This post isn't to start a debate whether or not global warming is real. Any reputable scientists right down to a high school science teacher will tell you it's real. Some think it is just a natural cycle of earth, which it is. But, there is evidence to suggest that earth should be in a state of cooling, not warming up. So either way man's actions have not helped the environment in carbon emissions and in pollution. It's scary to see the decline in animals and plants that we depend on. It's very obvious that we can do more to help the environment and ecosystems that are becoming endangered.

As for the topic, there are several things that one can do to make their house energy efficient. From bulbs, to high efficiency furnaces, to solar panels, to rain water systems, there is a lot one can do to improve their house and/or car. What have you done?

So far my family and I have:

1. Changed my lightbulbs to flourecents
2. Added a rain barrel to my gutteres for watering my lawn
3. Changed out the toilets to more efficient ones, thus saving water
4. Got rid of the pool
5. Make a routine habbit of unplugging rarely used electronics (they still draw electricity even if they are turned off). Otherwise I put my phone chargers and laptop on a powerstrip
6. I ride my bike when possible, drive a lot less
7. Have a compost bin to make fertilizer out of egg shells and peels of fruits and what not. This not only fertilizes any plants we have but eliminates waste going to landfills.
8. Bought solar powered groundlights to light up the driveway. They charge during the day and light up at night.
9. Use a lunchbox and a waterbottle instead of using paper bags and buying dozens of plastic bottled water
10. Recycle. This includes taking old electronics to recycling plants instead of letting them get thrown into a landfill where they will leak chemicals into the ground
11. I take shorter showers and I got out of the habbit of leaving the sink on when I brush my teeth.

What I would like to do is:

1. Turn my laptop into a television so I can get rid of the television in my room. I would have less electronics to have plugged in and in use.
2. Buy solar panels for the roof and build a wind turbine to install. Suprisingly if you look on youtube there are some pretty simple ways to build an okay system.
3. Have the next furnace bought be high efficiency, and the hot water tank to be a tankless system.
4. Buy a push mower instead of using a gasoline. I've considered an electronic one but that still uses energy. Plus I could get a bit more exercise. I was suprised when I looked up these mowers that they have a lot better design than everyone I've talked to made them out to have. I think they are used to the ones they saw growing up.
5. I would like to hopefully plant a few plants that are helpfull to the honey bee population. Has anyone seen how bad their numbers have declined? It's sad considering how much they pollinate in this country.

Anyone have any thoughts?

That push mower sounds fnord like a good idea!

I turned off my TV. Saves electricity and sanity. Got tired of listening to the green this, green that, were going green, I ate green eggs and ham zombies that flood the media. If I hear someone say "were going green" one more time, I will puke, and it won't be green. No offense intended to the above posters. Change should be gradual and at a healthy rate. Every other commercial ends or starts with the phrase "going green." I can't take it anymore!

One of the more drastic things I've done is move. I now live across the street from my "real job". I'm even walking distance to one restaurant gig. Instead of driving every day, my car moves twice a week at most.

I had a big bon-fire with my neighbors, most who drove the less than one block to get here.

It is a naturaal cycle and ever since the last ice-age (pre-man) the earth has been warming. We have airconditioning, do not worry.

David
Most of the things you do would help your bottm line so that is good, but changing the earth?..... wont happen.

NUMS

I pray. God can handle it.

Sorry, that may sound like a flip comment but that's the way I feel. Should we do all of those things you suggested. Sure! But in the end it is God who decides what will happen to His creation.

I drive 61 miles a day ONE WAY to my day job. Just doing my part to contributing to the 3% of the c02 Man puts out.

In the end, God has given human beings stewardship of the earth.

I've never understood the objection of religious people to making a responsible use of the resources God has given us. You don't treat your living room like a pig sty and say, "well, God is all-powerful...let HIM clean it up."

Or did I miss something in Sunday School?

