What Are YOU Doing About The Inconvenient Truth?
It might seem a bit strange to see this post on this blog. But I just saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth, and I was touched by it. It seems very hard to deny that we humans are responsible for the current runaway effect. That means we are responsible for fixing it!
So, I was wondering, what am I doing/going to do about it? I came up with the following list. It’s still short, but it’s a start!
- Since a few months, we have made it a habbit to completely turn off appliances that normally are in standby.
- I immediately remove chargers for mobiles etc after usage.
- We’ve been complaining to the owner of our apartment to replace our burner (water heater). So since a few months we have a new one, including a programmable thermostat, that is 40% more efficient! This should also have a positive impact on our monthly gas bill
- We put as much dishes as possible in the dishwasher, before turning it on.
- We try to keep the fridge filled, which makes it more efficient.
- I try to eat less meat. Livestock produces greenhouse gasses, and consumes lots of the earth’s resources that can be better spent otherwise. So I not only started to eat smaller portions of meat, but also started experimenting with vegetarian products. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to, or even want to go fully vegetarian. But eating less meat ain’t hard at all, and it’s also healthier!
- We buy and eat more fresh foods, as opposed to frozen foods.
- Since I started working from home 2 months ago, I use my car a lot less.
- I’ve added the pledge widget for An Inconvenient Truth to my blog, and writing about it, to encourage people to see the movie, and take some action.
Most of these are small things, and easy to do. Other things we’re gonna try are replacing some of the light bulbs with the fluorescent bulbs. Turning the heat down is also a good measure, but will be very hard for us, since we hate having cold
There are a lot of good tips at the climate crisis website, and on several other sites.
So, tell me, what are YOU doing, or going to do about it?
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December 9th, 2006 at 2:53 am
nothing. it is bogus. read this;
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Global+Warming%3A+An+Unstoppable+1%2C500-Year+Cycle&btnG=Google+Search
December 9th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
i too saw it. i too experienced his graphs of terrible things to come…that have absolutely no reference point.
i agree with ralf.
December 9th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Ralf: yes, there are natural cycles, that obviously also have an influence. But this isn’t about cycles, this is about the runaway effect not seen in 650000 years.
Charles: what do you mean by ‘no reference point’? It’s a graph of CO2 and temperature measurements in time. The effects seen in this graph can be experienced today, just by going outside.
To clarify why I wrote this post, I’ll copy-paste a post I made on Steve Pavlina’s forum:
I’ve been reading about global warming since childhood, and for the last couple of years I’ve experienced it’s effects first-hand when going outside.
Now, I’m currently reading the book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey (it’s at the top of Steve’s list). The first habit is being pro-active, it goes about being part of the solution instead of the problem, and focussing your efforts on things within your circle of influence.
Seeing the movie made me realize that the problem of global warming is actually both within my circle of concern and within my circle of influence, so I’m trying to act pro-actively and to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Ignoring this problem won’t make it go away.
December 9th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Maybe 0.01% of scientists (often oil-company funded) are in denail about man-made climate change. Pretty much everyone else agrees its happening, and that we are causing it.
Its not suprising so many people cling to that 0.01% though, because its like listening to a doctor telling you that you can eat what you like and not put on weight. Its total bullshit, but it makes you feel better.
If 99 doctors tell you that you need to have an operation or you will die, and 1 doctor says just dont worry about it, who would you listen to?
I’m tending to agree with the vast majority of climate experts on this one. We need to cut carbon emmissions. That means smaller cars, less journeys, and way less international plane trips.
December 9th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
“Maybe 0.01% of scientists (often oil-company funded) are in denail about man-made climate change. Pretty much everyone else agrees its happening, and that we are causing it.”
Huh. The fact that it’s “common knowledge” has no bearing on its truth.
Cliffski, your statement accurately summarizes everything that is WRONG with global warming research nowadays. The subject has become politicized. People who disagree are immediately demonized and accused of being in the pay of the “Republicans” or the “oil companies”.
Which means that we are no longer in the realm of science. If you do scientific studies KNOWING that there are conclusions you are NOT ALLOWED TO REACH (ie, either global warming isn’t happening or it isn’t in the control of man), then what you do cannot honestly be called science.
