Washington (GGM) Analysis | July 8, 2019
by Noreen Wise

Climate expert Dr. Joseph Romm has made carbon reduction super easy for all of us by organizing our decision making into four manageable categories.

The only way for the United States to SAVE our East Coast landscape – our beautiful, fabulous cities and all the homes, businesses and assets contained within – is to RUSH on minimizing our individual carbon footprints by taking advantage of numerous  green solutions under each category.

1. HOME: one of the easiest and fastest ways to cut carbon.
   • Solar Panels: take advantage of one of the many offers being floated in 2019 where the Solar Energy provider will install solar panels with no $ down.
   • Replace all lightbulbs: all traditional lightbulbs in the home should be replaced with either LEDs, halogen incandescents, or compact fluorescent lamps. These cost more, but they last 3-25% longer, so we’ll save money in the long run.
   • Turn Off Lights: so basic, turn off lights whenever we leave a room.
   • Buy Smaller House (if moving): it’s no longer cool to have a huge house. The new life-saving logic is to have a smaller home with more land, beautiful gardens, and plant as many trees as possible.
   • Use cold water for laundry: washing clothes uses a lot of water, warming water wastes energy. Get used to cold for washing whites. New normal.
2. TRANSPORTATION: Hybrids and EV options have been transformed in just a few short years. Much longer range. Super fast charge. Many more charging stations. More affordable. One of these must be on our list when we replace existing cars.
   • Hybrid: prices have come down and range is up to 280 MPG.
   • EV: Significant price reduction, with one model as low as $30,000, range is now at 200 MPG.
   • Walk, Bike, Scooter, Public Transportation, Carpool: Attend monthly Town Legislation meetings and work to get walking/bike trails set-up maintained.
   • Run all errands at same time: awareness of who our actions impact the survival of other people will make us more organized about how we time manage simple things like grocery shopping and going to bank.
3. DIET: surprisingly, cows add as much carbon to environment as fossil fuels.
   • Switch to white meat & fish: turkey  & chicken, etc.
   • Minimize dairy: this may also cure several health conditions that stem from high levels of antibiotics and pesticides found in dairy.
   • Vegan: finding the right protein is a climate solution. Beans, lentils, eggs.
4. STUFF: Stuff we buy, Stuff we cart around, Stuff we store. Who knew that our “stuff,” particularly the vast accumulation and management of, is a significant factor in global warming.
   • Carting around stuff, results in buying larger cars than necessary.
   • Buying more stuff than we need or can possibly use, results in buying a larger house that uses more energy
   • There’s substantial carbon emissions involved in the manufacturing and transporting of stuff.
   • American consumerism has been a global frustration since the 1980’s.

In 2019, America’s population is only 4.6% of global total, however we are now ranked #1 in carbon emissions. We are responsible for the deaths of thousands. Let’s jump on this so we can save lives and save our country as well as the world.

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