Global Warming smokestack

Published on November 28th, 2008 | by ziggy

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5 Ways to Prevent Global Warming That Big Media Won’t Tell You

November 28th, 2008 by

Repeatedly, you’ll hear or read the same suggestions as to what you can do to prevent global warming. Big media sources typically suggest very simplistic things like changing your light bulbs to compact fluorescents, buying a hybrid car, or unplugging appliances when they’re not in use.

But you want to make a real difference.

You are not content with the mainstream media’s advice, because you know that there are bigger things to be done, more dramatic actions to be taken to stop climate change from wrecking further havoc upon our precious ecosystems. Here I will share with you some of those bigger solutions that big media won’t tell you.

–> Highly recommended: What is Causing Global Warming?

1.) Avoid high gas prices and carbon emissions

You will avoid rising prices at the gas pump and dramatically reduce your daily carbon emissions by selling your car. Buying a hybrid vehicle is one thing, but you’re still highly dependent upon fossil fuel for energy.

You will become healthier by riding a bicycle. Curb your addiction to cars, sell your vehicle, and become more mobile by using a bike, or public transportation such as the bus, subway, or train. There may even be carsharing programs in your city. There are numerous transportation alternatives to owning and driving a car.

If your daily commute is more than a few miles away from your home, you may want to consider moving to a closer location to your job. Living car-free is a liberating experience and you will learn to prevent global warming on your way to work.

–> You may also like: Global Warming Videos (Best, Funniest, & Most Inspiring)

2.) Eat fresh, local foods for a healthy environment and you

There has been an influx of organic food in supermarkets over the past several years. But of equal importance to consider is where that food is coming from. For example, how much of the produce in your supermarket is being transported halfway around the world? Check the stickers on those apples and peaches and you’ll see ” Produce of Chile”, “Mexico”, or “China”. Also important to note: how much of that food is actually in season? The transportation of food is a major contributor to greenhouse gases.

Easy ways for you to get low carbon food are:

  • Buying things that are actually in season.
  • Buying locally-grown fruits and vegetables at farmers markets.
  • Joining a CSA.

You’ll massively reduce the carbon from your food if you follow the above advice. Plus, eating locally-grown, fresh foods is not only better for the planet, it’s healthier for you, too.

3.) Learn how to reduce your home’s carbon footprint

Do you realize that modern houses are built using synthetic products and other materials with high embodied energy? Sadly, this means that modern homes are huge contributors to global warming. For example, concrete is (amazingly) the second most consumed material on earth, right behind water, and it takes a huge amount of energy to produce it. Not only that, the manufacturing process is highly polluting.

You can lower your energy bills with a home that is designed for maximum energy efficiency. One of the most simple things to consider learning about is passive solar design. Passive solar homes feature smart design considerations that can dramatically decrease the need for active energy heating and cooling systems. In other words, passive solar homes stay cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter with lesser need for air conditioning and heating. Greater energy efficiency equals a lesser carbon footprint.

Explode your conceptions of what a home can really be. You can take a workshop on how to build a straw bale home or a cob building, if you want to take it even further. Both of these natural building techniques stress the use of local and natural building materials, such as straw bales, sand, and clay. Natural building is an important movement towards a lower impact and environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

4.) Keep money in your pocket and carbon out of the air

Globalized, capitalist society thrives on rampant consumerism. And it is this system that is helping to degrade the environment and contribute to global climate change. But you can take a jab at the consumerism machine by reducing your consumption. For example, you can do this by buying used clothing, joining a co-op, and participating in events like Buy Nothing Day. There are endless means by which you can learn to live more simply, and in turn, more lightly upon the earth.

Live happily by simplifying your life. Your carbon footprint will be immediately reduced by consuming less. Big media would never tell you to “consume less” since consumerism is the very thing keeping our broken economy running. (About 70% of the US GDP is attributed to consumer spending, after all.)

You can defy big media, shun consumerism, and in turn, help prevent global climate change and promote a simpler, happier lifestyle. Try it.

5.) Live your values happily with friends

It can be hard to fight global warming if you are not surrounded by people who share your values and support your choices.  However, you can easily change this by moving to an ecovillage. For example, I’ve been living off the grid for over a year in a community striving to fight ecological problems like global warming.

Learn about this amazing place and you’ll be amazed. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage’s mission represents a holistic attempt to tackle ecological and cultural change in a profound way.

