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Beyond Blue Sky 2025 - Chapter 8 - What Individuals Can Do

Although the Drawdown list might seem grand to the individual, the Union of Concerned Scientists has compiled a list of what individuals can do to contribute to stopping/reducing global warming: 1.     Cars - select one with the best fuel economy 2.     Houses - make your house air-tight 3.     Heating - buy and use a programmable thermostat 4.     Diet - eat less meat, especially beef 5.     Energy - use power strips since these curb 'phantom loads' 6.    Refrigerators  and AC units - upgrade if over 5 years old, since new appliances will typically pay back                within 3 years 7.      Electricity monitors - these will help you identify where most domestic energy is used. 8.     Light bulbs - switch to new LED lighting  9.     Washing - wash in cold water to save emissions 10.     Buy less and re-use and recycle.  ...
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Beyond Blue Sky 2025 - Chapter 8 - Drawdown

 Technology and Innovation Technology, as we have seen, has played a critical role in shaping the modern world, particularly in the last 250 years.  It has been central to our enjoying continued economic growth over that period; raising enormously our standards of living.  We do, however, require continued innovation to help solve the climate crisis.  Not only do we need to deploy existing technologies but also we need to invent new ones. It is important, therefore, to ensure that technology advancement continues.  We cannot allow the economy to stagnate.  We need continued incentives for entrepreneurs to innovate and bring products to market. The view now is that technology and innovation are realised within systems where there is also an active government intervention. They cannot be left to markets alone although markets remain a powerful force. Since we need to accelerate the process of innovation, we should focus our resources to create such an environ...

Beyond Blue Sky 2025 - Chapter 7 - Technology

 The Need for Technology to Fill the Gap Examining the population reduction issue is contentious and probably unrealistic.  It is not even entirely clear whether or not it would be successful, since selecting the 'victims' would be a very difficult choice to make.  As history has shown, wars, pandemics, and other social ills would not kill in sufficient numbers to 'solve' the climate crisis.  A global war followed by a worldwide pandemic on a scale of the Black Death might approximate, but the randomness of those affected could severely disrupt the functioning of civilisation and might even propel us into a new Dark Age where technologies are abandoned.  We cannot afford for this to happen. A more humane approach to population numbers is to assume that the central UN projections of 0% p.a. for the West and 0.8% p.a. for the ROW remain unassailable, although by 2050 the total population figure could be 1bn less as a result of education and proper family planning ...

Shopping

You shouldn't really go shopping on the Sabbath - whether in-store or online.  Whilst it is not working as such, it does, however, mean that others would need to be working on your behalf.