Want to turn down the heat? Start close by - but don't stop there!

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Your town on climate - see how many more 90+ degree days there are today as compared to the past.

 

Home 

• What we eat (lower on the food chain, closer to home, beans replace beef - eelgrass anyone? Palm oil is in half the stuff in the grocery store - and producing it releases nearly 1 percent of global greenhouse gases - boycott it! 

• How we get around (every mile we drive typically emits a pound of CO2 into the atmosphere; electric cars are better, but still emit one-third as much carbon as gas-powered vehicles, plus there's the issue of the batteries and lithium mining's eco and other impacts; plus, any car needs roads, creates roadkill, and isolates us from neighbor and nature)

• The size of our dwellings and how energy efficient they are, since 20 percent of US emissions are "home"-grown. Adjusting the thermostat by 2 degrees saves a ton of CO2!

• How much stuff we consume (it takes energy to make stuff, and a lot of it is shipped from abroad - just 15 container ships create as much carbon emissions as all the world's cars)

• Lawn size (mowing = 25 million tons of CO2 per year in USA)

• Challenge your school, congregation or other group to take climate change seriously; invite NCP staff to stop in for a workshop - we're cheap, knowledgeable and occasionally funny :) 

• By your own lifestyle show others that a good life can be had without sacrificing a livable future

           

            (here's our personal CO2 calculator with points for bad and good behaviors)

 

Farther

• Advocate for local systems to be climate-friendly: bike lanes, ride-share, farmers markets

• Our Sustainable Living Center in Harrisonburg, VA led the way in getting that city to adopt a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2025. More here.

• Call for legislation to support carbon taxes, green energy and other policies to reduce fossil fuel emissions

• Beavers! Often considered a pest, turns out they are our ally in a climate-changing world!

• Solar farms are also sometimes considered a "pest". Whether this is due to of lack of information or because some people don't care for "solar" or anything that responds to climate change, fight back with facts. Here's an analysis of how much land it takes to generate different forms of energy. For many, taking the tops off of mountains in WV to get coal is not as bad as a solar array in the field next door. And doesn't add in the land degradation from climate change caused by fossil fuel use, which is big and getting bigger, from Africa drying and Asia flooding to the American West burning to the Arctic melting. And since money talks, here are the numbers cost-wise on moving from coal to renewables. 

Farthest

• The world lost 10 million acres of forest in 2020, releasing the CO2 equivalent of two years' worth of US vehicle travel in the process. Get your school, club or congregation involved in our Two (!) Million Tree Campaign to do something about it!

• Here's a list of the most climate change-vulnerable countries in the world - NCP partner areas Malawi, Myanmar and South Sudan are regularly among the most at-risk. . 

• Educating girls and empowering women are two of the top ten recommendations for reducing climate change from the book Drawdown – do both through our Give a Girl a Chance fund

• Join campaigns to protect tropical forests, limit palm oil production, empower native people

• Go on our Learning Tours to the Amazon, Arctic and Dine reservation in NM to support native communities as they protect the environment, deal with climate change and battle the extractive industries

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NCP's David Radcliff on causes, effects and solutions to climate change  =>