter – brilliant contribution. I should have added that… plant a tree.
Your blog content is interesting, the writing tone is friendly, and the many (computer guru added?) features are awesome !!
The suggestions in this post for small lifestyle changes may be personally beneficial and are appreciated by this follower to that extent. Not sure, however, if the natural timetable for geologic cycles of worldwide heating and cooling can be significantly slowed or accelerated for a long term by manipulation of any existing human activities. Still, we are divinely inspired to be good stewards of the land
..
QwkDrw – Thanks for the kind words, it’s brilliant that you’re enjoying my writing, I’m flattered and will pass you comments on to my computer boffin too.
Re climate change, maybe you’re right and nothing much can be done about it now. But I like to think that there is hope and that the sum of many small changes by people all over the world could make a difference. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain for our children and grandchildren.
Hi Annabel and thanks for opening up this vital subject in your blog to your many readers. I guess my comment is directed at QwkDrw and to him/her I humbly pose the following three part proposition.
1. If the rapid change to climate we are witnessing is due to human activity and we fix it, we’re OK.
2. If the rapid change to climate we are witnessing is NOT due to human activity and we ‘fix it’ we’re still OK and as a bonus we have cleaner air, sea and soil.
3. If the rapid change to climate IS caused by human activity and we DO NOT address it, we are in deep doo-doo!
The cost of becoming carbon neutral is unknown, but I feel that if we directed all the energy and resources we found to face up to political threats like Germany, Japan, Vietnam, Saddam, the Taliban, you name it, we could be carbon neutral within a few years. But we won’t. Why?
Because we are being told constantly that the economy must take precedence over such concerns as climate change. That should not surprise us. For most of us, we now live to serve the economy where logic tells us the economy should exist to serve us!
Billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent and will be forgone in carbon taxes as we prop up big polluters like coal miners, aluminium smelters and oil burning car manufacturers while we starve emerging green industries.
All we can do about that is write and vote, and I am delighted that you, as a writer, have kicked off this vital debate in your blog at the personally achievable level you have. Well done.
Implied also, is a recommendation we partially withdraw from the industrial economy in small ways to recapture more natural, healthy and socially rewarding ways of doing things while reducing our carbon footprint. ‘Thinking globally and acting locally’.
Amen to that!
Stafford – Great input thanks. I do think the politicians are talking about doing something but whether they will actually get round to doing anything remains to be seen. Maybe not, because they have to keep big businesses that are environmentally uncool happy since they hold the purse strings.
I like the ‘think globally and act locally’ catchphrase and I like the idea that each of us can make a difference. We’re all thinking human beings who can control our own destiny and I believe that we can also make a positive contribution to the environmental future too.
And, by the way, I bought a litlle scooter like the one in your post, but was shocked to discover it uses about 4.5 litres/100Km,! That’s about the same as a small diesel car or the iconic Prius hybrid!
Bring on the electrics!
I have a simple tip that many people overlook. When you aren’t charging your cell phone, that charger still takes a little bit of electricity being plugged up. So don’t forget when the phone is charged, take the charger out of the wall as well.
Support ecotourism so that they wont cut down the trees is another way to go green