You can make a huge difference by supporting ecovillages as they create change, both ecological and cultural, on a grander scale than seen anywhere else in society. There are many ecovillages scattered all over the globe, each with its own organization and mission, but all dedicated to living more lightly upon the earth through various means.

You can have a happier and simpler lifestyle if you live in community. Many ecovillages have visitor programs that allow you to see how wonderful and fulfilling life can when you live more simply and cooperatively.

- – -

You have the power to prevent global warming through personal choice and action. If you want to take dramatic action, these are just a few of the things you can do. There are opportunities for change at every corner of daily life. Big problems require big change. Global warming is one such problem, and the change required to successfully deter future catastrophe demand our immediate attention.

It’s critical that you act right now to share the above information with the world.  Future generations and the world’s poor cannot afford for you to wait for the media to educate people about the actions that really make a difference.

Together, we have the power to fight global climate change.

Image Credits: Señor Codo, Listen Missy!, NatalieMaynor, theentiremikey, Orin Optiglot)

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About the Author

I'm a 26-year-old currently living at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeast Missouri, an intentional community devoted to sustainable living and culture change. Things you might find me doing here (other than blogging) are building with natural materials, gardening, beekeeping, making cheese, candlemaking, and above all else, living simply. You can read about my on-going natural building projects at: http://www.small-scale.net/yearofmud


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  • Indianecogirl

    ziggy, thanks for this article. It is fascinating! I am from India and find the fact that you lived in an eco friendly community for a year amazing. I am writing an article for a blog about how to combat global warming and wonder if I can use some points from your article in this. It will be enormously beneficial and you will be credited through a link in the article that mentions this very page. Please let me know if this is okay. Do you have an e-mail by the way?Mine is arya.rajam1@gmail.com

  • Batgina

    batgina

  • Batgina

    batgina

  • sheldon

    save the planet

  • sheldon

    save the planet

  • Anders

    Great article, but I have to make a few comments :) 
    First of all, the big media, is of course telling us what they want us to hear. But never the less, big media with its small and insignificant means to reduce global warming is playing a very important role in making people like you and me aware of the dangers related to this problem. Very few people today are actually paying serious attention to the matter. It has become a hype to care, but like I said, very few people actually do. If you and all your private followers did actually listen to your list of advise, do you think that the world and the greenhouse gases would be reduced to satisfactory levels? I am afraid not. This is not a problem that can be solved by individuals holding hands and urging for solidarity, unless we can change the industrial cause of emission. The western world, which you and I represent, has done its share of pollution to reach the level of development we have now. And now we are tuning our focus towards the developing world putting restraints and limitations on the less industrialized world to prevent further emission.I suggest you and your fellow Americans start cleaning up in your own back yard, before even looking across your boarders. I realize that your article is not directed to any specific person or nationality, but I think it would make a much bigger difference if the US and other major polluters could focus on domestic politics and demand change and not only a new and suitable face, whether it be black or white.  But in the case of information, I think your points are more than valid, and I hope that people who read your advise also reflect on the big polluters. If we really want to make a difference, then we need to take action and get qualified people to run the show, not just a pretty face who plans 4 years ahead. Think green and stay safe :)   

  • Anders

    Great article, but I have to make a few comments :) 
    First of all, the big media, is of course telling us what they want us to hear. But never the less, big media with its small and insignificant means to reduce global warming is playing a very important role in making people like you and me aware of the dangers related to this problem. Very few people today are actually paying serious attention to the matter. It has become a hype to care, but like I said, very few people actually do. If you and all your private followers did actually listen to your list of advise, do you think that the world and the greenhouse gases would be reduced to satisfactory levels? I am afraid not. This is not a problem that can be solved by individuals holding hands and urging for solidarity, unless we can change the industrial cause of emission. The western world, which you and I represent, has done its share of pollution to reach the level of development we have now. And now we are tuning our focus towards the developing world putting restraints and limitations on the less industrialized world to prevent further emission.I suggest you and your fellow Americans start cleaning up in your own back yard, before even looking across your boarders. I realize that your article is not directed to any specific person or nationality, but I think it would make a much bigger difference if the US and other major polluters could focus on domestic politics and demand change and not only a new and suitable face, whether it be black or white.  But in the case of information, I think your points are more than valid, and I hope that people who read your advise also reflect on the big polluters. If we really want to make a difference, then we need to take action and get qualified people to run the show, not just a pretty face who plans 4 years ahead. Think green and stay safe :)   

  • Hldrummond

    Santa Cruz, California has jut banned plastic bags and shoppers are charged for their paper bags. 

