If you think you can’t make much difference in the global warming crisis, think again. There are many different steps you can take, and combining those with the contributions of other individuals can make a surprisingly big difference to the final outcome. In fact, “taking steps” is almost literally one of the things you can start with, in your effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Transportation is one of the big areas of concern when it comes to global warming. After all, it was society’s love of gas-guzzling, carbon-emitting vehicles that really got the greenhouse gas thing going in the first place. So this is where people can start making a big difference. And the first thing you can do here is to start walking. Don’t hop in a car to go down the block for milk. In fact, don’t even hop in the car to go two blocks.

Start walking as much as you can, if the place you need to go is just a few blocks away. You’ll get to know your neighborhood much better than you do now, and you’ll get more regular healthy exercise. It’s sort of a win-win thing, isn’t it? Even if you need to go a few blocks to shop, and you worry that the load will be too heavy for you to carry back, you can buy one of those long-handled carts that can hold a few shopping bags. If you have several errands to do, plan a circuit to follow, to walk between them all but not overtax yourself by criss-crossing back and forth.

The next useful step, if the distance is just a bit too far to walk, might be to get a bicycle. A good wicker basket on the handlebars can probably contain most of what you’d be buying during a “quick run to the store,” or this emission-free vehicle can get you to appointments or perhaps to a friend’s place. Once again, you’ll get to know the neighborhood and you’ll be getting exercise while you cut down carbon emissions. Most of the time, even if you aren’t sure the main roads are safe for bikers, you can find quieter routes to get where you’re going.

But of course, some distances are just too long for either walking or biking. Don’t assume that you absolutely have to use a car even now, though, especially if you’ve got a good transit system in your area. A great many of these systems have begun to switch to environmentally friendly vehicles, and of course in many larger cities there are subways that use electrical power. Some cities that have train systems have started using windmill power to run them. So you may have some options for lowering your carbon footprint even if you have to travel for longer distances through your city or town.

However, it does seem that sometimes you just can’t avoid using a car. This will be where your commitment is really tested. Do you have a ZipCar, AutoShare, or some other kind of car sharing setup anywhere near you? These companies and others have arrangements where people can use a car just for the time period they need it, and then return it. In a larger city especially, where the air gets clogged with engine exhaust and you’d have to worry about idling and then high parking charges, a rental system like this is frequently an excellent answer.

But of course the ultimate answer, if you have to own a car, is to get as environmentally friendly a vehicle as you possibly can. The Toyota Prius has been on the roads for a few years now, and many other companies have begun bringing out their own hybrid electric-gas cars. Electric, battery-operated cars are also becoming more widely available. As they get more common, the price will go down, but even before that happens, this might be considered a long-term investment in the future of the planet.

Changing your mode of transport is not the only thing you can do to live green and help in the fight against global warming. You can change eating and buying habits, and of course you can recycle. But starting to walk more, or cycle, or even switch to a more responsible vehicle, will not only be healthy for the planet, but will increase your own health as well.

Today, much of the world’s electricity is still produced through coal plants and water turbines. Coal is a non-renewable source of energy; its combustion releases greenhouse gases and soot. Water turbines require the building of large dams, severely disrupting surrounding ecosystems.

A top priority should be reducing the amount of electricity we use. However, a modern home has many electrical appliances and technologies. It would be unrealistic for your family to stop using the fridge, or to prohibit research for homework on the computer. On the other hand, some fridges and some computers use far less energy than others.

The next time you purchase an appliance or an electronic device, must you look up the energy specifications of potential buys? Quick, grab a notebook and write down the energy stats for all 20 cubic feet fridges. But thanks to Energy Star, we can be lazy.

Energy Star is a designation given to appliances and other electronic products that utilize less energy. Emerging first in 1992 as a government program in the United States, the Energy Star Standard has since then been adopted in Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the European Union. It is now considered an international standard.

What appliances are eligible to receive the Energy Star? They must use significantly less energy than their standard counterparts. An Energy Star dishwasher, for instance, must use at least 41% less energy than a regular dishwasher. A refrigerator, on the other hand, needs a 20% reduction to qualify for Energy Star. An Energy Star air conditioner uses 10% less electricity.

