Cities and states around the country have taken action to stop global warming by passing innovative transportation and energy saving legislation. 194 cities nationwide representing over 40 million people have made this pledge as part of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Find out how to make your city a cool city!

Background Information

The Mayors Climate Protection Center is part of the United States Conference of Mayors and was created in Spring 2007 in order to provide the mayors of American cities with research and resources to help reduce global warming. Starting in June 2007, the Center will bestow an annual “Mayors’ Climate Protection Award” to leading mayors.

The “U.S. Mayors Climate adopted by the Mayors Climate Protection Center. The Agreement seeks the pledges of mayors from all 50 states to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7% from 1990 levels by the year 2012, in line with the Kyoto Protocol.

To date, 514 mayors have signed the Agreement.

U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/mayor/climate

If you invest your money, you should consider the impact that your investments and savings will have on global warming. Check out SocialInvest and Ceres to can learn more about how to ensure your money is being invested in companies, products and projects that address issues related to climate change.

Background Information

Socially responsible investing describes an investment strategy which combines the intentions to maximize both financial return and social good. In general, socially responsible investors favor corporate practices which are environmentally responsible, support workplace diversity, and increase product safety and quality.

Protect and conserve forest worldwide

Forests play a critial role in global warming: they store carbon. When forests are burned or cut down, their stored carbon is release into the atmosphere - deforestation now accounts for about 20% of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Conservation International has more information on forests and global warming.

Background Information

Rainforests are home to two-thirds of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. It has been estimated that many hundreds of millions of new species of plants, insects and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rain forests are called the “jewels of the earth”, and the “world’s largest pharmacy” because of the large amount of natural medicines discovered there. Tropical rain forests are also often called the “Earth’s lungs”, however there is no scientific basis for such a claim as tropical rainforests are known to be essentially oxygen neutral, with little or no net oxygen production.[1].[2]

In contradiction to popular belief, rainforests are not major consumers of carbon dioxide and like all mature forests are approximately carbon neutral.[3][4] Recent evidence suggests that the majority of rainforests are in fact net carbon emitters.[5] However, rainforests do play a major role in the global carbon cycle as stable carbon pools. Clearance of rainforest leads to increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Rainforests may also play a role in cooling air that passes through them. As such, rainforests are of vital importance within the global climate system.

Successfully combating global warming requires a national transition to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. These technologies are ready to be deployed more widely but there are regulatory barriers impeding them. Take action to break down those barriers with Vote Solar.

Background Information
Renewable Energy is energy derived from resources that are regenerative or for all practical purposes cannot be depleted.[1] For this reason, renewable energy sources are fundamentally different from fossil fuels, and do not produce as many greenhouse gases and other pollutants as fossil fuel combustion. Mankind’s traditional uses of wind, water, and solar energy are widespread in developed and developing countries; but the mass production of electricity using renewable energy sources has become more commonplace recently, reflecting the major threats of climate change, exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the environmental, social and political risks of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Consequently, many countries promote renewable energies through tax incentives and subsidies.

Currently, renewable energy accounts for ca. 14% of the world’s energy consumption, but the technical potential is large enough to cover many times current and several times projected energy consumption in 2100 (see below). Renewable technologies such as geothermal and hydropower are often economically competitive without subsidies. Other technologies such as solar power is substantially more expensive, although future costs may decline to a fraction of current levels.

Renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat. Each of these sources has unique characteristics which influence how and where they are used.

The majority of renewable energy technologies are directly or indirectly powered by the Sun. The Earth-Atmosphere system is in equilibrium such that heat radiation into space is equal to incoming solar radiation, the resulting level of energy within the Earth-Atmosphere system can roughly be described as the Earth’s “climate.” The hydrosphere (water) absorbs a major fraction of the incoming radiation. Most radiation is absorbed at low latitudes around the equator, but this energy is dissipated around the globe in the form of winds and ocean currents. Wave motion may play a role in the process of transferring mechanical energy between the atmosphere and the ocean through wind stress.[2] Solar energy is also responsible for the distribution of precipitation which is tapped by hydroelectric projects, and for the growth of plants used to create biofuels.

The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-political effort to bring people concerned about global warming together in one place. Add your voice to the hundreds of thousands of other people urging action on this issue.

Links

Global Warming Virtual March

You can extend your positive influence on global warming well beyond your home by actively encouraging other to take action.

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.

Background Information
Aviation contributes to global warming in a number of ways, the most significant of which is the combustion of kerosene (a fossil fuel) in flight. Greenhouse gas emissions from ground airport vehicles and those used by passengers and staff to access airports also contribute, as do emissions generated by the production of energy used in airport buildings, the manufacture of aircraft and the construction of airport infrastructure.

The principal greenhouse gas emission from aircraft in flight is carbon dioxide (CO2), but other emissions include nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, (together termed oxides of nitrogen or NOx), water vapour and particulates (soot and sulfate particles). Other emissions include sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and radicals such as hydroxyl.

The contribution of civil aircraft-in-flight to global CO2 emissions has been estimated at around 2%.[1] However, when non-CO2 altitude-sensitive effects are included, the total impact on anthropogenic (man-made) climate change is believed to be significantly higher. Moreover, that contribution is set to rise for the foreseeable future as increases in the volume of aircraft movement outpaces improvements in fuel efficiency.

