I clicked on this link from a wholey unrelated site in the vain hope practical things I could do would be listed - but nah, just a load of banal psychobabble.

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Noam Chomsky is fond of referencing a poll according to which the majority of Bush supporters believe he supports the Kyoto protocol. I think that the majority of the public are indeed in favor of measures to avert, or at least mitigate, the looming crisis. The major problem, as Peter admits, is that rescuing the environment is completely incompatible with (actually antithetical to) “predatory” capitalism – this is obvious fact, or should be at least. Therefore, I think we need to be clear that any serious effort to tackle the problem has to realize that political activism is essential – changes have to be made collectively, a minority of individuals even living at the level of subsistence would be completely ineffectual (indecently the attitude that boycotting the Gap (and others) helps Third World labor is, I believe, mistaken for similar reasons).

That the problem is real and serious is incontrovertible, and it has been know about all of my life; it was something, surprisingly considering I come from a small mining town (Elko, Nevada), that I can remember hearing about in school from first grade (ca. 1988). [In fact I won a writing award when I was in first grade for some rhetorical statement or other with regard to saving the oceans from pollution.]

The problem with meaningful activism, however, is that you do have to take a big risk (often your job or career options, at the least). I don’t know how others feel, but I am reluctant to speak to openly about subversive political matters. I would love to hear from other concerned individuals on this matter.

My email is peterhartward[at]gmail.com. Note: I have used ‘[at]’ instead of ‘@’ to help prevent spambots locating my address (I am told this helps…). -- Hatemail also welcomed!

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Noam Chomsky is fond of referencing a poll according to which the majority of Bush supporters believe he supports the Kyoto protocol. I think that the majority of the public are indeed in favor of measures to avert, or at least mitigate, the looming crisis. The major problem, as Peter admits, is that rescuing the environment is completely incompatible with (actually antithetical to) “predatory” capitalism – this is obvious fact, or should be at least. Therefore, I think we need to be clear that any serious effort to tackle the problem has to realize that political activism is essential – changes have to be made collectively, a minority of individuals even living at the level of subsistence would be completely ineffectual (indecently the attitude that boycotting the Gap (and others) helps Third World labor is, I believe, mistaken for similar reasons).

That the problem is real and serious is incontrovertible, and it has been know about all of my life; it was something, surprisingly considering I come from a small mining town (Elko, Nevada), that I can remember hearing about in school from first grade (ca. 1988). [In fact I won a writing award when I was in first grade for some rhetorical statement or other with regard to saving the oceans from pollution.]

The problem with meaningful activism, however, is that you do have to take a big risk (often your job or career options, at the least). I don’t know how others feel, but I am reluctant to speak to openly about subversive political matters. I would love to hear from other concerned individuals on this matter.

My email is peterhartward[at]gmail.com. Note: I have used ‘[at]’ instead of ‘@’ to help prevent spambots locating my address (I am told this helps…). -- Hatemail also welcomed!

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Instead of trying to unite working class Americans behind populist economics ideas that would reach across race and gender lines, the FalseLeft media (e.g., Alternet, Mother Jones, etc) prefer to divide the workers with Identity Politics. But the FalseLeft elite need even more votes to defeat the FalsePopulist RIght, so they resort to scaring voters with global warming propaganda.

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A neat list of human foibles that, in sum, could easily result in the death of the human species and numerous other species as well.
Certainly no shortage of things to do fix the mess. Even some of the Bushies are beginning to realize how messy they are.

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I do believe there are things that we can do to help the environment.

I think that item number one; concerning diet and health, transcends all of the others. What we eat, how we cultivate and produce the abundance of food that we do requires a lot of energy, introduces substantial chemicals into the planets biosphere, and uses a tremendous amout of water.

A vegetarian diet - or at least a substantial reduction in the consumption of meat - would ease all of these things. Eating low on the food chain.

A great deal of energy, chemicals, land and water is used to convert plants into meat. The 'factory' production of meat and fish by developed nations is remarkably cruel and unhealthy. Animals environments are crowded and controlled, their diets geared towards massive weight gain, and supplemented with anitbiotics, hormones, and other "un-natural" ingredients.

Knock of the masculine mystique and female mystique; although there are more female vegetarians than male, there is a need for a paradigm shift in how we see or selves as humans on this planet.

Factory farms are created for economic efficiency only. The treatment of animals or the subsequent quality and nutrition of the product is secondary. And by the way, this is similar to our agricultural industry that produces abundance, but not variety of food anymore.

If we changed our diet, we would affectively alter the course.

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What baloney people don't care about their health; people are obsessed with their health! They are just obsessed with the wrong things. We have made weight, cholestoral and other various measurements BigPharma can profit off of and doctors can easily quantify the be all and end all. People need to stop being manipulated. And while we are waiting for this grandiose evolution of consciousness the author is trying to explain, why not give compact flourescent light bulbs to friends and neighbors as holiday gifts? It is a positive way to get the message across with out the nag that turns so many people off!

