5. Ideas/Political
PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
You are one of over 6.6 billion people on the planet. You cannot solve the Climate change problem by yourself: it is going to take a lot of people to pull together to fix this. On the bright side it is a minority of people that have got to make the biggest change. I remember the simplistic statistic from my Geography lessons at school: 10% of the world's population use 90% of the world's resources. I do not know how accurate that is but it is probably not that far off (you could probably try and work it out, e.g. by combining sources like this Wikipedia article). That is still a lot of people though and it is going to take a lot of careful politics and diplomacy to persuade them all to change. We are going to need our politicians to focus on this.
Almost certainly, you will realise that you are going to need help to reduce your carbon footprint. If there is no decent bus service from home-to-work, maybe your only option is to drive a car. That needs to change; and again it will involve (local) politicians to get more energy-efficient infrastructure set up for the community.
So part of what you need to do to save the world is to...
Get political
Assuming that you are living in a reasonably decent democracy, you wont need to start a revolution to make things change. You have a vote - use it wisely. More importantly though, remember that politics does not finish at the ballot box. The politician that has been voted in - whether they are the one you like or not - has an address (e-mail address?) and you can talk to them. You politician needs to know how important this issue is to you, and maybe you can also help them out with some ideas.
If the politicians wont listen/act fast enough, maybe you need to think about taking to the streets. I am not talking about rioting here! There are organisations like the Campaign against Climate Change which organise demonstrations that you can be part of. Mass movements have bigger voices, which help persuade politicians and other people like you and me that haven't got the message yet (and who knows what these new recruits can achieve?).
Local politics
National politics - Laws
International politics
- China - manufacturing for us! Understood that their economy will grow: contraction and convergence
- Adaptation and mitigation
- Infrastructure: CHP, renewables, research
- Ban non-rechargable batteries, standby button
- Ban companies from producing energy inefficient, throw-away stuff
- Make energy waste socially unacceptable
- Think positive, share ideas, build closer communities
- There is money to be made
- New economics
- Make poverty history - education to stop population explosion, like slavery
- USA energy use and commitment to preventing climate change. Bali summit was not good but don't lose hope: new president and the world calling them to account + geography means climate change will hit them hard – leading to kick in the pants.
- Build homes with a max energy usage trip, e.g. 2000 Watt trip on the main distribution board (like Italy).
- Food waste