I never really thought that global warming would hit the US, but after reading CLIMATE CHANGE IN S.F.: Local Solutions, Local Impacts my view has been changed. A recent plan that has een developed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors covers ways to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The goal: to decrease greenhouse gas pollution to 20% below the 1990 levels by 2012.
San Francisco and northern San Mateo County
Ways to get the word out:
1. Future Sea Level Project: the people of San Francisco get together to discuss solutions to global warming
2. San Francisco Department of Environment- “staff is also available to speak at any San Francisco community or business organization about solutions to climate change.”
Individual Involvement:
1. Have the right car- No, I am not talking about a Mercedes or a BMW. I am talking about cars with properly inflated tires burn less gasoline. What does this mean? Less money spend on gas, plus you are helping the environment. OR there is alwasy the option of walking, riding a bike, taking public transportation, or carpooling.
2. Write the leaders to encourage them to increase fuel economy standards to at least 40 miles/gallon. What exactly would this do? 4 million barrels of oil would be saved each day. To put this in perspective, this is “more than we currently import from the Persian Gulf and could ever extract from the Artic National Wildlife Refuge combined.”
3. Encourage wind and solar power, renewable energy sources, which will “reduce our reliance on coal-burning power plants, the largerst source of global warming in the United States.”
4. Change normal lightbulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. They both produce the same amount of light. The fluorescent bulb uses only a quarter of the electricity and lasts 10 times longer.
One type of compact fluorescent light bulbs
5. Lower your thermostat. You should not be cold if before you cualk and use weather-strips along doorways and windows.
6. Low-flow shower heads and faucets will decrease water used by half. You will also save as muh as 50% on your elecctrical bill if you turn your hot water heater down to 120 degrees F.
7. Replace old electronics and appliances with energy-efficient models.
8. Plant trees in your own yard to reduce Carbon Dioxide.
9. Recylce and Buy Recycled. Recycled materials are made with 70-90 percent less energy and pollution as non-recycled new products.
10. Include your community and encourage them to do what is listed above.
Impacts of Global Warming:
It is predicted that the California temperature will increase between 3-10.5 degrees F by the end of the century. Why is there such a broad spectrum? Varying amounts of what action people have done to decrease global warming. Along with the 10.5 degree increase, a possible 3 feet of water would rise the sea level by the end of the century. $48 billion in property damage would most likely accompany it if there was a 3.3 feet rise of sea level in San Francisco.
This article listed some really good suggestions. It is a major problem. I really liked the idea of writing leaders to encourage them to raise the fuel efficiency level to 40 miles/gallon. It would make us less dependent on foreign oil and it would illiviate some of the global warming that is going on.
Information from: http://www.futuresealevel.org/solutions.asp http://www.futuresealevel.org/sf.asp Pictures from: www.wikipedia.org
.jpg)