Electronics are also subject to Energy Star standards. An Energy Star television, for instance, uses 30% less electricity. Battery chargers, VCRs, and cordless phones must use 90% less energy than average to qualify for Energy Star.

The Energy Star qualifications around computers are more stringent. The new Energy Star standard requires that the computer’s power supply unit follows the 80 PLUS program. What does that mean? The power supply unit must be at least 80% efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% power loads. So if the unit receives 1000 watts of power, it should be using at least 800 watts of it.

When purchasing appliances and electronics, look for the Energy Star logo. Most department, home improvement and furniture stores should have a few Energy Star options in each category. The Energy Star tag attached to the item will clearly lay out how much electricity and money you would save by using this appliance in one year.

Nothing is perfect, and the Energy Star system is no exception. For instance, in December 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency of the Inspector General published a report on the Energy Star program. The report found that Energy Star’s claims of energy reduction were inaccurate, or unverified.

The testing of energy efficiency flouts the basic methods of research. The manufacturers tested their own products, and submitted their own results—a blatant conflict of interest. The data submitted by manufacturers was rarely verified by Energy Star. Outdated tests were used, when new methods were available. Although Energy Star may be unreliable, it remains the best system for determining energy savings. However, to ascertain your choice, do additional research.

Global warming and the combustion of petroleum fuels are two huge concerns for environmentalists. To combat these two problems, we are frequently encouraged to drive less, and to drive more efficiently. Since the early 2000s, the auto industry has seen a trend toward more fuel-efficient cars—and a dramatic increase in hybrid vehicle sales.

What is a hybrid vehicle? A hybrid automobile uses more than one type of energy to move itself. Most commonly, hybrid vehicle refers to a hybrid electric vehicle, such as the Toyota Prius, and the Honda Insight. These vehicles contain both an internal combustion engine, as well as an electric motor.

The reasons for choosing a hybrid vehicle are not immediately obvious. However, let’s compare fuel efficiencies. A minivan, such as the Ford Freestar, gets about 16 miles per gallon in the city, and around 22 miles per gallon on the freeway. A fuel-efficient subcompact, such as the Honda Fit, gets about 27 miles per gallon in the city, and 34 miles per gallon on the freeway.

The Honda Fit sounds pretty good. However, let’s take fuel efficiency to another level with a hybrid. The Toyota Prius, the most popular hybrid vehicle in today’s market, gets 48 miles in the city, and 45 miles on highways. With the same volume of fuel, the hybrid can go almost triple the distance of a minivan.

You may have noticed something unusual about the Toyota Prius’s stats: it runs more efficiently in the city than on the freeway. All hybrid vehicles share this characteristic. While traditional cars burn gasoline uselessly at red lights, modern hybrids share what is called the start-stop system.

The hybrid’s internal combustion engine automatically shuts off when the vehicle is not moving, to conserve gas. When the car needs to start moving again, the engine restarts. The start-stop system can save 5-10% fuel.

Also integral to the hybrid’s success is its use of regenerative braking. When the brakes are applied in a traditional car, the kinetic energy of the car is bled off as heat. In a hybrid, however, such energy is too precious to waste. The braking system uses the kinetic energy to charge the car’s battery.

Often, the gasoline pumped into the hybrid is not directly used to propel the car. Instead, the internal combustion engine, by burning the gasoline, charges the car battery, which then runs the car’s electric motor. This results in much greater efficiency.

Because the internal combustion engine is not frequently used to propel the car, it is smaller than that of a pure gasoline vehicle. Consequently, a hybrid vehicle’s internal combustion engine releases fewer emissions. Another consequence of the electric motor is the silence. Hybrids are known as very quiet vehicles. However, to achieve high speeds, the internal combustion engine must supplement the electric motor, resulting in slightly more noise.

Hybrids are inexpensive, usually selling for $18000 to $28 000. Easy to maintain, they are not only fun to drive, but cheap to drive! In fact, the Toyota Prius has monopolized the Vancouver taxi industry. Please consider purchasing a hybrid. Let’s cut emissions!