"Weight obsession is a social disease. If we cared as much about CO2 as BMI there would still be time."

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You are all invited to join us in Australia for our zero carbon dinner event in January 26th.
I manage the zerocarbon network here in Australia.
On the 26th of january we are planning to get as many people around the world to host a zero carbon event.
The idea is simple. You invite 10 people over for a fun event. The challenge is to create a fun happening that demonstrates that we can have fun, have a good life without adding to the carbon in the atmosphere.
If you are interested in hosting such an event then email me zerocarbonfuture@gmail.com and I will send you out by email the kit that will help you organize your event - includes a power point presentation about things that you can do, a zero carbon calculator plus some information that you can share with your friends.
There are no costs involved - all you need to do is to be prepared to to report back on your activity so that we can post on our website all the different, ingenious ways that people have found to live a zero lifestyle.
Depending on whether or not we have raised enough money by the 26th to make the website truly interactive we would like to give people the opportunity to give feedback about the various ways that people have used. Once we start sharing strategies we will be well on the way of getting to a zero carbon future.
If you want to become a member of the zerocarbon network then go to our website (pretty basic at this stage we have only been going for a month or so) zerocarbonnetwork.cc join up - although we ask for a fee of $50 you can become a member see what you think and pay when you feel we are offering something that is worth your investment.
We have set ourselves up as a not for profit organization. We use any money we raise through the website to fund research and development into strategies.
We have already begun our first project - we are currently developing the zero carbon roadmap that will identify what governments need to do. BUT lets not wait for the men and women in suits the more we do at the local level the easier it is to convince the talking suits that this is something that they can support without losing their precious place in congress/parliament.
Meanwhile no need to wait for big Al there is lots that we can do ourselves.
If you are working in a local corporation ask me about our zero carbon economic zone - we can show you how your community can help the environment, maintain your lifestyle and depending on where you live even make money out of reducing your energy costs.
All of this is run on the wikki principle free sharing of ideas and strategies.
Your email address will not be on sold to companies so that they can send you even more spam - like you I have seen enough viagra offers to last me a life time (you get exhausted even thinking about it!)
So join us in Australia on january 26th (it is our national day we are using it to declare independence from our addiction to a carbon liefstyle)

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I'm tired of hearing every new opinion on what the problem is. We sit around and try to create new ways of expressing what the issues are. We don't need another 6 step program to explain the worlds problems. So we have lame politicians; who elected them? So we have a lame court; who appointed them? So we are a bunch of Fat asses; who put all the high fructose corn syrup in everything?

Next time that you write a piece like this, tell us the 6 things that we should be doing to make a difference.
1 change to energy effecient light bulbs.
2 buy a hybrid car
3 get involved in the political process
etc

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That's total bullshit! This is not a gender issue. It has alot more to do with ignorance and selfishness.

I guess this author has never been to Alabama. The number of god damned women driving monster suvs here is horrendous. The women here are just as bad if not worse than the men. But really they're not men and women, they're mutants hellbent on the destruction of the globe. A real man or woman would never be so callous.

Most could drive a four cylinder car instead. Or even a V6 Ford Fusion or Chevy Impala will get twice the mpg of most suvs. I have read in automotive magazines that on average a vehicle emits twice it's weight in CO2 per year.

As Al says in An Inconvenient Truth if we use more efficient appliances, practiced a little conservation, used alternative sources of energy and drove more efficient cars we could drive down our CO2 emissions lower than 1970 levels easily. It seems like I read that Al said around 1990 that the internal combustion engine was the greatest threat to mankind. At that time I thought he was kind of loony and he was exagerating the problem. But now I believe he was correct and that he is somewhat of a visionary. Many visionaries and intellectuals are considered loony and/or are persecuted but time often reveals their that their knowledge is correct.

Is Al a female? I have not seen a woman of as much stature as Mr. Gore try as hard to get the message out that something must be done and can be done. So please don't tell me the "feminine mystique is the antidote."

As for cars and suvs, they ought to have the price of gas regulated by the weight of the vehicle. The more the vehicle weighs the more you pay for a gallon of gas. So if some moron wants a suv then they are really gonna pay for it! Instead of the country subsidizing these monstrosities(suvs) by allowing them to skirt CAFE requirements be cause they are classified as trucks when they are used as cars.

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In the article you claim it is the "male values of power and domination...", did you mean to say the masculine characteristics of power and domination? The way it is stated in the article conflates male biological gender with masculinity, which as a psychologist I am sure you know are not the same thing. There are plenty of masculine women and plenty of feminine men. In fact in order for us to abandon our "male values of power and domination" we would have to part with our physical maleness. We could change our gendered behaviour from more masculine to more feminine simply by changing our attidudes and behaviours.

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basically that's what this article said. the accusations could apply to any problem from labor exploitation to intolerance.

