The IPCC tells us we must reduce our carbon emissions to 70-80% of present levels in order to mitigate future climate changes.
Scientists tell us 350 is the most important number on the planet. To preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed, and to which life on Earth is adapted, CO2 must be reduced from its current 385 parts-per-million to 350 parts-per-million.
What will this look like? How can we do it?
80% CO2 reduction by 2050 - A How-To guide:
(please bear with us - this page is still under construction)
7. Re-learning to Feed Ourselves
9. Turning Transport on its Tail
10. Water Wisdom
11. Get in Touch with the Earth
14. Voice your Vote
15. Tell a Friend
16. A constantly-moving standard
A little disclaimer here: "Solving" global warming is a misleading term. Global warming is already underway. We cannot "stop" nor "solve" it. We have, however, TREMENDOUS ability to influence how bad it gets. There is a lot we can do to mitigate global warming - to make the impacts be much less. But "Global Warming Solutions" makes a much better soundbite.
Solving global warming boils down to just one thing: significantly reducing our net carbon emissions. How do we do this? Through "energy descent" - reducing the amount of energy we use. At home, in the office, in industry and agriculture. In our transportation and travel choices. In our food and patterns of consumption. Across the board.
Waste reduction and efficiency are great starts. Why burn fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gasses to produce power we don't really need? Habit change is a big one - presently we're just not in the habit of thinking about the energy we consume.
But the changes will get bigger. They'll have to. Merely switching from voracious consumption of a conventional product to a "greener" one will be insufficient. Yes, solar and wind and wave, renewable power sources, will help ease the transition. But as we move past Waste and through Efficiency, we will need to ReThink how much energy we need to use. We'll have to consider which uses we most need to apply it to.
“The supply of fossil fuels that has put an end to scarcity in much of the Western world and continues to drive the dizzying economic growth of China and India, [environmentalist Bill] McKibben argues, is
‘a one-time gift.’ And rather than continue to gorge, we ought to be investing our surplus in figuring out how to live on less.” (source: Salon.org)We must invest our remaining fossil fuel resources in the transition to a Permaculture, a more Permanent human Culture. A human lifestyle which is truly Sustainable.
Why 80% CO2 reduction by 2050? (outside link)
Permaculture resources (outside link)
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." --Albert Einstein
The Timeline to Sustainability
Use Sustainability as your Yardstick
Permaculture Principles - David Holmgren (outside link)
LADWP green power (outside link)
My solar-powered, wind-powered clothes dryer
Beat the Heat with Passive Cooling
On Nuclear Power - How do you propose we clean up all the mess? - Rob Hopkins (outside link)
Joanna Macy, Nuclear Guardianship (outside link)
5. Practice the 4Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rebuy
UnShopping (outside link)
Voluntary Simplicity - The Simple Living Network (outside link)
$100 Holiday by Bill McKibben (outside link)
"We can compost and conserve all we want at home. But as soon as we hit the office, we turn into triplicate-printing, paper-cup-squashing, run-our-computers-all-night-so-the-boss-thinks-we're-working earth befoulers. One office worker can use a quarter ton of materials in a year--which includes 10,000 pieces of copier paper. Heating, cooling and powering office space are responsible for almost 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. and gobble more than 70% of total electricity usage. Commuters spew 1.3 billion tons of CO2 a year. Computers in the office burn $1 billion worth of electricity annually--and that's when they're not producing a lick of work."
-- from Time Magazine, "Going Green at the Office," Jun. 7, 07
7. Re-learning to Feed Ourselves
Why Eat Local Food? (outside link)
Why Organic? (outside link)
The Slow Food Movement (Los Angeles convivium) (outside link)
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program - pocket guide for consumers
Fashions change all the time. If you follow fashions, styles which were really popular last year no longer seem cool today. It’s tempting to throw them ‘away’ and get new ones, but this makes LOTS of waste. There really is no place called ‘away.’ It really means overfilled landfills. And it means oil, pollution and greenhouse gasses to make and transport all those building materials. Say no to the waste. Choose home decor which will last and satisfy you for a very long time.
--adapted from 10 Things You Can Do About Global Warming (Yes, even if you're not yet an adult)Functional Landscaping:
* Backyard Wildlife Habitats
* Edible plants, herbs
* Use shade trees - LADWP shade tree program (outside link)Beat the Heat with Passive Cooling
Clean and Green: The Complete Guide to Non-Toxic and Environmentally Safe Housekeeping, by Annie Berthold-Bond (outside link)
9. Turning Transport on its Tail
Our Sustainable Transportation Day
Meditations on airflight (outside link)
(please bear with us - this page is still under construction)
rainwater harvesting, graywater
11. Get in Touch with the Earth
"Understand how fossil fuels power our lifestyle today. Big cars get us around town. Planes fly us away on vacation. Trucks and planes bring our food and clothes from very far away. Fossil fuels power the electricity in our computers, our toys. In a future with less greenhouse gases, we’ll have to change all those habits that rely on fossil fuels. Get used to the idea that fuel-intensive Star Wars spaceships aren’t a realistic future."
--from 10 Things You Can Do About Global Warming (Yes, even if you're not yet an adult)
“Most of us who have children consider the securing of our children’s future as the highest priority to which to devote our time and our money.
We pay for their education and food and clothes, make wills for them, and buy life insurance for them, all with the goal of helping them to enjoy good lives 50 years from now.
It makes no sense for us to do these things for our individual children, while simultaneously doing things undermining the world in which our children will be living 50 years from now.”
-- Jared Diamond, CollapseRaising Children to a Climate Change Future
10 Things You Can Do About Global Warming (Yes, even if you're not yet an adult)
a booklet for children.
Reading level grades 4-8.
(please bear with us - this page is still under construction)
Participate via action lists at
* Union of Concerned Scientists
* NRDC
* Environmental Defense
Parish environmental audit - "a simple environmental audit that you can conduct, to measure your church's progress in meeting our commitment to the Earth" (outside link)
The dynamics of cultural change - Alan AtKisson (outside link)
16. A constantly-moving standard
Think of it as a constantly-moving standard: Are we constantly doing what is more respectful, less damaging to the earth than we did last year?
--paraphrased from Arthur Waskow
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