Climate Change/Mitigation Strategies

In this section, we assume anthropogenic climate change is well underway and examine what individuals and social structures can do to slow or reverse the trend.

Community contributions to mitigation

This section highlights some current thinking about how communities might deal with a changing climate. These include encouraging people to live closer to where they work, building up (not out), increasing use of public transportation, increasing recycling programs, more efficient use of water resources, more renewable energy sources, and even "green" urban planning.

• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things
• Pacala S, Socolow R, 2004: Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies. Science, Vol. 305, No. 5686, pp. 968-972.LINK

Individual contributions to mitigation

Here we discuss how personal conservation can help to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

• Principles
• In the office - computers, printers, windows, etc.
• In the home - appliances, water use, etc.
• Transport - gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, hybrids, and even bikes/walking.
• Lighting - compact fluorescent bulbs, LEDs, OLEDs
• Heating and Cooling
• Alternative Energy - Roof-mounted solar panels, personal wind turbines, etc.
• Food - Adopt a balanced diet, trade some of the meat, milk, eggs based foods for fish, vegetables, and cereals.
• Sustainable Development

How societies/countries can reduce emissions

Governments are now aware and intend to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emotions, these are several areas that can contribute to it.

• Carbon Sinks - including sequestration
• Public Transport - efficient urban planning, trains, buses, and shared resources
• Renewable Energy - solar, wind, tidal, geothermal
• Nuclear Power - fission now, fusion later?
• Fossil Fuel Economics - Hubbert's peak and making it a plateau (maybe)
• Natality - Promote family planing and reductions of population.

See Also

• Energy Efficiency Reference wikibook