Al Gore did a great job in the film articulating the problem of climate change in a clear and articulate manner. Being enrolled in the Presidio School of Managements environmental MBA program, this was not new information for me, but the manner in which it was delivered was.

The charts, graphs, photos, and cartoons along with Al Gore’s surprising comfort and humor all served his purpose of educating people on the problem. I don’t think the film by itself will make people change their habits, as it takes more than a film to get people to change. But it will play a supporting role in helping people move one step further along the path.

I’ve written an Op-Ed piece on this topic which I’ve submitted to the NY Times, SF Chronicle, and SJ Mercury News—if it gets published I’ll post a link to this site. This was my first Op-Ed piece I submitted to a print publication, so you can see that the movie has motivated me to take additional action. This is good.

I want to ask encourage everyone to see this film, take your friends, and to commit to doing at least one new thing in your life to make a difference. Post comments to this site when you make a change. Here are some ideas excerped from www.climatecrisis.org:

Here’s how:

Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. If every family in the U.S. made the switch, we’d reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds! You can purchase CFLs online from the Energy Federation.

Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has more tips for saving energy on heating and cooling.

Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Install a programmable thermostat

Programmable thermostats will automatically lower the heat or air conditioning at night and raise them again in the morning. They can save you $100 a year on your energy bill.

Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most efficient models. If each household in the U.S. replaced its existing appliances with the most efficient models available, we’d eliminate 175 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year!

Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.

Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.

Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!

Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting
You can save 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Insulate and weatherize your home
Properly insulating your walls and ceilings can save 25% of your home heating bill and 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Caulking and weather-stripping can save another 1,700 pounds per year. The Consumer Federation of America has more information on how to better insulate your home.

Be sure you’re recycling at home
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates. Earth 911 can help you find recycling resources in your area.

Buy recycled paper products
It takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests worldwide.

Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%. The Arbor Day Foundation has information on planting and provides trees you can plant with membership.

Get a home energy audit
Many utilities offer free home energy audits to find where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. You can save up to 30% off your energy bill and 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Energy Star can help you find an energy specialist.

Switch to green power
In many areas, you can switch to energy generated by clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar. The Green Power Network is a good place to start to figure out what’s available in your area.

Buy locally grown and produced foods
The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.

Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.

Seek out and support local farmers markets
They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by one fifth. You can find a farmer’s market in your area at the USDA website.

Buy organic foods as much as possible
Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!

Avoid heavily packaged products
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

Eat less meat
Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.

Almost one third of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States comes from our cars, trucks and airplanes. Here are some simple, practical things you can do to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you produce while on the move.

Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year! Click here to find transit options in your area. You can also offset the emissions from the miles you do drive at DriveNeutral.

Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. eRideShare.com runs a free national service connecting commuters and travelers.

Keep your car tuned up
Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.

Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
Proper inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference!

When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle
You can save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year if your new car gets only 3 miles per gallon more than your current one. You can get up to 60 miles per gallon with a hybrid! You can find information on fuel efficiency here and here.

Try car sharing
Need a car but don’t want to buy one? Community car sharing organizations provide access to a car and your membership fee covers gas, maintenance and insurance. Many companies – such as Flexcar — offer low emission or hybrid cars too!

Try telecommuting from home
Telecommuting can help you drastically reduce the number of miles you drive every week. For more information, check out the Telework Coalition.

Fly less
Air travel produces large amounts of emissions so reducing how much you fly by even one or two trips a year can reduce your emissions significantly. You can also offset your air travel by investing in renewable energy projects.

]]> http://www.shockstone.com/2006/05/an-inconvenient-truth-sneak-peak/feed/ 0 http://www.shockstone.com/2006/05/word-press-live/ http://www.shockstone.com/2006/05/word-press-live/#comments Mon, 22 May 2006 06:38:44 +0000 Matt Smith http://www.shockstone.com/2006/05/word-press-live/ Today I launched a redisgn of my web site. I decided to switch over to Word Press blogging software to make the maintanence of the site and posting easier. This will allow me to keep the site more up to date. Special thanks go to Blue Host for providing Word Press as part of their hosting package, and to Patricia Muller who authored the Connections theme for Word Press. I’ve already made many cosmetic and functional changes, but it’s been a great theme to build from.

I also want to thank the author of the many plug-ins that I’m using throughout the site – there are too many to mention, but your work has made mine much easier. Thank you.

I hadn’t planned to meet anyone at the march, so I was free to blow it off without letting anyone else down. I roused myself out of bed and wondered into the living room of Andre and Caroline’s house to check my email. My van was in the shop for repairs and I was staying with them for a few days while it was being fixed. I booted up my laptop and logged on.

