Global Warming: What We Can Do by Gary Brand

This is a list of what Gary is doing and what any of us can do to reduce global warming, the worldwide environmental crisis of our time that we all play a part in every day of our lives. Although many of the following practices save Gary money, his primary motivation is to be a responsible world citizen and a steward of our planet. These practices also help ease his conscience about purchasing products that are not built to last for years but repairing them is prohibitively expensive so they end up in his trash when they no longer work because there are not systems in place to recycle them. The primary causes of greenhouse gases that are creating global warming are the hundreds of millions of cars driven every day on the planet, electricity generating plants, and industrial pollution sources. Since most of us drive a car, consume electricity, and buy manufactured goods, we are all part of the problem. However, the more important fact is that we can all be part of the solution as well. Multiply any of the following small savings by one million people and the impact becomes tremendous! Please save, copy or tell others about this page.

WHAT WE CAN DO YEAR ROUND
What Gary does year round to help reduce his impact on global warming (by conserving consumable products, he is not just using less resources but less energy – fossil fuels – that are used to manufacture, package and transport them):

He recycles everything possible. Charlottesville, Virginia has an excellent recycling program where Gary recycled junk mail, newspapers (he only bought the daily paper one day each week), magazines (almost all are unsolicited), all cardboard packaging (this is called "boxboard" and it doesn’t matter if it is coated with shiny plastic), cardboard boxes, toilet paper and paper towel cardboard tubes, all paper that is recyclable, all glass bottles, anything metal (including caps, cans, tins, etc.), paper grocery bags (occasionally he forgets to take his cloth bags), phone books, books he no longer wants (he gives them to local libraries for the Festival of the Book), plastic bags (when he buys items that he can easily carry, he doesn’t accept the plastic bag the salesperson wants to put them in), and he recycles old towels as rags.
Tallahassee, Florida (where Gary now lives) also has an excellent recycling program where all of the above can be recycled and it is better than Charlottesville, Virginia because in Tallahassee all of the above items are picked up curbside in the county as well as in the city (in Charlottesville, only some items are picked up curbside and there is no curbside collection in surrounding Albemarle County).
The recycling program in Albany, Georgia (where Gary briefly stayed) is limited to newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, plastic beverage bottles (milk, soft drink, water or juice), and glass bottles.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, he could recycle all plastic containers labeled 1 or 2 in the triangular recycle symbol but, unfortunately, not all 1- or 2-labeled plastics are recyclable. The plastics industry has duped us into believing that all 1- or 2-labeled plastics are the same. This revelation came from the former head of the recycling program at the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority in Charlottesville. Gary let the recycling facility there determine which of his 1 and 2 plastic containers were recyclable and which were not. In Tallahassee, Florida, any plastic container with a "neck" (in other words, that had a cap) can be recycled, regardless of the recycle number imprinted on it.

When he leaves a room that he will not return to in less than ten minutes, he turns off the light. He leaves the light on if he will be returning within ten minutes because frequently turning light bulbs on and off causes them to burn out sooner (the surge of electricity when a light bulb is first turned on is what causes most bulbs to burn out).

After he washes his clothes, he hangs his underwear and socks on a clothes rack instead of drying them in the drier. He dries his shirts, pants, shorts and other clothes in the drier for only two minutes – enough time to get most of the wrinkles out – and then hangs them on plastic hangers to dry. They don’t need ironing, the colors in them remain brighter longer, they last a lot longer because drying them in the drier causes colors to fade and removes fibers (the lint you remove from the filter), and the clothes drier is one of the biggest electricity hogs in today’s homes so using it very little reduces greenhouse gas emissions and saves money too. Towels and sheets can be hung on an old-fashioned clothesline outside to dry (except in the perpetually humid climate of the deep South).

When he gives someone a gift, he usually doesn’t wrap it but, instead, holds it behind his back and tells the recipient he has a gift to create suspense as an alternative to unwrapping it.

When he wipes up a liquid on the floor (or elsewhere), he uses a rag instead of paper towels.

He uses a rake or a broom instead of a gasoline-driven leaf blower and uses hand-powered tools instead of electric or battery-driven because it is good exercise. Battery-driven tools are no better than electric because of the fossil fuels used to manufacture and ship the batteries, which also need continual replacement.

When he ships or mails something in a padded mailer, he uses one made of recyclable paper fibers that can be recycled by the receiver. He refuses to buy bubble mailers because they are not recyclable and take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills.