Before I say just say "so what", which is my gut reaction to this "tua culpa"- apologies to Latin scholars if I've screwed up the dative case- I'll just mention that I drive a hybird and enjoy the gas savings. So that's my selfish, Maslovian motive for doing a bit of what the Inquisitor who wrote this article advocates. Beyond that..

* it's clear the author thinks everyone believes global warming is caused by people and by no other factors

* it's clear that if EVERYONE followed the author's advice(100%?) there would be a significant rollback of "global warming"

*it's clear that the author ducks or doesn't want to answer the question as to why our climate has gotten warmer for over 200 years during which cars and coal-based manufacturing had little or no effect on that warming component for a majority of years.

*it's clear that the author is oblivious to the booms in China and the rest of Asia which burns coal and drives cars in ever-increasing amounts despite Al Gore and US hysteria like this article.

*The author is a racist? NO, he's not. But that's the kind of broken connection thinking this article features which damages perceptions of the Left's cognitive capacities. That is too bad because on many issues like worker rights and environmental damage that can actually be linked to human activities(overfishing, oil spills, mercury contamination) the Left is the guardian, as a late, great left newspaper called itself, of reason and health of humanity.

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I'm amazed at the negative reaction to this piece, cause I was just contemplating sending to about a dozen people I know, male and female. He certainly speaks to me, to my head and to my heart.

That said, Silent Spring slightly preceded The Feminist Mystique, if I'm not mistaken, and the Feminine Mystique, as Betty Freidan saw it, was a negative thing that kept women at home when they might have had larger lives. She is every bit as big a hero as Rachael Carson in my book.

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The one thing that is strrangely never mentioned is overpopulation, People breed like rats, and every human born will add to the problem. Go get neutered or spade and do the planet a favor, let it regenerate itself. There's probably nothing as disgusting as the welfare queens with 10 kids.
Why is this never discussed? because our government is run by corporations, and all they want is more "consumers".

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The article wasn't bad, per se, but it didn't really address the underlying cause for all of humanities faults. Lihe they say, your greatest strengths are also tend to be your greatest liability. In this case, blame should fall squarely upon our neocortex. It is the part of our brain that gives us the capacity for abstract thought.

To see things abstractly, means to take them out of context, out of relation. While this can be valuable, it can also be dangerous. Something seen without context, has no inherent value. It's value is based on it being compared, objectively and subjectively, against something else. In our case, we tend to measure things up to how they affect us and ours.

First we see I. Then we compare other people to how they are similar, or different, then we are. We identify, and group together with, people we find similar. This forms the basis for social divisions. This enables the capacity to percieve "us" and "them".

Next, we percieve that our own mortality and life. We see that it is not permenant. This gives us the perception of time. Time does not exist, it is only percieved. Even Einstein said "We have time so that everything doesn't happen at once". This enables us to percieve "my".

Then, we percieve that we live in a place with other humans. We see available resources. This sets the stage for competition between groups, as we generally see someone else's reaping of resources as detracting from our own ability to procur resources. This enables us to percieve "ours".

All of these perceptions are what enable us to live our lives in a way that pits human needs against those of other humans and the world itself. We are acting to preserve our own little "bubble", our pysche, that we live within. This bubble, while we may think it keeps us comfortable, in actuality it imprisons us. We further imprison ourselves by further constructing human tools and institutions that reinforce this mindset. Brick by brick, we construct walls around ourselves because of our limited perspective. We cannot see far beyond ourselves and so don't understand much of the world. Out of this lack of understanding stems fear. Out of this fear stems anger. From anger comes agression. And so here we are, fighting the physical world, as it is, tooth and nail for self-preservation. Eventually, we find ourselves afraid, and alone, in our self constructed prison.

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How many SUV's does it take to cause the melting of the polar ice caps on Mars? Where did all the hurricanes go this year? Yes, the climate is heating up, but is man causing it? It has been heating up for the last 15,000 years. I am glad y'all weren't around 15,000 years ago. We have to stop the warming! Why don't we look into adapting to the higher temps? Go Steelers! That is a football team. The best population control is affluence just look at Europe, but Europe's population will grow again with lots of Muslims.

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Where is the best place to start in correcting our destruction of the environment? Stop funding the DOD. The U.S. is the big spender and aggressor worldwide. We have to end the suicidal march toward mutual destruction. This article seems to be about diversion away from addressing the political system that is imposing this self destruction on the world.

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While I accept the gist of the article as more than valid, I find the title misleading. The article points out the reasons for our failure to act to protect the planet. It fails to present tangible actions.

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All the sound and fury this article has generated shows that the author must have hit the nail on the head. In my experience, the more anger an idea generates, the closer it gets to the truth. Humans seem to have an amazing propensity to not want to look inside themselves. And, for those who have done that already, maybe one way to halt global warming is to develop the positive qualities of which the author speaks and be ambassadors of new ways to live in harmony with the earth in our local communities.

Many of the people with whom we come in contact will listen when we are a living example of these qualities. I have never made any real contact with others when I have come at them beating them over the head with the "right" way to do something. If I show them by example, they often want to know more.

