What can we do to combat global warming and save our atmosphere from destruction?

Question

What can we do to combat global warming and save our atmosphere from destruction?

Answer 1

We shut off the hot air coming from the deniers that concocted most of your answers.

kidding

The truth is that it is urgent that we take these steps, regardless of global warming.  There are

so many ways we are harming the environment.

And they are mostly the same ways we are warming the planet.    

Conserve in every way we can.

That is said to be one of the biggest improvements we can make.

Enact national policies that encourage investment in alternative energy.  

Limit destruction of forests.  Improve logging practices.  It can be done more sustainably.  Use hemp to make paper and other products.  

Too much deforestation is for making paper.

Bamboo is more sustainable than trees, also.

Use farm waste to harness methane, thereby limiting a greenhouse gas,and producing energy at the same time.

eg.

"Wild Rose Dairy in Webster Township, WI is home to an innovative renewable energy facility powered by cow manure and other organic waste. The farm is home to 900 dairy cows, and an on-site anaerobic digester creates methane-rich biogas from their waste, which is used to generate 750 kilowatts of electricity per hour—enough to power 600 local homes 24/7."

and

"The gas produced by Huckabay will be shipped via the Enterprise natural gas pipeline to the Lower Colorado River Authority, which has agreed to purchase the RNG® output of

up to 2,000 mmbtu per day through September 2008, pursuant to a purchase agreement. Beginning October 2008, the plant output will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric under a 10 year

agreement."  from the website of Environmental Power.  They have four of these on large farms in the California Central Valley.

Build a mainly solar electric grid, which is feasable right now and economical.  Solar thermal and concentrating PV power plants in the southwest could power the entire country with current technology at competitive prices with coal and gas.  

Scientific America Solar Grand Plan

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

"Solar thermal power plants such as Ausra's generate electricity by driving steam turbines with sunshine. Ausra's solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, and produce electricity at prices directly competitive with gas- and coal-fired electric power."

"All of America's needs for electric power – the entire US grid, night and day – can be generated with Ausra's current technology using a square parcel of land 92 miles on a side. For comparison, this is less than 1% of America's deserts, less land than currently in use in the U.S. for coal mines."   from Ausra's website

More wind farms.

More efficient cars and trucks.

Use parasails for power assist on cargo ships.   We already have this ability to save 10-30% of their fuel costs, with an investment per ship of about $250,000.  Large dry bulk ships lease at over $100,000 a day, so this is chump change for shipping companies.  These parasails provide 6,800hp of auxilary power.

http://www.skysails.info/index.php?id=20...

  Rely more on rail rather than trucks for much of our overland freight.  It is much more fuel efficient.

Somehow manage to become less of a consumerism society and economic system. which might mean learning contentment, which wouldn't be a bad thing.  Consumerism is really an aberation from real capitalism.  It is extremely wasteful.

To see a short video about how consumerism works in our world.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

  This is an obviously left leaning video, but whether you're conservative or liberal, you'll see a lot of truth in it.

Answer 2

We must all construct tin foil hats to reflect the suns rays before they're absorbed by the CO2!!  Hurry, the Earth needs you, defender!!

Answer 3

I wish I could help but I'm still working on closing the hole in the ozone layer.

Answer 4

The question uses the very generic term 'We".

Now 'we' could be individuals or whole nations.

If we as individuals do good things that are offset by other people doing worse things, we will individually accomplish nothing. Worse, seeing that others are undermining efforts, morale will be lost.

So may we also consider what whole nations can do?

Nations can steadily reduce the amount of fossil fuels available to their consumers, their industry.

They can in effect cap the consumption of fossil fuels by capping their availability. This might trigger demands for fair sharing of the limited (reduced) supply of fossil fuels, but very likely market mechanisms will do the job best.

We as individuals would have to make sure that our legislative bodies understand that we want to cut consumption of fossil fuels, and of course if we are cutting consumption we need to cut production and importing of fossil fuels.

Why? Well, what happens if consumption is cut but production is not? We will see producers turn up the advertising, cut prices, anything needed to keep the demand for their products from declining.

We individually do need to position ourselves to live with far less fossil fuel, but that is just for our own convenience not to save the planet. If we arrange to live with no dependence on fossil fuels we individually will not notice they are less available. If we do not make adjustments, and there is less fuel to be bought, and at higher prices, then we will be inconvenienced, but we will not be burning as much fossil fuel.

Answer 5

Nothing. Kill yourself now.

Answer 6

well i dont know how far we can roll back time atomosphere wise, we might not be able too, but we can save as much energy as possible, use a clean power recource that uses the least amount of co2 as possible, drive fuel efficient cars, plant trees, and we can raise awareness!

Answer 7

Treat each other with kindness, and be concerned about how we help each other.

Answer 8

Nothing.Its to late.The greedy politicans and corporations have no intention of losing any money.

Answer 9

there's really nothing you can do. man made global warming is a drop in the bucket compared to warming and cooling due to  sunspot activity. In fact, recent evidence shows that we are in for a cooling trend last encountered during the great potato famine times in Ireland in the 1840s. it will be getting colder as the sun takes a break. so any greenhouse effect we incur now would probably be welcome given the harsh cold times coming in the next 10 to 20 years. In fact, records are being smashed as the coldest North American winter in over 60 years. GW is bunk.

Answer 10

Reduce mankind's greenhouse gas emissions and limit deforestation.

Answer 11

Reduce, reuse and recyle as much as possible. Switch to renewable energy sources. Drive fuel efficient low emission vehicles. Protect and extend natural habitats. There are many ways to help and many people already working on it.

Then there are also those who are still confused ...

"man made global warming is a drop in the bucket ... GW is bunk." - So which did they mean? Is it real but "a drop in the bucket" or just "bunk"?