Perhaps you’ve heard about this climate change? A buildup of greenhouse gases — largely produced by us — in our atmosphere over the past century is warming the atmosphere. This warming will result in all kinds of fun consequences such as increased precipitation, regular heat waves and drought, stronger hurricanes and sea level rise on the order of at least a foot.
It is, by no exaggeration, a problem of global proportions. Just months ago 136 nations ratified the Paris Climate Agreement — the international diplomatic equivalent of your group project members finally agreeing to meet the night before your group presentation is due. It’s also a problem that is slightly out of the control of the average person. Between 1970 and 2011, 78 percent of all greenhouse gasses emitted were the work of industrial processes and transportation.
The more cynical among us might see that stat and throw their hands up. No one person can halt the complex systems that keep the engines of our planet going. But maybe you aren’t a cynical person. Perhaps you watched Leonardo DiCaprio’s Before The Flood, and now feel like you should try and do something. Maybe you’d like to, at least, no longer contribute to the problem.
Fantastic. The good news is that just about everything you do emits some kind of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere — if you really want to understand the exact extent of which, go ahead and use a carbon calculator — so there’s plenty you can do to reduce that.
How You (Yes You, By Yourself) Can Start Mitigating Climate Change – Digg