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The banana crop is looking really good this year in Maryland. Whatever you guys are doing please keep on doing it. The crop will look even better if we can get the average daily temperature up a couple more degrees. Drive those SUV's and keep burning oil in your homes. I encourage any and all cattle ranchers to encourage their herds to fart more often because that will really help raise the temps to the point where my bananas will grow bigger and liberals will start dying from hysteria. Not to fear because you liberals make excellent compost whether alive or dead which will help me grow my bananas even bigger. Nothing will be wasted except the time you spend hyperventilating over global warming.

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I wasn't overly impressed with this histrionic turkey to begin with but when I got to this part I decided it wasn't worth the time:

"The male values of power and domination constitute problem number three. Supreme gratification and egotistical aggrandizement reward man for his conquest of nature. Globalization is, in part, his quest to extend his "triumph" to all peoples and cultures.

The feminine mystique is the antidote. Symbolized by Rachel Carson in her book, Silent Spring, it awakened us in the 1960s to the male-engineered poisoning of the earth through the misuse of chemical pesticides. Women's sensitivity and their alignment with nurturing gave birth to the environmental movement.

The male propensity for power and domination has moved from the infantile level to the adolescent. It needs to be unstuck once more. We need to understand that the possession of true strength and power depends on our having wisdom and compassion, which come to us through the balance of the feminine and the masculine values."

WOW! This kind of crap just never ceases to amaze me. Yes it must be men alone who are responsible for the "conquest of nature". Ever notice that an astounding number of women don't seem to mind buying furs, driving expensive cars and otherwise benefitting from the masculine destruction of nature? Shame on all you men for building it, growing it, designing it, etc. and then putting a gun to women's heads and making them buy it. How's that for a feminine mystique?

The male-engineered pesticide thing was absolutely precious though. In a female dominated world all the fruits and vegetables would be sprayed with estrogen of course and everything would be fine. As it stands, men dominate and therefore we have pesticides which presumably issue from their evil penises. Good lord Alternet - where do you find these fucking idiots?

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An opera fan friend of mine pointed out that in every Italian opera, at some point, we hear, "Coragio," or however "Have courage" is spelled.

Good advice is its own kind of problem. Just as with "love is the answer." Yes, but it is also the problem.

Unfortunately, advising us to be courageous then can come to mean that if we talk about our fears, we are wimps. If truth be told, no one wants to listen to us talk about our fears. They are contagious like sadness or laughter or yawning.

We need to understand that at the interpersonal level it is not our responsibility to somehow make everything alright for others, to be a "Catcher in the Rye." That's what keeps us children.

My answer is, as the author concludes, "Grow up." But again, that is not so much an answer as the problem. For ultimately, the answer is not a "How to (fill in the blank)." (Sorry about that all you engineers, whether mechanical or psychological.) For we can know the answer and not do anything about it.

As with "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," so let he/she who is perfect tells us all how we can be just like he/she. I'd rather water my garden.

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The one thing you never see in lists of actions to prevent global warming: Stop flying! We're supposed to have a love affair here with the automobile, but Americans now consider it a basic right to fly as often as they please. Don't bother with compact flourescents if you fly more than once every few years.

There is probably no way to convert our current lifestyles into something sustainable. There is no version of American life that can be made environmental. If we continue to drive as much as we want and fly as much as we want, we're screwed. I hear many people say how inspiring An Inconvenient Truth is, but have only heard of one person who changed anything because of it. I used to be frustrated with conservatives because they seem to have arrived at a point where they only examine the sins of others, but environmentalists aren't much different. We gripe about Hummers but haven't replaced more than an occasional errand with walking or biking instead of driving.

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1) End all foreign oil imports (and pull the US military out of the world's oilfields).

2) Quit burning coal for electricity generation.

3) Start a massive investment / R&D program in solar photovoltaics and solar water heating.

4) Start a massive investment / R&D program in wind energy.

5) Rebuild the electricity grid, including power storage and disbursement systems for all the wind and solar generated electricity.

6) Start a massive investment / R&D program in sustainable, fossil-free agricultural food production and transport.

Of course to do all this you'll need government support, which means getting the fossil fuel money out of the political process; you'll also need the general public to have accurate information, which means getting the fossil fuel money out of the media corporations; and you'll also need a strong domestic industry that is largely self-reliant and well paid, which means putting an end to the neo-liberal unfair trade agreements that are championed by the Republicans and the Money Democrats for the benefit of their billionaire handlers, and which also means supporting the labor unions and smaller start-up renewable energy companies. Don't trust the megacorps like GE to do this - they'd rather build nuclear plants and poison the planet (more profits that way).

Even if all this is done, it will only slow global warming to manageable levels; it might take a 1000 years for CO2 levels to return to pre-industrial levels - so it is definitely not the time to be buying beachfront property on the Gulf of Mexico (as the insurance companies will tell you). The Federal Flood insurance program should also be cancelled - why should taxpayers pick up the bill for those who build on flood plains?