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Nice! :D

  • M Oishi

    No matter what we try to do to save our planet there is one thing we can’t ignore….Asia from Kazakhstan to Japan and Russia to Indonesia houses 3.6 billion people and total population of the planet is ~ 7 billion.as of 2012.
    There is not much we can do….is there.

  • M Oishi

    No matter what we try to do to save our planet there is one thing we can’t ignore….Asia from Kazakhstan to Japan and Russia to Indonesia houses 3.6 billion people and total population of the planet is ~ 7 billion.as of 2012.
    There is not much we can do….is there.

  • kimhorhan

    we shall avoid smoking,driving too much

  • J W Richardson

    Just a simple question:
    By how much has the the mean global temperature increased during the past 15 years, despite all the CO2 liberated in China, US, India, Europe, forest fires, volcanos, etc.?
    [Limit your answer to actual, measured temperatures and not to computer programs with fudged data input.]

  • Martin J Sallberg

    Why is it so difficult to stop global warming? Obviously greed is an important factor. Judging from the way politicians fail to stop it, prestige is also an important factor. It seems that the only hope of stopping global warming (and adapting to what has already happened) is to create a world where all decisions are made through rational discussion. Evolutionary psychologists claim that it is impossible, but climate change actually constitutes a strong evolutionary argument against evolutionary psychology. Variable environments favours the ability to self-correct. This is supported by epigenetic research. Obviously variable environments made Darwinian evolution select for the capacity of Lamarckian inheritance. In mammalian neurons, the effect is strong enough to rewrite the DNA itself, and that mechanism is especially efficient in humans (references: “Aneuploid neurons are functionally active and integrated into brain circuitry” and “How many neurons do you have?”). The acceleration in brain evolution that has puzzled paleontologists can be explained by an epigenetic feedback loop towards greater and greater neuroplasticity. There is evidence for recoveries after brain damage that the computational theory of mind cannot explain, and those supposedly impossible recoveries are linked to tolerant, flexible environments (reference: Mind, Brain and Education). After-constructing justifications for actions obviously prevent learning of rationality. This can be solved by avoiding to make up after-constructs, which of course requires creating a cultural taboo against demanding that others justify their actions. Instead, reassure each other that admitting mistakes, stupid and even “evil” actions does not mean a loss of prestige, that transcending stupidity for the future must always be valued above punishing past stupidity. Grammatically, always placing the reason before the conclusion is recommended as a way to encourage rational thought at the expense of after-justification. Train rational thought in various ways, but as shown by the importance of a tolerant flexible environment, do NOT insist on a specific curriculum of rationality training. In a future rational society where decisions are made through rational discussion where it is only the arguments that matters and who “decided” it (what a primitive term!) is totally black box, it will be possible to stop global warming and to distribute resources and technology rationally, and there will be no wars and no “following laws even if they are sick is necessary to prevent chaos” false dichotomy to stop it. If irrationality continues, total disaster is inevitable. I blog at theascentofepigenetics.blogspot.

  • Zach

    Are you kidding me?
    #4 says “Keep money in your pocket and carbon out of the air”, then it basically says to stop buying stuff.

    That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard. That would just absolutely kill the economy.
    When you try to change one thing for the better, the will almost always be another negative effect. And for that, it would just destroy the economy if more and more people stopped buying stuff.

    Absolutely ridiculous….

  • http://yahoo.com shantoria

    well thanks!!! but i think we all need to know about global warming

  • http://yahoo.com shantoria

    well iam going to use your sayings for my eassy!!!! it is really great

  • mike peine

    WE have NOT needed gasoline since 1969 SEE my comments @ PESWiki / CLaNZeR mike peine The Vgate Works ! = How to build a FREE ENERGY DEVICE that lasts hundreds of years. STOP POVERTY and the GASOLOONS ! not to mention SLAVERY … your also feeding the activist who really need to get a real job ! plant a tree, yes i did. In 1973 the whole school did. and yesterday someone cut them all down. SEE the above sites their FREE ask your schools physics teacher to view it . build the toy . Change your life FOREVER ! give your children a clean future and freedom from SLAVERY. or rot . Ive got mine.

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  • http://web jorge

    all of them are mostly about carbon, why is that really important?

    • Amanda couture

      wow! if you don’t know why carbon is importnat your too dumb to be helped

  • http://Web Chelle

    Well, the earth can take care of it’s own. No matter how much we can try to destroy it it will always bounce back and clean itself up. Nothing we do is going to change that!