With ecosystem conservation, you have to know the definition of an ecosystem before any conservation can be done. An ecosystem is a group of plants, animals and micro organisms that work together in an environment with non-living factors. This creates a delicate balance of life that when altered, can mess up the whole system. Therefore, it is very hard for conservationists to know how to aid the ecosystem.

The main function of ecosystem conservation is protecting or restoring the structure, function and species compilation within the system. This can get hard quickly, because everything in an ecosystem affects everything else. The best way to conserve an ecosystem is to approach it from a large scale view. Large scale approaches avoid the pitfalls of species-by-species methods that can drain finances and resources fast. These methods also become one giant headache because the conservationists become stuck in an environmental loop, always trying to come up with something new to fix the problem they just introduced. One of the major problems that conservationists face in the natural ecosystem environments is the issue that humans also have to use the space. It is important for the conservationists to work with the local people and governments so that there can be conservation goals that work well within the ecological unit and with the needs of the people.

There are many different types of ecosystems. In fact, practically any environment is a type of ecosystem. There are coral reef ecosystems, ocean ecosystems, desert ecosystems, natural ecosystems and forest ecosystems. There are even human ecosystems for different environments in which humans interact. Most ecosystems are very delicate, and so when other factors that did not originate with the original environment are introduced into the ecosystem, the system collapses. There are some ecological units, however, that can resist these external factors when they are introduced. Usually, whether an ecosystem can survive a new element or not depends on the toxicity of the new element, and the resiliency of the ecosystem. Because these systems are largely governed by chance events, such as a forest fire or an oil spill, ecosystem conservation becomes an arduous task. Conservationists want to keep these bio-networks as pure as possible.

For ecosystem conservation, it is important to note that they function best when left alone. Results of too much human intervention can be disastrous. The best approach to conservation is through goals that work with the ecosystem and the human sides of things. This ensures the preservation of wild ecosystems, as well as allowing people to live freely within them.

China has been dogged by accusations of pumping carbon emissions and other pollutants out into the air and water supply by the billions of tons. Their enormous energy need is propped up by an unhealthy dependence on dirty coal plants, and local leaders know it. As part of the solution to keep China as a global power and reduce its coal plants, they will spend 580 billion yuan expanding its energy sector, which includes solar designs and alternative wind energy initiatives. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, wind power China will add more capacity this year than any other country, including the US. With 10 gigawatts of additional capacity planned for this year (compared to America’s 8.5 gigawatts), China’s new resources renewable energy projects will power more than 100,000 households.

Thanks to European government support, the wind power China equipment market has been heavily dominated by European companies, particularly Danish companies, which hold 52.37% of in-grid wind power projects in China. Germany is another big contender, since they hold many desirable manufacturing licenses and send equipment to 20% of the projects in China. To a lesser degree, Spain, the United States and the Netherlands occupy small market shares. Chinese policies and programs are focused on reducing the need for imported components to become more self-sufficient. Domestically, there are more than 30 companies building wind farms. Their top wind farms are run by Long Yuan Electric Power Group Corp (China Guodian Corporation), Huaneng New Energy Industrial Co. Ltd., China Datang Corporation, China Power Investment Corporation and China Huadian Corporation. Most of the wind purchase turbines are located in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Liaoning, Ningxia, Jilin and Hebei.

The biggest wind power China turbine manufacturer is Goldwind Co. in Xinjiang, which has captured 20% of the market share. Their main products are more than 400 units of 600 and 750 kilowatt turbines, but they also are testing a 1.2 megawatt turbine, which may revolutionize the sources wind energy China produces. Another large company is Yunda Co in Zhejiang, which has more than 45 units of 200, 250 and 750 kilowatt wind turbines in operation. Shenxin Co of the Shenyang Industry University is developing 75 kilowatt and 200 kilowatt turbines but is also working on a 1 megawatt offering. Dalian Heavy Machinery is developing and manufacturing 1.5 megawatt wind turbines. Wanadian Co has six 600 kilowatt wind turbines in operation and the Shanghai Bluesky Co has two 300 kilowatt wind turbines operating.