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...and how to ride bikes, or start car pools. We all know we should insulate our houses or put plastic over apartment windows in the winter. Some folks could even afford to install solar panels, geothermal pumps, or home-scale wind turbines. And etc. There is no dearth of sources for such facts about eco-living. But why don't more people implement them? No doubt, plenty of Alternet readers could do more along these lines than they've yet incorporated into habit. Why don't we do more? A little psychobabble just might shake loose a motivation or two. Try sending the essay to a couple of friends on the brink of trying SOMETHING in the way of eco-practice. Sure beats cursing the darkness.

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I'm tired of these simplistic, black and white rants that regurgitate post-feminist theory from the mid-80s. Look I'm a male feminist, but I'm also pragmatic and know that people are limitated with how much they know and can do thanks to all kinds of demographic indicators. Sam Keene's "Fire in the Belly," which also appeared in the 80s, took privileged, middle-class to affluent women to task for their high-impact lifestyles and hypocrisy. He didn't go after poor women, who have very little negative impact on the planet, obviously. Affluent women's spending habits contribute considerably to the fossil fuel consumption. One particularly aggravating example is the vast amount of moms idling many minutes in their vans and SUVs while waiting to pick up their kids at school or daycare. Think they could turn off their engines and walk or perhaps offer a greener way to pick up their kids? Forget about it!

The time when women ruled eco-friendly cultures is over unless you live on that South Pacific or Indian Ocean island where some semblance of it exists.

Whenever I read high-minded, yet incredibly impractical articles like this I realize how out of touch so many well-educated people are with the general public and their spending patterns, not to mention their belief systems. Unless you can find a way to combat our Philistine culture's love affair with shopping and Fox News sound bites, the "truthiness" of the Dr. Richard Lindzens (aka Dr. Global Warming is a Myth) out there will prevail among the majority.

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This is what happens when people get greedy, fat and lazy.

We lost our voice when we found the remote. Couch potatoes that flick from station to station in a lonely pursuit of entertainment, while the powers that be gobble everything up in sight.

As for SUVs and Women Vs Men. Its all the same. Marketing and propaganda with obvious results. Men and Women are equal in the eyes of the creator, the rest of the bullshit is just that. Bullshit.

I for one am going vegan. Not so much out of cruelty to animals or personal taste, but rather, eating animals is unhealthy because of all the hormones and God knows what else in them today- because it can and does and will kill me and probably you as well.

I dont drive at all anymore because it causes way too much stress and for the last two years I have managed just fine to get anywhere I want to go and I arrive at the exact time I need.

Now, looking at the state of the world and where we are headed..We'll all be dead very soon, do it doesn't matter what we do. The damage is done and unredeemably so. We all know it, and its only getting worse.

Sorry for the bad news, but its a fact! Just make the best out of what we have left.

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Buy organic, drive less and drive a hybrid car, get your gas from Citgo, etc.

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The male values of power and domination constitute problem number three...The feminine mystique is the antidote.

You were going pretty good until the battle of the sexes crap. What a waste of time.

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Another Inconvenient Truth
www.eatkind.net/inconvenient.htm

EarthSave: A New Global Warming Strategy
http://www.earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3312

Another Inconvenient Truth: In the modern world, it is impossible to reconcile a carnivorous diet with environmental responsibility
www.aquarianonline.com/Eco/anotherinconvenienttruth.htm

UN: Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

Livestock’s Role in Climate Change and Air Pollution
virtualcentre.org/en/library/

Warming Up to a New Diet
http://simplevegan.blogspot.com

Diet, Energy and Global Warming
http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutri.html

ABC News: Meat-Eaters Aiding Global Warming?
abcnews.go.com/Technology/TenWays/story?id=2119267&page=1

Greenpeace: On Your Plate
www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/green-living-guide/on-your-plate

Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian
http://goveg.com/environment-globalwarming.asp

Vegan diets healthier for planet, people than meat diets
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060413.diet.shtml

The SUV in the Pantry
http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/gasfood112105.cfm

Physics World: Cut Global Warming by Becoming Vegetarian
http://www.physorg.com/news4998.html

Five Food Choices for a Healthy Planet
http://www.veg.ca/issues/enviro-5reasons.html

and

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
www.brook.com/veg

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II recently completed a small research project for a college course. the research topic was on CAFE standards and the auto industry's opposition hiking the standards. In shaping the paper, I came across something called Free Market Environmentalism (FME). It reminds me of the same type of logic and arguments folks make against social or economic challenges to controlling capital.