    • http://importantmedia.org/members/zshahan/ Zachary Shahan

      well, in a sense, it depends on what you’re talking about exactly — dirt/earth, or the animals and humans that live on earth. we are on the brink or in the midst of the 6th mass extinction now. and the effects of the earth “cleaning itself up” if that’s how you want to look at it include huge droughts, fires, hurricanes, storms, floods, and more that will have devastating effects on countless humans. so, if you don’t mind that, yes, nothing to worry about. however, if that is something you would prefer to avoid, there is plenty we can do to avoid or limit those effects.

    • Amanda couture

      wow, get an education

  • http://Web vishnupriya

    WE MUST CONSERVE OUR WORLD WHERE WE ARE LIVING…… TNQS 4 INFRMTN

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  • http://Web shubham

    it is imortant to save our environment if we want to live

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  • http://Web Cynthia Shahan

    Nice article. Thanks Planet Save for caring to keep us caring.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000239152906 Rupesh Pawani

    We should get involved in a community activity (one that educates others about reducing energy or doing Green Habitat For Humanity or Green the Ghetto-type projects). This will not only get you out of the house, but you'll bring yourself closer to your community and create a sense of cooperative involvement. http://www.globalwarming360.net/
    My recent post Saving energy Ain’t That difficult-

  • http://www.aol.com Dean Eyerlich

    I only can come up with 2 …
    #1 Don’t have children, do not procreate.
    #2 Don’t breath, just die.

    That’s all there is to it. In 100 years all humans will be dead, and the poor poor planet will be so much better off even tho no human will be around to enjoy it.

    • http://Web zaga112

      wow ur realy funny dean eyerlich hahaha im laughing loads
      NOT

  • mukesh

    hey…i think everbody should try to save our earth than only we can save our earth

  • mukesh

    hey i think that everybody should try to save earth…
    to live happy life with life partners and with his family this will………happen only when you think to save our earth

  • Evelyn Nadeak

    I believe there are actions that needed to be taken. the earth is sick and we in the Asian countries have seen the impact of the global warming.

  • sweet

    hey…i think is cool people try to save ours planet…!!but i really think there are more than 5 things to do…but noce job…:)

  • yehllo

    global warming is soooo important

  • sandra garcia

    these things are just telling us about things one person can do but there are more things that everyone can do that can take a major impact if we all try to. so you should talk about these things too not just the individuals chabges. i honestky think that evey individual can make a difference if they try but if you give us ideas of wat we can do as a community it can be better and change will come sooner

  • http://global-culture.org Global Culture

    There are some persistent behaviour patterns stamped in our brains after years of growing comfortable with our life style: mobility, consumerism. Understanding their impact on everything from the environment to remote countries will help us figure out better ways to graduate into smarter communities.

  • Josh

    eh no thanks ill keep my suv

  • Elizabeth Neumann

    I am interested how I go about banning free plastic bags in my town/state.Many big supermarets claim thier plastic bags are recycled. And I just saw something that said the cost is much to high to recycle.What is the truth and how do you find out how much of the plastic is recycled.Thanks

    • Hldrummond

      Santa Cruz, California has jut banned plastic bags and shoppers are charged for their paper bags. 

      • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

        Nice! :D

  • kjmilow

    Most global warming and sustainability articles that I have seen avoid the fact that the planet can not sustain the present population let alone the prijected increases. Will we taper down or see a dramatic die of from disease, starvation or “natural” disasters exacerbated by too many people living in threat prone areas?

  • http://recycled-energy.com miggs

    All of these things are important, but they are all talking about individual initiatives — not the large-scale, nationwide efforts that we have to undertake. I’m associated with Recycled Energy Development, a company that turns manufacturers’ greenhouse emissions into clean power and steam. Estimates say that more energy recycling could cut U.S. greenhouse pollution by 20% — as much as if we took every passenger vehicle off the road. Meanwhile, we’d save money through greater efficiency. Trouble is, bad regulations keep utilities in charge of power production. We need to be promoting more energy recycling.

  • http://globalpatriot.com Global Patriot

    It’s amazing to realize that eating better food and exercising, which provide major benefits to the human body, are two of the best ways to control climate change. We’ve been led to believe that trade is the only way to go, but the environmental effects are becoming greater by the minute. Stay simple, stay local.

  • adam

    once again, even in a counter culture, rant, this article still doesnt spak of the largest cause of greenhouse gasses, the beef industry. Stop eating beef, meat all together hopefully, but just beef and an estimated 1/3 of greenhouse gasses could be cut!!!!
    lets talk about real change.!

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