Global warming and climate change have become a real threat to mankind in recent years because the weather conditions have been changed dramatically, leading to devastating tropical storms, floods affecting several countries almost every spring, droughts due to high temperatures and the lack of precipitation during the summer, and much colder winters than before.
Global warming and climate change, are both caused by the high level of air pollution produced by our daily activity on the planet.
The human civilization consumes huge amounts of energy every, and this energy is mostly produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.
These fossil resources of energy (especially coal), are generating impressive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while burning.
All the greenhouse gases produced by the human activity on the planet (during the past two centuries) have been accumulating into the upper layers of the atmosphere, and they have created some kind of gas blanket that traps the energy of the Sun and warms the surface of the planet above the normal temperature, which leads to global warming.
The gas blanket in the upper atmosphere that is causing global warming consists of gases such as: water vapors, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide (N2O) and many others.
How To Reduce Global Warming?
We can all contribute to reduce the effect of global warming by lowering the level of pollution produced by us every day and simply by modifying our way of living into one that is more friendly with the environment.
1. Drive Your Car Less Often
If you own a car that burns gasoline or diesel, you should use it less often in order to reduce the level of air pollution produced by your vehicle.
For short trips you can simply walk or use a bicycle, this will increase your stamina and will turn you into a fit person.
Use carpooling if you live in a crowded area or you have a job with colleagues that have similar routes with yours.
Sharing the vehicle with others will reduce transportation costs and will produce less air pollution in the area.
Carpooling is often encouraged by the local authorities because is a measure that reduces the level of pollution, traffic congestion and is a good way to avoid the periods when fuel prices are high.
2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Recycling is one of the most important activities that we can do to keep the environment clean and to save the natural resources.
It is very important to dispose any waste that we have in the proper manner (we can recycle almost everything), and this way landfills will remain empty.
Learn how to use the resources in a smarter way.
By reducing your energy consumption you will generate less pollution in the environment. and you will pay smaller energy bills.
By reducing the spending on new products and learning how to reuse a product (instead of buying a new one) you will generate less waste.
If you learn how to use less energy, and you will buy new products less often, you will become a more efficient person.
3. Switch To LED Bulbs
You know that LED light bulbs are consuming much less energy (10 to 20 times less) than a regular incandescent light bulb?
If you, or your older relatives keep using incandescent or CFL light bulbs in the house, you should replace them right away with LED light bulbs because you will get the same amount of light, for much less energy.
Besides this, the LED light bulbs will live much longer, so you will buy new light bulbs less often.
4. Buy Greener And Smarter Appliances
Technology is evolving today at a faster pace than before, and the home appliances are becoming smarter and friendlier to the environment.
Buying new home appliances might not be cheap today, but the new technology will work better and faster, will be more energy-efficient (friendlier to the environment) and will save some money on energy bills.
5. Install A Solar PV System
Solar energy has become more affordable today, so what are you waiting for?
A solar panel system mounted on the rooftop of your house might represent an important long-term investment for you today, but don’t forget that any solar PV system will pay off all its costs in a time period of 5 to 10 years (not to mention the tax credits provided by the government for installing the system).
A solar PV system will generate free and clean energy in the sunny days and will significantly reduce your energy bills.
6. Use Hot Water More Efficiently
To heat the water we usually use an energy source such as electricity or a fuel that can be burned to produce heat.
Burning fuel (usually fossil) to generate electricity or heat will release carbon emissions, so in order to reduce the level of pollution we need to use less hot water.
A reduction in hot water consumption can be achieved only by replacing the warm bath with a quick shower.
Is more practical and energy-efficient to use the shower instead of filling the bathtub with hot water.
7. Install A Smart Thermostat
A smart thermostat can turn your central heating system into a very efficient heat source.
Especially during the winter season when the temperatures decrease, the energy consumed to heat the house reaches high values and this will lead to a pretty big hole in our pocket.
By installing a smart thermostat you can set the desired temperature for each day of the week and each time period of the day, and you can control your central heating system remotely using an application installed on your phone.
The smart thermostat will improve the comfort of your house and will lower the energy bills pretty much.
8. Reduce Your Waste
Lowering the consumption will reduce the volume of the waste produced by you every day.
Learn to be more efficient in all your activities and this way you will find that you can live a healthy and happy life with less.
9. Turn The Lights Off In Empty Rooms
If you want to be sure that you are not consuming energy where is not needed you can install a movement sensor in each room of the house.