I might be so controversial as to say the arguments against global warming by the those who espouse FME are the same type or forms of arguments used to prove blacks were inferior to whites. The line of thinking is exactly the same. Play upon fears, insinuate that sharing with others means less for you, make clear that the “other” is undeserving and question any information that suggest that what you are advocating is morally wrong and indefensible, by declaring loudly that YOU ARE THE MOST MORALLY FIT AND DESERVING TO decide what should be done. Am I saying racism has warped our nation, yes. And it ain’t all about race. Consider that the paradigm for American culture is that somebody has to be at the bottom, the ( ). It can be based upon color, ethnicity, income or whatever, just as long as somebody is beneath. The myth is that if the person or group is beneath you, that means you are doing better. This may work when you are an indentured servant and someone else is a field slave, but it doesn’t work when you both are breathing toxic air or eating denatured food. We have to stop this now because in the future, when air is no longer fit to breath, I don’t want to become an advocate for the rights of third world people or the poor in America to have clean air piped into their homes at an affordable rate. Just let your mind imagine this future for a moment. No clean air outside, you pay for it to come inside your home, like heat flows from the furnace or cool air from the air conditioner. Those who can afford it have it, those who can’t won’t. This is real because right now, we have a problem with another resource, water, poor people in third world countries are having a problem getting clean water. Having clean air , will become a problem is we allow the supreme court to say the EPA can’t regulate emissions.


The truth is FME isn't free -- it comes a big price to our health and the health of the planet. Really, our health can't be separated from the health of the planet. We are the earth, water, and air that we seem to not be able to fight to keep clean. If we like cancer, emphysema, diabetes, etc. and other conditions that come about because of disruptions in our immune system, then I guess we could continue to be confused, and unable to know when the economic argument is just a bunch of bunk to keep us for asserting our right to a clean and healthy self and planet.

I agree that the case at the EPA is very important. The EPA is supposed to regulate, for one branch of the government to sue a federal agency to prevent it from carrying out the people's will is atrocious.

I think we need to redefine person for real, if a fetus is or should be a person, how can a corporation be a person? Corporations do not breath, they are not divinely created (by God, anyway), and they will never have sex, which is the most important part of being a human being, without sex or the sexual glands, organs and hormones, we wouldn’t be here.

Now for something serious, we need to fight this like hell because it is the right thing to do. We deserve a clean and healthy planet/self. We are the only ones who will protect our interest - to live short or long, but to live healthy, well and happy.

kbiteye

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I'm not sure about the connection between masculinity and inaction. I keep an active eye on my right to DO NOTHING WHICH REQUIRES THE CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION OF COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES.
And while we are calling for restrictions on the by-products of energy conversion, let's remember the people who can't afford a new car .Does auto production have an equivilent by-product anyway?
(There's a hot topic for labor.)
Perhaps the only effective way to reduce pollution is to reduce USE.
Give me an unlit unit of quiet conversation for Qwanzmuth. Or how bout Luuuuuuv?
I'm going outside now to enjoy a celestial show.
Is that the womanly thing to do?

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Go to the local retailer of your choice and buy enough compact fluorescent lamps to replace the incandescent bulbs in your home. On average, they produce the same amount of life for about 1/5th the electricity. They also last much longer, which means that it takes many incandescent bulbs that have to be fabricated, shipped and stored- using a bunch of energy.

Add up the number of bulbs used in your home imagine how much electricity could be saved by cutting your lighting bill by 80%. Now, multiply that by every house and apartment in the nation. This will save consumers money, save landfills tons of used incandescent bulbs, negated the need for new generating plants by the massive reduction in demand, and kept a massive amount of pollution out of our environment.

This is something that can be done today- not someday. The benefits and effects are immediate. The technology is widely available, requires no new construction or modification, works everywhere and is affordable. Efficiency is the fastest and most universal means to put the brakes on and start moving toward a sustainable economic model.

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Haven't seen enough articles that touch the issue of global warming with a ten foot pole. You hit the biggest and hardest needs- consumer transformation into a conscious consumer with the planet in mind. But this is a big big hump to get over - CHanging an American society with its all powerful, all mind controlling slanted TV and media. We're a long long ways from getting there. I think you're wrong about the % of the public that wants to combat global warming. A large percent of this country wouldn't even want to get caught saying the words global warming. Hasn't it been turned into a witch hunt by the media and GW's expert skepticism!
We have so many crisis issues in this country that it's seems that any talk of global warming has been relegated to a couple paragraph news brief or just an editorial (US mass media)...
You could have thrown in, just to get more people excited, the role of war production in generating CO2.........

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Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. If every family in the U.S. made the switch, we’d reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds! You can purchase CFLs online from the Energy Federation.

Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has more tips for saving energy on heating and cooling.

Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Install a programmable thermostat
Programmable thermostats will automatically lower the heat or air conditioning at night and raise them again in the morning. They can save you $100 a year on your energy bill.

Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most efficient models. If each household in the U.S. replaced its existing appliances with the most efficient models available, we’d eliminate 175 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year!

Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.

Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.

Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!

Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting
You can save 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Insulate and weatherize your home
Properly insulating your walls and ceilings can save 25% of your home heating bill and 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Caulking and weather-stripping can save another 1,700 pounds per year. The Consumer Federation of America has more information on how to better insulate your home.