Initially, leaders promised wind power China offerings of 30 gigawatts by 2020 but the target has jumped to an astounding 100 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity, thanks to the development of larger, more efficient wind turbines that can churn out 1.2 megawatts of power, rather than 300 to 750 kilowatts. The new focus on alternative wind energy is all part of a plan to break the dependency on coal, says Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council. He adds that China’s capacity may even reach 200 gigawatts, since the Chinese have a history of being conservative in their estimates. In fact, the 2009 GWEC report reveals that China has doubled its wind power capacity each year for the past four years in a row.

So you’ve made a bunch of changes in your attempt to live a greener lifestyle. You walk or bike more than you drive, you’re saving all the energy you can in your home, and you’re dutifully recycling as much as possible. You even make your own compost for your garden, and try not to use chemicals there. What else is left?

Rather a lot, actually. You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase “money is power,” but when it comes to going green, your buying power can really make a difference. You can initiate a considerable change in your lifestyle, and benefit the planet in the meantime, by reconsidering how you buy things, and what you buy in the first place.

Start with your own clothes. Natural fibers, especially those that have been produced with organic methods, are not just healthier for you, they have been produced in ways that aren’t hard on the ecosystem or the planet. Synthetic fibers are made from oil. Products you buy that are made of these materials contribute a huge carbon footprint to the already overburdened atmosphere, first by the process of being pumped as crude oil from the ground, and then through the process of refining that oil to make your clothes. These are non-green clothes by definition, but oil products almost always have the additional issue of “outgassing” of chemicals into the air, so you’d be breathing in these chemicals as you wear the clothes.

Natural is always best, when you can get it, and if you can get natural clothing from closer to home, that’s even better. Things that are brought across the ocean in container ships automatically contribute to carbon emissions, even if the items themselves are of completely natural fibers. If you can support more local industries when you buy clothes, you will be dressing in a healthier way, and you can keep those industries healthy as well. Even throw rugs with synthetic rubber backing will suffer the same “outgassing” problems as the clothes. Can you buy cotton throw rugs instead?

And what about other products? Do you buy green cleaning products? Many companies are trying to exploit a “green” designation, but when you examine the labels on the bottles, they’ve got just as many harmful chemicals as any other cleaning liquid. You need to research which cleaning products really are green and environmentally friendly. Can you do away with plastic containers, which are all produced from oil, as much as possible? Switch to glass jars for storing food and other items wherever you can.

Even furniture can be more green in some cases than others. The material that covers mattresses, or the upholstery on couches and chairs, is usually synthetic and will be doing the same “outgassing” as all the other products derived from oil. Many companies are now providing mattresses and other furniture coverings made of natural materials instead. You can even buy furniture made of wood that has been certified as sustainable wood, harvested in a responsible way. Or you can buy furniture made from reclaimed wood.

You may think you’ve already done all you can to make a switch to green living. But take a few moments and stand in the center of the rooms in your house or apartment, and just look around for a while. It’s likely you’ll begin to see a great many other ways of changing to a greener lifestyle, just by using your purchasing power.

These days, having a “green thumb” can mean something radically different from what it used to. Once it just meant that you were really good at making things grow in your garden, in balcony containers, or in your flower pots. But now it can also mean that you use green, environmentally friendly methods in creating the garden itself.

You can start by using more natural methods to grow your garden, avoiding chemicals as much as possible. Instead of using a lot of fertilizers and pesticides, you would allow the different elements of the garden to work together in a more natural way, letting the genuine ecosystem operate. So you’d see to the health of the soil by making or buying your own organic compost, as well as guaranteeing that there are enough worms in the soil to aerate it properly and further break down organic materials. Making your own compost would have a double function: it would keep your garden and plants healthier, but it would also use up the organic waste from your house, keeping it out of the landfills.

You might also take heed to the health of the soil by practicing crop rotation. This isn’t just for farms with big crops, but is essential for gardens as well. Plants that take certain nutrients out of the soil in one growing season should not be planted in the same spot the following year, or they could starve for those nutrients. Some crops might be grown in one location just to be “plowed under” and build up nutrients for the following year, while other vegetables should be rotated so that what some plants leave behind can be used as nutrients for a different type of plant the next time.

