I’ve been part of this fight in a small way longer than most I would guess. Starting back in the 90s. We’ve wasted a lot of time, far too much time. For much of that time the US was the worst offender.
There is still time to reduce the damage we’ve caused. But we really need a lot more commitment by all governments. We need to start holding faceless corporation really responsible for the damage they caused. But we also need as many people as possible to do what they can.
Same story as 16 years ago.
There is no magic bullet that will fix everything, it will take a lot of work in a lot of areas.
- Energy efficient appliances need to be mandatory. We need to keep increasing these efficiencies and have buybacks of old inefficient appliances. This isn’t just Fridges and Dryers, this is also pretty much everything that plugs in that just use electricity while doing nothing.
- Building efficient homes and buildings with proper insulation.
- Reducing Cement usage in building
- Decreasing greatly coal and oil usage and/or cleaning it up at least.
- Renewables, Solar, Wind, Tidal, etc.
- Improved transmission lines.
- Using state of the art, safer nuclear power has to be considered.
- We’ve made great strides in lighting, LEDs have cut energy use significantly and we need to strive towards a goal of 99% LEDs.
- Wash Clothes in cold water
- Plant more trees
- and there are many more small things.
- Low emission or no emission cars and trucks is a big one
- Fly less, improve the emissions of airlines
- Shipping is another often overlooked area. Freighters are notoriously dirty.
I installed Solar Panels on my last house back in 2003 and I was only middle class and not rich. Thankfully they worked well and paid for themselves and then some.
Switching to CFLs and then LED bulbs and being a hawk about turning off lights when not in use.
Very small, but I use cloth bags mostly and make a small difference with less plastic bags.
Cold water washing works well, especially with detergents designed for it. It is sadly hard to find the inexpensive Tide Cold Water, but I have mostly used that for about 10 years now.
When I buy appliances, I always consider energy efficiency. Good for the environment and my wallet in the long run.
This year in our new home, I upgraded my water heater to a super efficient one and got my attic insulated to an r46 rating. There is interest free loan system to pay for all this through the gas company. My energy use is already significantly lower than the prior residents last year. We have 4 people vs. 2. It should be more significant heading into the heating season. My house stayed cooler. We never run out of hot water either as a nice bonus. The old heater did.
When I commuted 20,000 miles a year, I bought a Prius. 11 years later, my daughter is driving it. Great car, reliable and so gas efficient.
If you commute over 15,000 miles a year, please consider a hybrid or EV. It makes a real difference.
I’m going to stop now as I can keep going for quite a while more.
Think Green, think Clean and Recycle and Reuse.