By treating his belongings with care and respect, they last longer and need to be replaced less frequently (if at all). Treat them well and they will treat you well. When they need to be replaced or have ceased functioning as they were meant to, instead of throwing them away give them to Good Will or a similar agency that can repair or sell them to someone who wants them. We have been duped by this consumerism-based culture into believing that everything must be replaced by the newest version/model or the latest fashion and that bigger or faster is better. DON'T BUY IT!

OTHER THINGS WE CAN ALL DO

Plant trees because they absorb and need carbon dioxide (a primary greenhouse gas).

When padding something to be shipped, use paper instead of Styrofoam “peanuts” or bubble plastic wrap, which are made from fossil fuels and take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills. If you receive Styrofoam “peanuts” in a package, take them to a UPS or FedEx store where they will be reused.

Use paper products that contain recycled fibers, which means that fewer trees were harvested to make them. Despite the recycling of paper fibers, millions of trees are killed to produce the millions of tons of paper products consumed annually.

Purchase products with minimal plastic packaging when possible because fossil fuels and electricity are used to produce this tough, thick packaging, which is not recyclable and doesn’t decompose in the landfill in a thousand years. When you must buy a product that is excessively packaged in plastic, remove the packaging after your purchase while you are still at the store and give it to customer service (cardboard boxes are OK to take home because they can be recycled). If hundreds of thousands of us did this, excessive plastic packaging would disappear.

Put a gift in a reusable gift bag instead of wrapping it (or hold it behind your back like Gary does). This encourages the recipient of the gift to reuse the gift bag (you can even ask them to do so).

If you live in a temperate or northern climate, have double-paned windows installed in your house. If it is too expensive to do every window, install them only in the north- and west-facing windows because the prevailing cold winds in the winter are from these directions. Double-paned windows (or storm windows) reduce your consumption of fuel or electricity for heating in the winter and your consumption of electricity for air conditioning in the summer.

Grow some of your own food and buy locally grown food as much as possible because this greatly reduces your impact on global warming – millions of gallons of fossil fuels are consumed in transporting food every day. Buy food grown in the U.S. before buying food from overseas because of the additional fossil fuels burned to bring it here by ship or plane. Fill out a comment card at your grocery store requesting that they buy more in-season, locally grown food and ask your friends to do the same.

Eat less red meat, which is much more resource-consumptive than raising veggies. Consuming one less serving of beef each week saves 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide in a year.

Ride a bicycle or walk rather than drive whenever you can – it saves fossil fuel and it is healthy (on roads where air pollution from cars is minimal).

Use low-wattage or energy-efficient, compact fluorescent, light bulbs (CFLs) in your home and at work. However, be very careful not to break a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb in your home because they contain Mercury, which is very toxic. These bulbs must be recycled and should not be thrown away in your trash because the Mercury they contain will leach into the ground water around the landfill where your trash finally resides. To find out how to recycle them, go to the Web address (URL) www.sylvania.com/Recycle.

Buy products made locally and buy used products sold by local people as much as possible because this greatly reduces the impact of your purchase on global warming – millions of gallons of fossil fuels are consumed every day to transport products and most are shipped from overseas. Purchases of used or locally made products also support the local economy.

Look at the energy consumption (often expressed in wattage) of electrical products you buy and, when you have a choice, choose the least consumptive.

Reduce, minimize or avoid altogether shopping in big-box chain stores like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, K-Mart, Target, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Office Depot, Staples, etc. These stores contribute to urban sprawl because they are typically on the fringes of developed areas and they generate a huge number of long car trips by customers each day, each trip adding carbon dioxide to the air. They are also major contributors to global warming because they import thousands of goods made by poorly-paid foreign workers, shipped from overseas, and then distributed, mostly by truck, all over the country. Big-box stores are poorly insulated and, with excessively high ceilings and no windows, they use incredible amounts of electricity to keep them well lighted and at a comfortable temperature for customers. Because of their extended hours and lack of windows, they must run the heating or air conditioning 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They also drive smaller, locally-owned stores out of business and much of their cheaply priced merchandise is poor quality. According to the Associated Press, Wal-Mart is the largest private user of electricity in the world!

Buy products from green businesses – such companies are deliberately reducing their impact on global warming and contributing to the preservation of our environment. Buy stocks of publicly traded green companies to support them and yourself.

Sell stocks of companies that make huge contributions to global warming and aren’t making efforts to be environmentally responsible. Buy stocks of companies that are manufacturing or selling clean or renewable energy producing systems (like wind, solar, geothermal, tidal).