You can conserve nutrients with crop rotation and composting, but you can conserve both soil and water in other ways. Rather than just pouring water all over the garden with a large sprinkler or hose, you might engage in more targeted watering. Planting in raised beds, so that more vegetables can be grown closer together with fewer paths between them, will help reduce the amount of water you need and avoid runoff of the excess. Or if you do plant in the more traditional rows, you can walk up and down along them, watering each plant more directly and carefully.

Even when it comes to pests, rather than using pesticides against them, you might bring in ladybugs or other natural predators that don’t harm the plants themselves. Or you could build birdhouses and put out seed that would attract birds that feed on those bugs. It would also be helpful if you do some study about the various insects that might visit your garden, because certain ones can actually be beneficial to plants rather than harm them. You’d want to encourage those if you can. But if you do need to use a spray, there are organic home-made pest-control sprays, or even organic pesticides that you could use sparingly. You don’t just want to keep your plants healthier, you also want to avoid leeching more chemicals into the soil they’re growing in.

You might think that a garden is automatically green, by definition. But you can make it greener by using more organic principles of gardening that work with nature rather than try to suppress or defeat it. This will produce not just healthier fruits and vegetables that are better for you, but will also help produce a cleaner planet in the long run.

Concern for the environment is continuing to grow, and if you want to know how you can do your part, you can start by taking a trip to the grocery store. When you buy recycled goods, you are supporting other environmentalists just like you who believe that we can save the planet by making wise consumer choices.

Brands like Dixie and Solo, the makers of paper plates, cups, and eating utensils make it easy to buy recycled; the brands offer coupons often on their products, and non of their materials contain CFCs, a hazardous material given off by Styrofoam. You can find smaller cups and plants that are made partially from recycled materials, and you can rinse your plasticware before placing it in the recycle bin so that it can be used again to make more plates, cups, and other picnic accessories.

If you’re a coffee drinker and need to get your fix in the mornings, you can visit your local Starbucks to purchase your coffee in a partially recycled cup. The cup holders are also made from recycled paper, so you’ll be glad to know that you’re doing your part to save the environment while you get your morning jolt.

You can even buy recycled when it comes to electronics. People purchase recycled computers all the time to find parts in the machines that are still suitable for use. You can visit your local recycling center to find printers, ink cartridges, mouse pads, and keyboards that can be used again with a little refurbishing, and you can even take your empty cartridges to stores like Staples or Office Depot to get discounts on new office supplies. Cellular phone companies, like Verizon and Sprint, may also take your used cells phones for charity events, or to restore them and use the parts for creating new models.

Of course, there are a number of health food stores where you can buy recycled items on every aisle. Places like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s package many of their products in recycled paper, and when you get ready to check out, you’ll most likely be asked if you want a paper or plastic bag. There are also shopping bags you can buy at the stores to use over and over, so that you can cut down on paper and plastic production.

If you want to know more about how to buy recycled products, you can visit sites like www.buyrecycled.com, where you’ll find resources for all the items you want, whether you’re trying to find a new art piece, need electronic items, or are looking for unique jewelry pieces. Happy shopping!

The phrase may sound like such a cliche by now that it makes you want to tear your hair out: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Yet sometimes it really is the fairly small, relatively simple things that can make a huge difference in the fight against global warming, especially when large numbers of people do those things. And keep in mind that the reason that trio of words has been repeated so often is that those three instructions really work. They don’t appear to work directly against global warming as such, having more to do with landfills and garbage, but waste management, too, creates large carbon emissions when it has to be handled on a large scale.

So let’s examine the three of them to see how you can make changes to help reduce waste. That, in fact, is the very first instruction: Reduce. There are many small things you can do, that will add up very quickly. You can look for products that have less packaging, so you have less to throw away afterward. You can buy “economy” sizes of things rather than single-use sizes, bring your own bags when you shop, or get things like flour, sugar, nuts, or even cereal from large bulk bins rather than in boxes. And you can take your own dishes and utensils to work so you don’t waste plastic spoons or Styrofoam cups.

