How to Fight Global Warming

You can fight global warming, a bit, but how much depends on your effort and the amount of sacrifice you are willing to make. Carbon dioxide, the biggest contributor, is spewed when we use energy while traveling or at home. It stays in the air for a century or so. Some ways of cutting back are cheap and easy, but the biggest payoffs require some pain and lifestyle changes. Here are some things you can do:

Cheap and Easy Ways

• Replace traditional light bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. They last longer. If every household in America replaced just three regular 60-watt bulbs, it would be the equivalent pollution reduction of taking 3.5 million cars off the roads.
• Use microwave ovens more. Because they cook faster, microwaves use one-third the energy of conventional ovens.
• Check for air leaks around your home and insulate them. Insulate attics and hot water heaters and pipes that carry hot water.
• Recycle more. If more goods are recycled, less energy has to be used to make new cans and paper. Also, paper, cardboard, and other organic products produce methane, a strong greenhouse gas, when decaying in landfills. For every pound of aluminum recycled, about 11 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided.
• Lower your thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer. Reducing your heating by just 2 degrees in the winter can save 6 percent of your household’s annual carbon dioxide emissions, about 420 pounds per year for the average home.
  
• Check the settings on household appliances. Refrigerators use 20 percent of a home’s electricity and should be set at 37 degrees Fahrenheit; freezers, 3 degrees. Use cold or warm water, not hot, in washing machines. Use energy savings cycles on dishwashers and set the hot water heater to about 120 degrees.

More Costly Ways

• Buy a more fuel-efficient car, such as a hybrid—and drive less. Every unused gallon of gas reduces greenhouse emissions by 22 pounds.
• Buy more fuel-efficient Energy Star appliances. Replacing a 33-year-old refrigerator with an energy-efficient one can save 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

For the Truly Committed

• Move into the city to drive less. Bike and walk more.
• Live in a high-rise apartment building. There’s less heating and air conditioning per person.
• Don’t fly often or take long car trips.

—The Associated Press, © April 3, 2006