Read more and watch TV or movies less – reading uses less electricity and stimulates your mind.

Vote against politicians running for national office who don’t actively work to pass legislation to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and vote for politicians who do. Vote against local politicians who don’t actively support tax credits to individuals, businesses and organizations who install alternative energy producing systems.

WHAT WE CAN DO IN OUR HOMES IN THE SUMMER
What Gary does in the summer in his home to help reduce his impact on global warming (air conditioning is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions because of its high consumption of electricity):

If the humidity is high (usually it is in the summer), he keeps the house windows closed day and night. In the morning, the house feels cooler longer because the humidity in the house is lower than it is outside (the higher the humidity in summer, the hotter we feel).

When he lived in a house with window air conditioners, he waited until the house temperature reached 78-80 degrees (he has an indoor thermometer) before turning on the air conditioners. He only used two units (one was small) to cool his house and he used fans to distribute the cool air. He turned them to warmer settings or off when he left the house.

In his present home, which has central air conditioning, he sets the thermostat at 79 degrees.

He closes blinds in east-facing windows in the morning and closes blinds in west-facing windows in the afternoon to reduce the extent to which the Sun heats the house.

When he lived in a house with a basement, he closed the inside door to the basement because cool air produced by air conditioning sinks into the basement if that door remained open.

WHAT WE CAN DO IN OUR HOMES IN THE WINTER
What Gary does in the winter in his home to help reduce his impact on global warming (greenhouse gases are produced by all of the fuels we burn to keep us warm in the winter):

He sets the thermostat to 65 degrees during the day and wears warm clothes. If you don't have a thermostat, get an indoor thermometer like Gary has and try to keep the room temperature at 65 degrees or lower during the day, especially if no one is at home. He wears warm shoes or thick socks because, when his feet are warm, the rest of his body will more likely feel warm. If you like hats, wear a warm one at home and you will be surprised by how cool you want your house in the winter (40% of our heat loss is through our head).

He works at home and spends most of the day in one room so he heats that room with an electric space heater. He can set the heater on low because of the warm clothes he wears and especially by keeping his feet warm.

On sunny days, he pulls his blinds up to let full sunlight in but keeps blinds (or curtains if you have them instead) closed in windows against which a cold wind is blowing. At night, he closes all blinds (or curtains), which helps keep cold air that comes in around the windows contained against the windows.

He locks all windows (this causes a tighter seal than if they are unlocked) and, on the first cold, windy day or night, puts clear packaging tape over all cracks where the wind blows in cold air.

When he lived in a house with a basement, he placed a rolled-up bath towel at the bottom of the basement door to the outside, which kept cold air from coming in because the base of that door didn't form a good seal. He also kept the door from the ground level to the basement open because cold air on the ground level gradually sank into the basement.

HOW WE DRIVE CAN REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING

Gary drives 40 MPH except on the Interstate where he drives 60 MPH just to avoid being run over. Another exception is that he drives the 55 MPH speed limit on local highways because he doesn't want the driver behind tailgating him. When the speed limit is less than 40 MPH, he drives the limit or under it. He does this because it saves gasoline and, even though he drives a 2000 Toyota Camry (not a fuel-efficient model), his average gas mileage is over 30 miles/gallon. Driving at 40 MPH or less saves gasoline because, at all but the slowest speeds, the slower we drive, the fewer revolutions per minute (RPM) the engine turns and the fewer revolutions, the less gas it consumes.

This speed also means that Gary seldom used his brakes on the country roads he drove in Virginia because most curves can be safely made at 40 MPH and when he approached a curve requiring a slower speed, by taking his foot off the accelerator before the turn, his car usually slowed enough on its own to safely make the turn. Replacing his brakes less often means fewer brake pads consumed (and fewer manufactured if we all did this) and brake pads, just like everything else, require electricity (as well as raw materials) to be manufactured. If he lived in a city, this savings would not apply.

When accelerating from a stop or a slow speed, Gary does so gradually because a gradual acceleration through the gears saves an appreciable amount of gas. His 2000 Toyota Camry has a tacometer (which registers the revolutions per minute or RPM of the engine) so, during his gradual accelerations, he tries to keep the RPM at 2200 or less.

When he lived in Virginia and began driving down a big hill, he shifted his car into neutral. This saved gas because the engine turns fewer RPM when in neutral than in gear and the fewer revolutions, the less gas it consumes. He waited to shift back into drive until the speedometer read 40 MPH.

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