One of the messages was from the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign – I had voted for Dennis in the California primary. I agreed with his message and plans, happy that a candidate was taking an idealistic approach. I tried to stay in touch with the campaign through their email list; they usually sent so many that I never read them all, but I read this one.
One year ago today, despite objections voiced by millions around the globe in the largest one-day protest in world history, the United States and Great Britain launched a pre-emptive war against Iraq claiming that it was necessary to protect the world from the imminent threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction – a claim later proven to be false. During the past year, 571 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and more than 3200 wounded. The number of Iraqi deaths is even greater, with estimates ranging from 8,000 to 10,000.

It went on, urging people to attend the various protests around the country making their voice heard. I had not attended those protests a year ago, as I was in southern Thailand at the time. I had thought seriously of backtracking to Bangkok to attend the nearest protest, but had decided it was too far out of my way. My desire to attend the march in Bangkok and the one now in San Francisco grew out of my political views, but also my guilt for not attending one of the early SF demonstrations in January 2002.

At the time, my opposition to the war was still growing, I was unable to justify preemptive action given the evidence that was presented. I had signed a petition, but had not taken the time to attended the protests. I was busy getting ready to go on my South East Asia trip and it didn’t register high enough on my radar.

Now a year into the war with Iraq, thousands of people were dead, and the evidence for war was weaker now then when it began. I knew that my attendance at those original protests would not have made any difference in the outcome, but I wondered how many other people were in a similar mind at the time. If all of those people had acted, could we have made a difference?

Reading that email and its call to support the marches, I decided to attend. I owed it to myself; I owed it to all the other people that had been working to oppose the action for the past year. I didn’t know how many people would show up, or if it would make a difference, but at least I was being honest with my feelings and presenting my truth to the world. I got ready, drove to the nearest BART station, and took the train into the Mission District of San Francisco. The scene that awaited me, was not what I had expected.

I exited the 24th Street BART station and walked to Deloris Park. Tens of thousands of people had gathered for the event. It was a sunny spring day in San Francisco, and people were dressed in shorts and t-shirts, applying suntan lotion to winter skin and pulling baseball caps down over their eyes shielding them from the brilliance of the late-morning sun.

Prepared for a rowdy scene, I was surprised to find an upbeat happy atmosphere. A group of drummers cranked out a hypnotic rhythm while people looked on swaying to the beat. People were smiling as they talked animatedly in small groups. A man stood on the corner collecting signatures for several ballot measured for the next election – I took the time to read them and sign the ones I agreed with. I wondered where all the angry people were the media had promised?

Many people carried signs amplifying their voice for others to hear. End the Occupation of Iraq read one. No war on Iraq – No war on the world – Not in Our Name read another. Bush Lied Thousands Died.

I didn’t have a sign. I had wanted to make one but hadn’t found the time. Yet another thing to feel guilty about. When a man asked me to carry an extra sign, I gladly accepted. End the 911 Cover-up it said. I felt happy to be amongst such like-minded people, proud to live in the San Francisco Bay Area where the liberal and progressive community had such a strong voice.

The crowds filtered out of the park walking down the middle of the street on route to the Civic Center. Everyone was orderly and well behaved – the many Police Officers along the route looked bored as they watched the people move through the streets. I raised my sign over my head, as a marching band to my right struck up an upbeat tune. This felt more like a party then a civic demonstration. I saw a girl in her twenties with long blond hair wearing a pink t-shirt that read Lick Bush in 2004. I laughed, enjoying the festive atmosphere decidedly happy that I had come.

Attending the march was a small gesture, but a step in the right direction. It was easily to live in silent concern about political issues, and another entirely to stand up and make your voice heard. In my past, politics were something I rarely gave much thought to. My life was in perpetual motion, I never stopped to consider my opinions more or less taking the time to make a statement.

Not working over the last 18 months had changed that. Ending the cycle of complacent disassociation, I’ve had time to stop and form my own opinions. I’ve signed petitions, called my representative and senators on issues I wanted to influence, and now have attended a demonstration. I’m thankful for the new awareness that I have found.

I can see now the power of these events – they make a statement to the community, the government, the world, and to other people. Reminding those people who take the time to make their voice heard that we are not alone.

I will leave you with a poem handed to me by a young woman as I walked through the streets of San Francisco during the Peace March.

Inevitable as transit
submerges itself under the ground
is this death?
Et Gloria mundi –

must it come to this?
Children broken as glass shatters
the unapproachable sunset
writing itself only once one last time

into the sky?
Our single hearts
breaking themselves
along the paths of the future

the flowering, the fading
fused; the moment, the memory
merged; the dawn broken forever,
and the paintbrush of day outshone.

Go tell the wind which way to blow
to keep the burning clouds far from our shores,
go build a wall as tall as the moon
to keep the carrion birds from blackening the sky

- Author Unknown