Be sure you’re recycling at home
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates. Earth 911 can help you find recycling resources in your area.

Buy recycled paper products
It takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests worldwide.

Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%. The Arbor Day Foundation has information on planting and provides trees you can plant with membership.

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Get a home energy audit
Many utilities offer free home energy audits to find where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. You can save up to 30% off your energy bill and 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Energy Star can help you find an energy specialist.

Switch to green power
In many areas, you can switch to energy generated by clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar. The Green Power Network is a good place to start to figure out what’s available in your area.

Buy locally grown and produced foods
The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.

Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.

Seek out and support local farmers markets
They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by one fifth. You can find a farmer’s market in your area at the USDA website.

Buy organic foods as much as possible
Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!

Avoid heavily packaged products
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

Eat less meat
Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.

Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year! Click here to find transit options in your area.

Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. eRideShare.com runs a free national service connecting commuters and travelers.

Keep your car tuned up
Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.

Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
Proper inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference!

When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle
You can save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year if your new car gets only 3 miles per gallon more than your current one. You can get up to 60 miles per gallon with a hybrid! You can find information on fuel efficiency here and here.

Try car sharing
Need a car but don’t want to buy one? Community car sharing organizations provide access to a car and your membership fee covers gas, maintenance and insurance. Many companies – such as Flexcar -- offer low emission or hybrid cars too! Also, see ZipCar.

Try telecommuting from home
Telecommuting can help you drastically reduce the number of miles you drive every week. For more information, check out the Telework Coalition.

Fly less
Air travel produces large amounts of emissions so reducing how much you fly by even one or two trips a year can reduce your emissions significantly. You can also offset your air travel by investing in renewable energy projects.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando

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t r u t h o u t | Bulletin
From: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Friday 08 December 2006

Agency sells $40,000 worth of furniture and equipment for $350.
Washington, DC - In defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar.

In a letter dated November 30, 2006, four incoming House Democratic committee chairs demanded that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson assure them "that the destruction or disposition of all library holdings immediately ceased upon the Agency's receipt of this letter and that all records of library holdings and dispersed materials are being maintained." On the very next day, December 1st, EPA de-linked thousands of documents from the website for the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA's Washington D.C. Headquarters.

Last month without notice to its scientists or the public, EPA abruptly closed the OPPTS Library, the agency's only specialized research repository on health effects and properties of toxic chemicals and pesticides. The web purge follows reports that library staffers were ordered to destroy its holdings by throwing collections into recycling bins.

"EPA's leadership appears to have gone feral, defying all appeals to reason or consultation," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that Congress has yet to review, let alone approve, the library closures. "The new Congress convening in January will finally have a chance to decide whether EPA will continue to pillage its library network."

Meanwhile, in what appears to be an effort to limit Congressional options, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of the several libraries that it has already completely shuttered. In its Chicago office, which formerly hosted one of the largest regional libraries, EPA ordered that all furniture and furnishings (down to the staplers and pencil sharpeners) be sold immediately. Despite an acquisition cost of $40,000 for the furniture and equipment, a woman bought the entire lot for $350. The buyer also estimates that she will re-sell the merchandise for $80,000.

"One big irony is that EPA claimed the reason it needed to close libraries was to save money but in the process they are spending and wasting money like drunken sailors," Ruch added, noting EPA refuses to say how much it plans to spend digitizing the mountains of documents that it has removed from library shelves. "While the Pentagon had its $600 toilet seat and $434 hammer, EPA has its 29 cent book case and file cabinets for a nickel."

In spite of its pleas of poverty, EPA is spending millions on a public relations campaign to improve the image of its research program, as well as a $2.7 million program (more than its estimated savings from library closures ) to digitize all employee personnel files, in a program called "eOPF."

"No one believes that EPA is closing libraries and crating up irreplaceable collections for fiscal reasons," Ruch concluded. "Instead, the real agenda appears to be controlling access by its own specialists and outside researchers to key technical information."

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As republican party was taken over by neofashists
so democratic party is going to be taken over
by environmental fashists and different kind of
extremists.
The hard working americans who can afford the list
are paying the most already for all these environmental
idiocy.
You are going to get another Bush in 2008

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Learn how corporations can become democratic and discover a new economic system that will destroy the money powers who are ruining our Earth. Buy and read my new book REVENGE AT HIGH TOR available on amazon.com. A dramatic novel of intrigue that solves our political and economic problems.--
Charles H. Seitz

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http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail

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This article really doesn't have much of value to offer. It seems to be the typical mumbo jumbo from the much-discredited New Age movement - "change your mind a little and you can change the world a lot." Where are the practical suggestions? Yes, there are things we can all do to mitigate (not stop) global warming. And of course it doesn't begin to mention the problems that must be solved before anything can happen: overpopulation, petroleum-based economies and technologies, the complete control of the state by corporate interests. It even resurrects that old saw about "male dominance and violence" and "female mystical peacefulness." Good heavens, have we not progressed at all since the '80s? Just because there's a Republican administration is no reason to resurrect the other crap about the '80s!

