The other day at work, lying on a table in the break room was a wonderful article about what else, global warming. I read through it and found out some really interesting stuff. Probably the best part about this article was that at the end it offered many things we can do to help this cause. Many articles and information that I have found about global warming has been just reports about various things either affected by global warming or indications of its existence. This article goes into that but it also lists fifty-one things we can do. I will share but a few.

6 Steps YOU can take to Reduce Global Warming

Step 1: Use Energy Star recommended Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL)

A typical CFL uses only 25 percent of the electicity of an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light. If every U.S. household replaced its incandescent light bulbs with CFL’s, electricity usage for lighting would be cut in half, eliminating about 62.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Step 2: Insulate and Weather-strip Your Home

There are a number of things one can do here. Weather-stripping and caulking, insulation, heating water efficiently and using double-pane windows are just a few. Total these combined would annually save our planet 13,300 pounds of global warming pollution.

Step 3: Buy Energy Star recommended home appliances and electronics

According to the U.S. EPA, if just 10 percent of the population used energy star appliances it would result in the reduction of carbon dioxide pollution equivalent to planting 1.7 million acres of new trees. As for electronics, if we used energy star models the reduction in pollution would be like taking over three million cars of the road, millions of tons annually would be saved.

Step 4: Walk, Ride a bike, or take public transportation

A neighborhood of 50 people driving 20 miles round trip to work releases 118 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Step 5: Drive Your Car Efficiently

You might be asking how do you drive efficiently, well one answer would be to inflate your tires and keep them inflated. Properly inflated tires would improve fuel efficiency by 3.3 percent per year. This accounts for:
· 4.6 billion gallons of gas
· $13.7 billion (at $3/gallon)
· 45.8 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution


Step 6: Buy the most fuel efficient car you can

Your car releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution into the air for every gallon of gas used. The most fuel efficient cars are hybrids. The average hybrid can cut carbon dioxide pollution by 1.2 tons per year and with federal tax credits, hybrids are becoming cheaper.

More interesting facts on global warming:

Only 5 percent of the world’s population lives in the United States, but we produce almost one-fourth of the world’s carbon dioxide pollution. Of our country’s immense contribution to our planet’s current state, some states are worse than others. It may come as a surprise to some but the Midwest; Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin in particular are responsible for 20 percent of our country’s carbon dioxide pollution and about 5 percent of the world’s.