Abrupt Climate Change

Saving the environment appears such a big task. Where does one begin? Some things are straightforward. Don’t litter. Don’t damage. Do not waste resources. But what precisely does this involve? What will the common person do to be saving the environment?

The key is in identifying actual things, that are fast to do and keep an eye out for, once folk know. If it does not take too much time, does not involve a large amount of effort, a huge number of folks will happily walk the trail to feel a bit more secure about the state of the Earth tomorrow. I find that like every other dauntingly great task, this one appears much more doable when we break it up into bits. First, make a not of the words / issues that happen on the topic of saving the environment : plastic, paper, trees, energy. We can keep adding to these as and when new words occur.

Plastic : That is a difficult first one. Plastic is terribly helpful to us and really dangerous to the environment. What can be done to discover a compromise my comfort and conscience can live with? Instead of throwing plastic into the dustbin, sell it to specific recycle shops. That money can be put to good use, or into a box to give to affiliations that work for the environment. Passing a little time a day at the end of picnics, walks or on treks to make the places we visit cleaner. A fast fifteen mins effort by a group can make fast work of the plastic around in a natural environment and evoke the people watching them into similar acts.

Energy : That sure is a huge luxury and need today. Again, it’s a matter of using what we have cleverly. Turn off lights, fans, and anything that consumes electricity when not in use. Reduce your bills by exploring solar energy. Switch to lower consumption versions of appliances. Turn off all things not required when leaving home. These measures will help extend the application of existing power resources as well as save cash on electricity bills. 

Paper : Using the paper you have, before purchasing OTT quantities. Old printouts, and other unwelcome paper can be stapled together for a fast notepad to write notes on, instead of use good paper sheets. Passing schoolbooks to other needy scholars helps support their educational costs as well as decreases the amount of new books brought into use. Use recycled paper. It is superb for special purposes and creates a responsible image for you.

Trees : Its sort of a part of the woods, but the separate mention is usually because trees are also in cities, hamlets, everywhere. Dodge cutting a tree if you can. If you know of a tree being cut needlessly, do something. Plant trees in open areas where you can. Enjoy the trees and the pleasures they bring, instead of thinking about them as lost property. That well-invested property is helping you breathe.

Having a young child and pets in the house, homemade environmentally friendly cleaners are of great importance to me. By making household cleaners myself, I can ensure that they are safe for my daughter to be around and I feel better knowing I am not exposing her to harmful, toxic chemicals.

My favorite homemade environmentally friendly cleaner is super simple and cleans very thoroughly. Actually, I really do not have to make anything; the safe products are already in my pantry. White vinegar and baking soda. White vinegar works wonders on countertops, hard floors, and just about anything else in the bathroom and kitchen; just dilute the white vinegar with equal parts water. Baking soda sprinkled on a damp sponge scrubs grime really well. Use on sinks, showers, and to tackle bathtub rings.

For many people, the thought of doing something to cut emissions and prevent global warming is a drastic one, as many people think they would have to give up their sport utility vehicles for a hybrid or equip their homes with solar panels and go off of the electrical grid. One of the more overlooked ideas that has slowly grown steam after being successful on the corporate level is the idea of purchasing a carbon credit.

Companies in countries around the world buy carbon credits to allow them to emit certain pollutants into the air at certain levels. Each credit is a certain cost, of which the money goes into the development of cleaner technologies that can reduce the level of pollution overall over time. Some environmental groups have taken this idea and adapted it to the individual level.

Many groups allow you to calculate through their websites the amount of carbon pollution that you emit as an individual through your daily activity and generate the equivalent cost of a “carbon credit.” This cost equates to the amount of money that would need to be spent to remove that amount of pollution from the environment. The money, as with corporate carbon credit costs, goes towards the creation and development of pollution reducing technology and alternative energy for society as a whole.

Iowa has been besieged with rain.  Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and many communities along the Mississippi.  Many fields in Iowa are still underwater and farmers say it’s too late to replant.  This can only add to higher food prices and higher fuel costs as corn is used to produce ethanol.

Unfortunately today more rain is moving out of Nebraska and into western Iowa.

It’s easy to blame much of what is going on in our environment on global warming.  But sometimes that isn’t the actual answer.  For example, in the United States this year there has been an extremely high number of tornadoes.  A record number in fact.

But is this global warming?  An alternate theory suggests that it’s only the La Nina effect causing violent weather.  For those pushing the global warming issues, this might almost be disappointing.  However for others, it’s comforting that the cause is attributable to the oceanic currents and how they flow.  This is something that will self correct.

Recently climate change activist Tim Flannery came up with a novel idea to help stave off the abruptly changing climate - pump the atmosphere with sulphur gases. Mr Flannery says we need to get on this within the next 5 years.

Now aside from the change in the sky’s color that he admits will happen, what about the smell? For the few of you who don’t know sulphur smells like rotten eggs.

Not sure if this is the best plan for Mother Earth but it’s good to know that novel ideas are being dreamed up.

Websites

• A Modest Proposal to Save the Planet

• Contraction and Convergence—Decreasing global emissions of carbon dioxide with justice and fairness

• Abrupt Climate Change

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

• Apocalypse Now: How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the Earth

• Are We on the Brink of a New “Little Ice Age”?

• Ocean Monitoring Systems

• Should We Be Worried

• Climate

• From Columbia University’s Earth Institute

• Climate Ark

• Climate Change Portal

• EPA Global Warming Site

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Fight Global Warming

• From Environmental Defense

• Global Warming

• From the Sierra Club

• Global Warming: Early Warning Signs

• Interactive map showing the local consequences of global warming

• How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age

• By Thom Hartmann

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• Established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme

• Pentagon Abrupt Climate Change Study

• Global Business Network comments with link to PDF file

• Stop Climate Change

• From Greenpeace

Articles

• Global warming: Between a rock and no place at all

• A view from Bermuda

• Internet Forums and News Reports
  alt.global-warming

• “Abrupt Climate Change” topics in Google Group on global warming