The movement sensor will light up the bulbs when somebody will enter the room and will turn them off when the room will be empty.
The movement sensor might cost some money, but you will save a lot of energy by using it.
10. Avoid Products With Excessive Packaging
A lot of packaging means that you will throw a large volume of waste into the garbage, which will end up in the landfills and will pollute the environment.
Avoid packaged products, buy in bulk, avoid take-away food, reuse packaging if possible, buy reusable products and properly recycle all your packaging.
11. Unplug All Electrical Devices During The Night
During the night or when you are gone from home for a longer period of time you should unplug all your devices.
A study says that unplugging all the appliances during the night could save you up to 10% on your electricity bill.
12. Learn To Save Energy In Everything You Do
If you learn how to save energy (set your thermostat to heat your house only when you are home, install movement sensors in every room to turn the light off when the room is empty, unplug your appliances during the night and so on).
If you save energy your carbon footprint will become smaller and the environment will become cleaner.
13. Eat Natural Foods
If your diet will contain less meat and more natural food, your body will release less methane into the atmosphere and you will feel much better.
Methane is a greenhouse gas, so by eating less meat, you will reduce the effects of global warming and climate change.
14. Insulate Your Home
An insulated house will lose less heat during the winter and will keep the house cool during the summer.
If you lose less heat during the winter and you keep the heat outside your walls during the summer your energy bills will be reduced because you will consume less energy to heat or cool the house.
15. Change The Oil And The Filters Of Your Vehicle Every 10,000 Miles Or Yearly
If you change the oil and the filters of the car once a year or every 10,000 miles you will keep the engine in very good condition and the level of the carbon emissions released by the vehicle in factory parameters.
A healthy engine will live longer.
16. Plant At Least One Tree Every Year
If you have your own yard, you can plant a large number of trees. If you don’t have your own land try to plant at least one tree in a public area among other trees.
CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but trees and green plants are consuming CO2 and other harmful gasses (sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide) and release oxygen.
A very large number of trees can reduce the level of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
These are the top tips on how to fight against global warming and climate change.
Conclusion
If you become a person that saves energy, plants at least one tree per year, reduces consumption to produce less waste, eats less meat, drives the car less often and starts using renewable energy such as solar or wind power, you will become a green person that is healthier, richer and a real protector of the environment.
Danny: Does it matter to you that there has never been a published scientific research study confirming the erroneous claims you’ve made in your article? Seemingly, it should matter.
Climate change can always be a threat to some, just as it always has in the past. However, like in the past, most of us will simply adapt. In fact, for the most part, the slight warming (only 0.8 degrees C since 1880 – far too insignificant to notice) we experienced in recent years while still coming out of the last ice age, has been beneficial and the extra CO2 in our atmosphere has helped considerably in greening some of our deserts.
There has been no research of which I’m aware which definitely confirms that mankind can have any more than a very insignificant impact on global warming. If you know of any, please share the link(s) to the scientific research paper(s) with your audience.
Otherwise, it really seems, based on your climate knowledge, that you should have chosen another topic…
Danny. I guess being a writer for the “clean energy sector’ you must believe the warming narrative. But please. Your opening paragraph is pure “Al Gore” propaganda.
The temperatures today are not warmer than anytime in past history.
CO2 levels have been higher in the past.
Seal levels have been higher in the past (and not rising much at the moment)
Ice caps have had less ice in the past – and more ice now than in recent years.
We are entering a new solar minimum which will result in a colder decade to come.
Hydrocarbons ARE clean energy H-C-H.
Please do some actual research and substantiate what you write with facts.
Alan, it is good to see that someone is actually following some of the real science. But I will make a couple minor corrections.
Temperatures over the last couple hundred years have been following about a 60 year cycle of about 30 years warming followed by 30 years cooling. That is one of the reasons why the hottest temperatures during the last 200 years occurred in the 1930’s, with 1936 being the hottest year on record. It is also why the 1970’s were much cooler, and the “climate alarmists” were chanting new ice age.
There are a lot of pollutants being dumped into the atmosphere by mining, industry and people driving vehicles, but CO2 is not one of them. CO2 is the main building block of life on earth and there would be no life without it. That is one of the reasons that the planet has been getting greener as the level of CO2 has risen. The level of CO2 had gotten dangerously low (All life on earth would die out if the level dropped below about 180 ppm) and finally started rising again in the 1940’s. All of Man’s contribution to this is less than a third of the CO2 necessary to cause this rise.