30 mars 2007

Development: the global warming survival guide

The Global warming survival guide:
Can one person slow global warming? Sure! You can!... along with scientists, businesses and governments, we can create paths to cut carbon emissions. TIME magazine presents in its last edition a guide to some of the planet's best ideas, with an assessment of their impact and feel—good factor. Of course most of this was prepared as the US for reference, but most of it remains valid elsewhere... Strangely enough, this article prones in many respects going back in time to a sustainable lifestyle, forgetting about 'globalisation' practises & 'benefits' and capitalist consumption patterns...basically, adopt the lifestyle of the german alternatives...

here the 51 things you can do to save the world:
1. Turn food into fuel
2. Improve residential energy efficiency
3. Change Your Lightbulbs
4. 'Light Up' Your City (using LEDs for public lighting)
5. Pay the Carbon Tax
6. Ditch the Mansion (downsize the place you live)
7. Hang Up a Clothes Line (in Brussels, you're kidding)
8. Recycle old clothes, in particular polyester ones
9. Build 'green' buildings
10. Turn Up the Geothermal Heat
11. Take Another Look at Vintage Clothes
12. Capture the Carbon
13. Work Close to Home
14. Ride the Bus (& the tram, & the subway)
15. Move to a High-Rise (yes!)
16. Pay Your Bills Online
17. Open a Window (& use less AC)
18. Ask the Experts For An Energy Audit of Your Home
19. Buy Green Power, At Home or Away
20. Check the Labels before buying
21. Isolate your Water Heater
22. Skip the Steak (international meat industry generates roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions)
23. Copy California (planning to reduce the state's emissions 80% by 2050)
24. Just Say No to Plastic Bags
25. Support local farmers
26. Plant a bamboo fence (it absorbs CO2)
27. Straighten up and fly right (until tele-transport arrives...)
28. Have a green wedding
29. Remove the tie (mostly in summer, less AC)
30. Shut off your computer
31. Wear green eye shadow (ecofriendly makeup)
32. Kill the Lights At Quitting Time
33. Rearrange the Heavens and the Earth (new technologies to restrict the Earth's overheating)
34. Rake in the Fall Colors
35. End the Paper Chase (buy more recycled paper, go paperless)
36. Play the Market (carbon-emissions trading)
37. Think Outside the Packaging (no paper no plastic)
38. Trade Carbon for Capital (Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism)
39. Make Your Garden Grow (use homemade fertilizer or none)
40. Get a Carbon Budget (a revolutionary one!)
41. Fill your car Up With Passengers
42. Pay For Your Carbon Sins
43. Move to London's New Green Zone (the city's zero-carbon housing development to open by 2010)
44. Check Your Tires
45. Make One Right Turn After Another (if you can...)
46. Plant a Tree in the Tropics
47.If You Must Burn Coal, Do it Right
48. Drive Green on the Scenic Route (rent hybrid cars or use biodiesel fuel)
49. Set a Higher Standard (as regards Carbon-emission limits)
50. Be aggressive about passive housing (eg. low cost loans for those who build a passive house)
51. Consume Less, Share More, Live Simply! (it nearly sound buddhist... Live simply. Meditate. Consume less. Think more. Get to know your neighbors. Borrow when you need to and lend when asked)

...and I would add another one:
go politically active!: participate in NGOs that make political pressure on local, regional and state governments to vote sustainable policies and laws that contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, save energy, and give fiscal benefits to individuals and business who do!Contribute to organise local or global campaigns, demonstrate. Be active, don't wait for others to do it for you!

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