I am all for accurate, objective studies on man’s impact on the environment. The current political climate makes such studies impossible, because those studies may come to conclusions the environmentalists won’t like.
And as for your “often oil-company funded” crack…I could just as easily mention that most of the scientists who ARE screaming about global warning are associated with groups like ANSWER, who are using environmentalism as a club to attack western capitalist society and the American economy in particular. Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, left his own organization when he saw it being subverted by people who had no real interest in helping the environment but wanted to use the concept of environmentalism to attack businesses.
Besides, weren’t these the same people who claimed 30 years ago that we were about to experience a new ice age?
December 10th, 2006 at 12:50 am
“Huh. The fact that it’s “common knowledge” has no bearing on its truth.”
This is true. But what is the truth in this case? A lot of people have used scientific methods to measure the temperature and CO2 levels. These measurements show that both are rising faster and higher than ever before, and that they are linked. I believe these measurements to be true. I don’t believe my thermometer is lying to me out of fear of being demonized or accused
Next, there’s the debate whether humans are causing it. This seems to be highly likely, but we may never know this with 100% certainty. For me, the evidence is compelling enough that I choose to believe we are at least in part causing it.
However, whether we are causing it or not doesn’t change the fact that it’s happening!
Next, is global warming a bad thing? Given the drastic changes in the weather a lot of people on this earth have experienced in the last years, and given the observations being done all over the world, I tend to believe that global warming is worse than no global warming. I also believe it can lead to bigger disasters than those we experienced recently.
So, what is the most intelligent thing to do for a conscious person? To deny it, or to try to do something about it? This is up to you, but I chose to try to do something about it. I came to the conclusion that it’s not all that hard to decrease your CO2 emissions, and that it can even be good for your health and your wallet!
To conclude, for me this whole issue has nothing to do with politics. But I learned today that a lot of people view a statement concerning global warming as a political statement. This is very sad…
December 10th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Dont try and paint me as anti science. I’ve been married to a scientist for 6 years.
Show me a government funded (truly independent) body that believes we are not experienceing man-made climate change, then I’ll listen.
This isnt an academic debate any more. There is a serious deadline involved. If after 30 years of arguing about it, the anti-climate change people suddenly realise they were talking crap, it will be far too late to do anything about it.
Even if you though there was only a 10% chance of the climate change theory being right, you’d be totally insane not to act on it. If someone told you there was a 10% chance your house was on fire, would you not call the firefighters?
December 11th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
If anyone but Al “the bore” Gore had been in the drivers seat I’d give it a go. However, I think it is pure ego to think Humans are causing runaway climate change.
Ever heard of the “Little Ice Age”?
Ever heard of a volcano?
Ever heard of Politics?
This movie is nothing more than a desperate ex-politician trying to make a legacy for himself anyway he can. Thank God he wasn’t President!
“I don’t know what the world may need but a V-8 engine is a good start for me…”
December 11th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Alan, it’s not pure ego, but pure science that has determined this.
I don’t care that it’s Al Gore that made the movie, I only care about the scientific facts presented in it. These same facts can be found elsewhere, and have been in scientific magazines and on websites for decades.
You should put your opinion or prejudices about the messenger aside, and listen to the message instead. If your house is on fire (to use cliffski’s example), and Al Gore told you to run outside, would you stay inside just because you don’t like the guy?
Speaking about volcanoes, there a very nice example of what can happen to the climate when changing the atmosphere’s composition!
December 11th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
[…] I’m happy someone is making a documentary game like this! I hope it will help to educate people about what can happen to our climate. When you read some of the comments made on my previous post on global warming, and in this forum thread, you can see that educating people is still very necessary! […]
December 13th, 2006 at 2:47 am
“graph of CO2 and temperature measurements in time”………well read this”the studies also show thattemperature changes preceded the Co2 changes by about 800 years. Thus arming has prodused more atmospheric Co2, rather than more Co2 producing global warming. THis makes scince becouse the Co2 holds vastly more co2 than the air, and warming forces it to realease some of its gases.”…. so mabe we should be worrying about about making eventions that will help us adapt to this global warming….. and this gives us more evidence that people are NOt the cause of glbal warming than you could ever provide that we are the cause of it..