I know you think what you're doing is noble, and much of it may be. But we can't return to a primitive lifestyle in America, as if it were our modern conveniences that could destroy the world.

They can't.

It's a much bigger world out there than you guess, and I believe in better living through technology, chemicals, and using every form of energy available to us. The USA needs to remove most of the regulations which prevent nuclear, coal, oil, and "alternative" methods of energy production from competing equally in the marketplace. You don't make progress by conservation alone.

If the earth is warming, human activity is not by any stretch of imagination a major contributor to it. Therefore, we can't "help" reduce it by human inactivity. Life still must go on, people must still do what they do. It's a good life here, why not enjoy it?

Carrie

I certainly believe in stewardship of all that God has provided and do my best not to waste anything but it has nothing to do with the hoax of a man made global warming.

I'm going to be turned into soylent green.
In the meantime I'm going to make the biggest carbon footprint I can make without catching fire. Who knows ... maybe I can catch up with Al Gore.

I have absolutely no objection to using our recourses to be good stewards of the earth. But if it is God’s will to warm the earth, I don’t think any of those things will help. Likewise, if it is God’s will he can compensate for the increase in temperature with a wave of his finger!

The question was asked, “What have you done to help?” Seriously, I pray.

PS If your living room looks like a pig sty, it must be God’s will.

No arguments here. Stewardship, yes. Crazy watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside) policies, no.

Carrie

I'm not saying you should stop praying. I'm saying that if a friend has cancer, you don't just say, "well, it must be God's will...but I'm praying for you." You advise your friend to seek medical attention.

There is no inherent contradiction between faith and action. And regardless of hoaxes or whether the science is good or bad, it simply makes no sense to be immoderate in our use of the earth's resources.

I get asked, almost every day (and I am NOT exaggerating), "why are Americans so fat?"

And I always answer the same way: "because they eat too much".

We Americans eat and consume and consume and eat. We don't wash our car with a gallon of water if we can use ten. Go to Walmart and they give you a plastic bag for every second item.

Let me ask all of you this: how much food do you end up throwing away two or three days after Thanksgiving?

Do some of you really believe in a God who wants lazy, fat, thoughtless, wasteful believers?

I know: your gut reaction is that any time someone says anything environmental...well, obviously they are a tree-hugging, mother earth worshiping pagan liberal Democrat.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

And Ken, here's what I always say to my wife when she wants me to clean: if God wanted us to go around sucking dirt up into machines, he would have given Adam a vacuum cleaner. He created Eve instead.

A push mower will only allow you to mow a maximum height of 2.5 inches and does a poor job on grasses like fescue, rye and bluegrass. The shorter you mow, the more water it takes to have a healthy lawn. Healthy lawns convert Co2 trough photosynthesis into oxygen, reducing the bogus carbon footprint.

If you look closely at the pictures in the ads push mower you will see the lawns have been mowed with a different mower and the reel type push mower just set on the lawn for the promo pictures.

Why mow your law at all?

Because the city will mow it for you, then charge you $500.00 dollars for doing it.

Because having a well manicured lawn is a pleasure to my eye, I enjoy doing the work and it helps me keep trim and healthy.

It is also an example of being a good steward of what I have been given charge of.

Stoneunhinged,

Very thoughtful and funny post!

"This species has amused itself to death." R. Waters

Wrong. The problem is actually the other way around. It's "GREEN" Al Gore following zombies out there that think if you disagree with Global Warming that you hate the earth and OBVIOUSLY use too much water, eat to much, use as many plastic bags as possible, dump toxic ooze into the public water supply.

It's like because I disagree with global warming I think that we live clean pollution free and energy\environmentally efficient lives.

That's crap. I know we all need to live cleaner and be more fuel efficient...but that doesn't mean I need to drink the Kool-Aid and fund the Green Moneymaking Machine.

As for why Americans are so fat...well, some of us eat to much. In the Capitalist form of Government we are able to prosper like no one else and therefore are able to eat more.

We effing rule.