How to Help Save the Planet

It's in big trouble, so you have two choices: Act now or live with global-warming guilt. (Go with the first one.)

 

This past February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) unveiled its official (and highly anticipated) report on global climate change. This report, which was produced by 600 representatives from 40 countries all over the world, made a very scary statement: There's more than a 90 percent chance that global warming is caused by our burning of fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide. Read: Global warming is our fault.

Even scarier? According to the IPCC, global temperatures may rise between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. Knowing that, the question becomes "What now?" We also wondered, Can one person really even make a difference? Well, according to the findings and to Nigel Campbell, chief media officer for Greenpeace International, the answer (thank goodness) is a resounding yes!

"Most important, you can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you emit, which is the main greenhouse gas heating up the atmosphere," says Campbell. "Just simply making some small adjustments in your day-to-day activities means doing your part to help repair and prevent further global warming."

Here,with help from Campbell and other experts in the field, we arm you with a slew of super-easy strategies.

Lightbulbs are a major waste of energy if they're the regular kind, called incandescent. But if you swap three of those out for compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), you'll be using 60 percent less energy and sparing the planet a whopping 300 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Can't find CFLs in stores? Shop at the Energy Federation's online store (efi.org).

Frozen foods use 10 times more energy to produce than fresh foods do, so go fresh whenever you can. Even better? Seek out a farmers' market near your town. They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport food by one-fifth. Check the National Directory of Farmers' Markets for one near you.

Switch to cloth napkins. You can use them again and again before washing them in a full load, which saves energy and is less damaging than the tree devastation that happens in order to make the paper kind. Remember, trees absorb carbon dioxide.

If you knew how many of your cleaning products contained toxic chemicals that get into the atmosphere, you probably wouldn't use them. (Plus, something about using toxic stuff to clean just seems weird.) There are lots of eco-friendly products on the market right now. Try the Method line, which is sold at Target.

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