Things we could do right now to combat climate change

Written by: pinetrees on Nov 11, 2007 3:50 PM EST

The issue of climate change often arrives at a standstill because the proposed "solutions" always seem futuristic and unassured.  But there are things our society could do right now, with the technology we already have, to drmatically reduce air pollution:

(1) Telecommuting and flextime.  Every days the roads in the East and West Coasts are clogged with gridlock traffic, just because employees do not have telecommuting and flexible hours.  Just allowing employees to set a shifted schedule after the rush hour is over would ease the congestion and pollution.  The argument that enployees have to be together all day long is hogwash.  There are many jobs that could be done on shifted schedules or with some work completed at home.

(2) Support for a single lifestyle.  Paul Erlich has been speaking out about overpopulation and the hunger across the world that results from it.  Not everyone has to have a child.  Many people have children just to have them as a support system in old age.  If we had elder care alternatives, people could make the choice not to have children unless they really want to.  Right now we consider it to be a cultural anomaly not to have children.  However, the environment is at the point where some people can choose to devote their lives to other interests.

 (3) Public transporation.  After moving away from New Jersey, I began to notice something one doesn't see in the suburbs of New Jersey: buses.  The baby boomer generation is getting older and driving will be riskly.    Not only do we need to develop ubiquitous mass transit.  The buses have to be maintained.  There are too many cases of bus drivers leaving their motors on between routes because they do not know whether the bus will start again if turned off.  We need to have buses, but they should not be idling.

(4) Buying less "stuff."  In the current economy, that is not even a matter of choice.  But every extra, unneeded item bought required energy to manufacture.  The money spent on unnecessary "stuff" could be directed to contributing to one's favorite candidates.  I am talking about people throwing away perfectly usable home fixtures just on a whim to have everything redone.  Or complicated, high tech toys that rob the child of the need to use one's imagination in play.

(5) Restrict junk mail.  Every day we take the junk mail out of our mail boxes and throw it in the trash can.  There needs to be a restruction on how many pieces of mail a business can send out without the permission of the recipient.

These are just a few ideas.  Saving energy doesn't necessarily involve futuristic technologies that haven't been discovered yet.  It involves throwing away old fashioned ways of thinking.

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