The two other instructions, Reuse and Recycle, are both methods that further help you Reduce. When it comes to reusing things, the creative ideas are literally endless, and you can find a multitude of them by searching the internet. Using old pillows as pet beds, using the wax paper inserts from cereal boxes to wrap pies for the freezer, starting plants in egg cartons, turning old bedding or sheets into gift bags or shoe bags, using paper tubes to store extension cords, the list could go on and on and on. The amount of reuse you get from things you would otherwise throw away is limited only by your own imagination.

Not that you can reuse absolutely everything. Since you keep buying things, you’re eventually going to have more of some things than you can possibly find a new use for, and there is only so much room in your home. But this is where the third word in the trio comes in: Recycle. Once you have set all your extension cords into cardboard tubes from toilet rolls, you recycle the tubes from all the rolls after that. Make constant use of your blue box, and get rid of envelopes, newspapers, wrapping, cardboard boxes, plastic containers, jars, cans, and so on.

Remember that another element of recycling is composting, so check to see if your building or your neighborhood have a composting program you can contribute to. If you have a garden, invest in a compost bin and learn to make it for yourself. And you can reduce (there’s that word again) how much organic waste you produce by planning your meals so that you use up what’s in your fridge, and don’t throw away so much to begin with.

They really are a cliche: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. But cliches usually start somewhere, and this one began because these three words are astonishingly powerful. If you learn to practice all three, you’ll be very surprised at how little real garbage, ultimately, you produce. This will contribute to a cleaner planet, and be one more element in the fight against global warming.

If you’re trying to make the switch to a greener lifestyle, you’re probably already aware that energy consumption is one of the biggies. You might reduce some of it by learning to walk more places instead of drive, or take a bicycle or transit instead of a car, but what about the energy usage in your home? Apart from turning off a few lights, is there much else you can really do, given the way homes are constructed?

Actually, there is. There is a wide range of possibilities, from the very small to the huge, and you’re likely to find yourself somewhere on the continuum between the two. Let’s start with the small things, and work our way up to the bigger choices you might make.

First, yes, turn out the lights when you’re not using them. In fact, you might want to switch away from the currently standard incandescent light bulbs to the compact fluorescent bulbs. While they are more expensive, they last a long time and use a lot less energy while they’re on, so in the long run you would be saving both energy and money. But light bulbs aren’t the only things you should turn off when you don’t need them. Appliances and electronics that stay constantly plugged in also drain energy, slowly but surely. If you plug several at once into a power strip, you can turn them all off with one flick of a switch.

Heating and cooling your place is another big energy suck. If you live in a hot region or are going through a summer heat wave, even turning your air conditioning down by a degree or two can save surprising amounts of energy. Switching to electric desk or ceiling fans instead of air conditioners, if you can tolerate going without, saves even more energy. In the winter, heat your place by a degree or two less, wear warmer clothes, and turn the temperature down further at night.

And don’t forget that windows make a big difference in the energy used for heating and cooling. If you can afford it (especially in an area where you can get tax credits), install energy efficient windows. But you can also help by pulling curtains over sunny windows during the day, and opening the windows at night to allow the cool air to bring the temperature down inside.

The next type of step in reducing your energy use is a leap into the larger end of the spectrum: buying energy efficient appliances and electronics. They are out there, and require some research, but if you’re thinking long term, you can start making a difference right away and consider the expense an investment in the future. You might also start switching, gradually, to alternate energy sources. It’s possible to buy solar panels on a minor scale, to start powering things like rechargeable phone and camera batteries, as well as things like small appliances and fans. You can work your way up slowly, getting one solar panel at a time and switching more things to that power, or you can take advantage of tax breaks in some areas and go for the whole switch at once. You can even buy miniature windmills for your yard or a corner of your house, to start generating another form of power.

These ideas are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to pulling down your energy usage. From switching off the lights to installing solar panels on the east side of your home, you can take things in small steps or do a big renovation. You can always find ways to fulfill your commitment to living green and reducing your use of energy.