Lots of good stuff today from the Sierra Club, so pay attention. Action Alerts below!
“You Say You Want a Resolution?”
1) Read one authoritative book on global warming. Al Gore’s book version of “An Inconvenient Truth” is excellent, but here are some other titles to consider:
- “Field Notes from a Catastrophe” by New Yorker staffer Elizabeth Kolbert
- “The Weather Makers” by Australian scientist and Man of the Year, Tim Flannery
- “The Discovery of Global Warming” by Spencer Weart
- “What We Know About Climate Change” by MIT climate scientist Kerry Emmanuel, (the shortest and most accessible of the bunch.)
2) Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or send a missive to your Senator or Congressman. Tell them what you think. They work for you. (They work for you even if you didn’t vote for them.)
3) Conduct a home energy audit. Find out how much power you use domestically and where you can trim it down. Pick the lowest hanging fruit first — things like extra insulation and more efficient lighting can make a world of difference.
4) Experiment with alternates to driving. Maybe you can telecommute to work once or twice a week. Or carpool? How about riding your bike to the store for that half gallon of milk?
5) Measure your carbon footprint and consider what it would take to become carbon-neutral.
Time’s Running Out for Polar Bears
The clock is ticking for America’s polar bears. Global warming has placed the species in such peril that the Interior Department is on the brink of deciding whether or not to list it as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
A decision was due January 9, but on Monday the Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that it would delay that decision until the end of the month. In the meantime, instead of doing everything possible to protect the polar bear, the Interior Department is handing the bear yet another hurdle: The Chukchi Sea, home to one-tenth of the world’s polar bears, was opened last week to oil drilling — and the spills that come with it.
We can’t wait until the last polar bear drowns before we act to save it. Tell Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that the polar bear should be listed as threatened now, before it’s too late.
Think you know a lot about polar bears? Take this Sierra Club quiz to find out!
Finally, from the NRDC, an update on the campaign (it was on my Take Action! page) to prevent the Navy from using sonar in areas that would harm whales and other marine life. It’s good news!
Fantastic news! A federal court in California has just imposed the strongest-ever protections for whales against an onslaught of military sonar.
The new controls are the result of an NRDC lawsuit that demanded the Navy rein in its deadly sonar before beginning two years of maneuvers near the Channel Islands — one of the world’s most sensitive environments and home to five endangered species of whales.
The Navy itself estimates that the booming sonar would harass or harm marine mammals some 170,000 times — and cause permanent injury in more than 400 cases.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said the Navy’s existing plan for protecting marine mammals was “grossly inadequate.” And she has ordered the Navy to put a series of precautionary measures in place — many of them recommended by NRDC — that will go a long way toward protecting whales from needless injury and death.
For starters, the Navy will not be permitted to use its dangerous mid-frequency sonar within 12 miles of the California coast, a zone that is heavily used by migrating whales and dolphins. Sonar will also be banned in the Catalina Basin, an underwater canyon with a high density of whales.
The Navy will also have to monitor for marine mammals — from the ship and from the air — both before and during its sonar exercises. If any marine mammals are spotted within 2200 yards of the ship, the Navy will have to shut down its sonar.
These safeguards represent a giant leap forward in our decade-long campaign to make sure that whales don’t have to die for the sake of military practice.
s.
Filed under: global warming pollution, green living, polar bears, wildlife conservation
Re: 5 simple things you can do about global warming:
Another way to have a positive impact on your carbon footprint is by going vegetarian. The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook (David de Rothschild) says that “refusing meat” is the “single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint”. Vegetarianism is indeed one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, act of green that someone can do. Consider the following fact: it takes over 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. The implication of it is astonishing: you save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year. Switching to a vegetarian, or better vegan diet, also helps reduce environmental pollution due to animal agriculture, and decreases animal suffering. For more information on the reasons beyond choosing a vegetarian diet, and many positive and practical ideas to help the environment and the animals, check out:
Building an Ark: 101 Solutions to Animal Suffering
By Ethan Smith with Guy Dauncey
Forward by Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE
http://www.earthfuture.com/ark
IMO, vegetarianism is a half measure. As Capt. Paul Watson once said, “… a vegan driving a Hummer contributes less to greenhouse gas emissions than a meat-eater riding a bicycle.”
I’m vegan. Look around my blog.
s.