Sorry, this was a waste of time. The heart's in the right place, but the head is somewhere dark and moist.

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Beautifully said. I can see from the comments that some people are longing for one more list of little things they can do around the house to stop global warming. While those lists are certainly helpful, it takes courage to face this issue with a wider scope and to treat the problems from the fundamental level.

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A big step forward will be when Democratic and Progressive politician renounce their personal jets.

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More impractical blah blah blah. At the very least, you should title the articles accurately. The headline is "6 ways that changing your life can affect global warming" Yet there isn't a single way I can change my life described in the article. Instead we get three reasons that things are bad and three problems that make it worse. No corrective action ideas at all.

Reason number one is the indifference that so many of us have for our own health.
Problem number two is our fear.
The male values of power and domination constitute problem number three.
Reason number four finds us plagued with an overabundance of political leaders who won't lead.
Number five on this list brings us to a serious fault line in our economic system.
Reason number six finds us waiting in vain for economics to lead us out of the impasse presented by global warming.

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I was disapointed how this article provided nothing substantial about making an impact, it was a "Blame men, blame the government, blame ourselves" without any specifics...very dissapointing, i had hoped for substance. Especially since there are such easy things to do.

1. Switch to Energy Efficent light bulbs, every single one in your house.
2. Use added insulation methods in the winter, and control your blinds in the summer. The added stuff is the cheap stick on weather padding for cracks in windows, and the plastic sheets that can shrink wrap over windows either inside or out. In the summer close your blinds during the day and keep windows shut, keeping the light out keeps the house cooler.
3. Recycle everything you can, know what is supported in your community adn recycle it all.
4. Tell your friends easy things to do, and encourage them to do the same.
5. Unplug unused appliances and chargers, many of these draw electricity even if they're off.
6. Buy more foods that are locally produced, and shift away from frozen products. Costs and energy of food distribution and freezing techniques are HUGE.

See, easy and simple things that a decent journalist could add some substance too, and provide a few extra web links for added information.

It's useless to have an article that helps to propigate the stereotype that all liberals are hippie schmucks that want to overhaul the entire system. If global warming is to change everyone needs to get involved, not have their ideology changed.

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I agree with the readers who were disappointed not to find practical daily solutions in this article, thank you for those who have contributed yours.

--A good first step in making your life more eco-friendly is taking your ecological footprint:
www.earthday.net

This will help identify the habits of living that you can do something about.

--While keeping your amount of fossil-fueled travel as minimal as possible, purchase carbon offsets, for example from Native Energy, which supports the development of wind power on the Rosebud Reservation.

--Please do consider the benefits of a vegan/vegetarian diet --it's good for the planet, for you, for all living beings. And it is easy to eat good, delicious cuisine without animal flesh.

A good place to start: www.vrg.org

--Buying local food is beneficial--most beneficial of all is producing as much of your own as possible (and that's a lot easier on a veg diet). Learn a simple but powerful organic method like biointensive that allows high yields from small spaces--and after the initial setting up work, it takes surprisingly little time.

www.ecologyaction.org

The average front yard can grow all the produce for a family of four. Better than being a monoculture lawn grass farmer!

Keeping a couple of egg hens or pygmy goats for milk may be feasible for some.

Even if you're an apartment dweller it's possible to grow food in containers in windows or on rooftops and balconies, you can even grow pounds of potatoes in an old garbage can. And/or you can find or start a community garden in your area. Some cities have funds & other resources to help with this.


--Remember that every little bit counts, but it's not all on you, we have to work for *collective* solutions. Do what you can to support ecofriendly policies and fight bad ones. This website allows you to sign up for regular, free action alerts from Environmental Defense & other eco groups:

www.actionnetwork.org


From Mary

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I looked here for real ways to combat global warming. And all I got was the feminist "men are to blame" argument.

So I'd like to tackle that argument, men the agressor, men who hunger ceaselessly after power and money, yada, yada.

WHY do men behave in this way? A few percent of men are "alphas" who's natural personality drives them to garner as much power and wealth in this world as they can. Most of the rest of us are just trying to enjoy our lives, and a few are really trying to make the world a better place (not me, but there are some). What makes all of us pursue money and power, even if we are not naturally attracted to those things for our own ends? Answer? You're not going to like it, feministas. The behaviour of women. What turns women ON about men? Power, money, status. We screw the planet and other people for the same reasons you girls get a make-over and a push-up bra. Women constantly select men with power, money, and a dominating attitude. It's sexy. The children of such women are more likely to have the ingrained personality traits which you so despise. And on. I can heartily blame the whole human race for such problems, but to put it all on men is a ridiculous argument, men and women being so strongly socially interlinked. Probably if men lived on one continent and women on the other, BOTH would be better places environmentally. How about that for a thought?

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