Fighting Back Against Climate Change

When considering the issue of climate change, it’s easy to shirk the blame toward the corporate industries. The iconic image of factory smokestacks funneling black, ozone-depleting chemicals into the atmosphere has been branded only too clearly into our minds. Nonetheless, while it’s true that the industrial and commercial sectors are responsible for a sizeable chunk of our country’s GHG emissions, the onus cannot fall solely on them. There are plenty of methods that the average person can adopt in order to succeed in reducing their personal contribution to global warming.

Incorporating sustainable products and practices into one’s life can go a long way to reducing GHG emissions. Light fixtures are a prime example of this. Incandescent bulbs that show the Energy Star label are far more "eco-friendly" than those that don’t. Better yet, fluorescent bulbs in not only the most commonly-used fixtures, but all of them, can help greatly toward reducing unnecessary emissions. Turning off lights when leaving rooms and using limited lighting are two additional ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On that note, consumers need not limit themselves to Energy Star lights; there are a variety of Energy Star products available for purchase that are beneficial to the environment.

Consumers can help reduce their personal emissions by conserving energy and using it efficiently. One way to do this is to insulate homes. Insulation precludes heat from escaping, thereby reducing one’s heating bill. Furthermore, alternate heating methods can also improve sustainability. These green varieties of power comes from renewable sources such as wind and sun, and can even have economic benefits as well as environmental ones.

One major and important way of reducing carbon emissions is to conserve the amount of fossil fuels consumed. There are a variety of fuel-efficient vehicles on the market, and even ones that employ alternate methods of fuel. Carpooling, public transit, and more environmentally efficient transportation methods (ie. walking, biking, etc.) all help to reduce the amount of time a car spends on the road, and therefore the amount of carbon emitted. Traditional push mowers, unlike gas or electric mowers, consume no fossil fuels and emit no greenhouse gases. Similarly, raking is much more environmentally-friendly than leaf-blowing, as rakes (obviously) do not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

There are many methods that successfully reduce GHG emissions. Many of these, such as recycling or tree-planting, are common sense. It takes less energy to recycle a product than it does to produce one, and trees naturally absorb carbon and serve as a carbon sink. By employing as many of these techniques as possible into our daily lives, we can successfully fight back in the battle against climate change.