I recently saw a documentary of glacier erosion in Bolivia which in a few years will rob the country of much of its supply of fresh water.
This came after seeing another documentary a few weeks earlier talking about receding snow and ice in Antarctica and glacier erosion in the northern hemisphere.
However complicated the theories of global warming may be and however hard it is to make an absolute determination about the truth of these theories, it certainly does appear that some of the key predictions of this theory are being realized.
So what can we do? Firstly we must accept as fact that some damage has already been done due to the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that we have already pumped into the atmosphere and sometime down the road the results of this problem will have to be addressed.
Given that we can't take back what we have already done then how can we reduce our CO2 emissions going into the future? My thought on this is that one of the biggest (and certainly lowest cost) options, is to take measures to use less energy as individuals.
Just think for a moment, if like me you live in the United States and you all reduce your energy consumption by half then US CO2 emissions will drop by about at least a third of the current value even if industry does nothing at all.
You might think that cutting energy consumption to half your current usage is unrealistic but given that the USA is one of the highest per capita energy users this goal is not actually too far fetched.
So how do we save energy? In order to figure this out we first have to look at how we use energy.
The three biggest areas of energy use by individuals are as follows: 1.
In the home 2.
In our travel 3.
Not recycling our waste In the last case while we do not specifically use energy fuel to dispose of our waste somebody has to, and by more recycling the energy used in disposing of waste can be reduced.
Taking the first case, in the home, it should be obvious that better insulation in our houses can make a major impact on our energy consumption in the home.
Also intelligent setting of summer and winter temperature levels in the home can make a sizeable difference to our energy consumption.
Our houses present many different opportunities for energy savings.
Please keep a look out for my upcoming 'Eco House' articles, where I will be presenting a series of articles on energy saving measures in the home.
In the second case 'in our travel' it is clear that any measures that reduce the number of gallons of gasoline we burn each day will directly reduce our CO2 emissions.
In my forthcoming article 'Gasoline how can we use less?' I will look at ways that we can make our travel more efficient in terms of energy consumption.
In the last case the problem is the energy required to dispose of our waste.
Remember that much of our waste is incinerated.
The alternative, land dumps is often worse in any case it has been shown that dangerous gases which may lead to uncontrolled burning in land dumps in a forthcoming article I will address the issue of recycling in 'Why recycle?'.
In a time of increasing fuel prices now is just the time to really start working to reduce energy consumption.
If you go back to my initial assumption that it is possible to reduce your energy consumption by half, think of the saving on fuel bills.
That has got to be worth having.
If like me you are convinced that the greenhouse effect is real then by saving energy you have a win/win situation.
You end up helping to save the environment and save yourself money at the same time.
Happy saving, Simon