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

Background Information

Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home (WAH), or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy limited flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting.[1] All telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. A frequently repeated motto is that “work is something you do, not something you travel to”.[2] A successful telecommuting program requires a management style which is based on results and not on close scrutiny of individual employees. This is referred to as management by objectives as opposed to management by observation. The terms telecommuting and telework were coined by American Jack Nilles in 1973.[3]

Long distance telework is facilitated by such tools as virtual private networks, videoconferencing, and Voice over IP. It can be efficient and useful for companies as it allows staff and workers to communicate over a large distance, saving significant amounts of travel time and cost. As broadband Internet connections become more commonplace, more and more workers have enough bandwidth at home to use these tools to link their home office to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks.

Links

Telework Coalition http://www.telcoa.org/

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.

Background Information

Carsharing is a system where a fleet of cars (or other vehicles) is jointly-owned by the users in distinction from car rental or cars in private ownership. The users are organized as a democratically-controlled company, public agency, cooperative, ad hoc grouping. The fleet is made available for use by members of the carshare group in a wide variety of ways. The costs and troubles of vehicle purchase, ownership and maintenance are transferred to a central organizer (the Carshare Operator or more familiarly CSO). It has been around in various forms for more than half a century, but it is only in the last decade that it has begun to gather force as a viable alternative to car ownership—for some people and some places. Today there are more than six hundred cities in the world where people can carshare.[1]

The term carsharing is also used for carpooling or ride sharing some places.

As is often the case with innovations that spring up more or less spontaneously in different parts of the world, operations are organized in many different ways in different places, according to the objectives of the organizers and users. A small informal start-up may have only one shared car, and only a handful of sharers. In the larger services that are increasingly coming into existence, participants are typically city-dwellers whose transportation needs are largely met by public transit, walking, or cycling.

Carsharing is not only a way for individuals or groups to meet their specific mobility requirements, but it is also taking its place as a key part of what is now increasingly being called the New Mobility Agenda, which combines Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies and measures for containing, channeling and limiting private car traffic in cities, with support of a “bouquet” of alternative transportation arrangements. These include utility cycling, walking, public space improvement, electronic substitutes for travel (such as telework, telecommuting or e-work) and a variety of shared and public transport strategies. Carsharing has been called “the missing link”[citation needed] of the New Mobility Agenda, insofar as it permits people to give up their cars and in the process make fuller use of these other ways of getting around in cities.

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 on FuelEconomy and on GreenCars websites.

Background Information

Fuel efficiency sometimes means the same as thermal efficiency, that is, the efficiency of converting energy contained in a carrier fuel to kinetic energy or work.

Fuel efficiency can also mean the output one gets for a unit amount of fuel input such as “miles per gallon” or “liters per 100 kilometres” (l/100 km) for an automobile (sometimes called fuel economy). Here, vehicle-miles is the output, but for transportation, output can also be measured in terms of passenger-miles or ton-miles (of freight). While the thermal efficiency of petroleum engines has improved in recent decades, this does not necessarily translate into fuel economy of cars, as people in developed countries tend to buy bigger and heavier cars. Nowadays, a hybrid vehicle is more fuel efficient: that is, consumes less fuel (and produces less carbon dioxide grams) than a conventional vehicle with the same engine.

When comparing fuel consumption, it should be borne in mind that the use of different kinds of fuels has different consequences in terms of air pollution, greenhouse gas emission, and depletion of resources. When considering electric power produced from nuclear power, there are nuclear wastes produced as well. One cannot automatically say that a form of transportation having a lower fuel consumption than another is necessarily “better”.

A low emission vehicle is a vehicle that emits only 120mg/km of carbon dioxide (CO2) or less. The emission level of a vehicle is dependent on a number of factors, including engine efficiency, vehicle design, fuel type, and the driver’s ability to drive sensibly. The major fuel types available today are petrol, diesel, and alternative fuels such as LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), hydrogen, electricity, water and, in hybrid vehicles, some combination of these (e.g.petrol and electricity).

Petrol is the most commonly used fuel, and with increasingly efficient manufacturing techniques, and advancements such as unleaded and low-sulphur, petrol is more ecologically friendly today than was previously the case.

Diesel vehicles offer higher miles to the gallon and lower CO2 emissions compared to petrol models.

Alternative fuels like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and CNG produce less pollution that both petrol and diesel. LPG is less costly than petrol and, compared to petrol, LPG vehicles offer a 10-15% reduction in CO2 emissions.

Hybrid cars typically make use of a petrol and an electric motor. The electric motor is powered by a battery, which is charged when breaking or deceleration takes place.

Electrically powered cars produce almost zero CO2, if the electricity comes from a renewable energy source. Electric cars must be charged during the night - normally 10-12 hours and have a limited range per charge. Dual fuel cars can run on LPG and petrol, and are able to switch between these fuels.

An ongoing project to inform American citizens about the disadvantages of SUV driving and to lobby automakers to start producing automobiles that are more fuel efficient, in order to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. It is headed by Arianna Huffington.

The Detroit Project is part of Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars (AFEC), a nonprofit group dedicated to decreasing America’s reliance on foreign oil. AFEC was co-founded by columnist Arianna Huffington, film producer Lawrence Bender, environmental activist Laurie David, and movie and TV agent Ari Emanuel.

AFEC mounts citizens ad campaigns aimed at getting the Detroit automakers to build cars and SUVs that are more fuel efficient, thereby encouraging US policy makers to take action and reduce dependence on foreign oil. [2]