Archived Article on WisePagan.com

Subtitle: It seems to me, in this age of religious dogma which we have stumbled into - that ethics are being almost completely ignored in favor of imposed morals. Therefore, I have decided (like any red-blooded American would) to impose my moral code on other people. Unlike the 10 Commandments of the Bible, I have no stone tablets, stormy weather or throngs of Jewish people hanging on my every last word. What I DO have is a belly full of coffee, and a cable modem. So without further ado - I present to you, the infallible words of the Green Man:

Image Captions: Green Man, by Jarrett Terrill, 2006

1. Plant a Tree. Planting big shade trees around your house will really help to counteract your carbon emissions. They will keep your house cool in the summer with all their shade AND they eat Co2 and spit out Oxygen! Take a moment to find out which trees are native to your area and plant them the most. Some non-native trees can be annoying to the other plants and animals in your area.

2. Buy Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs for EVERY room in your house. CFL's are the bulbs that are shaped like an ice cream swirl (not the traditional bulbs with a filament wire). These bulbs are just a little bit more expensive than regular bulbs but they last up to 3 years so you definitely save money... not to mention the money you save on a lower electricity bill. Make sure to only put these bulbs in fixtures that DO NOT have dimmer switches. If you try to use these bulbs with a dimmer switch, they will blow out. Replacing just one incandescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide! (cool, huh?)

3. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - We cannot stress this enough. People have been telling us this for over 40 years and some people just blatantly refuse to even consider it. It is up to us to compensate for those people. If you see a soda can on the ground and you toss it into a recycling bin... you have just saved enough energy to power a TV for 3 hours. Aluminum cans are really bad when they are not recycled. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are 7000 times more damaging than Co2 and they are released in the production of alumium from alumina, therefore saved when aluminium is recycled!

4. Buy only post-consumer recycled paper products, including toilet paper and tissues. The paper industry is the third greatest contributor to global warming emissions. When you run out of paper towels, stop buying them. If you are not willing to part with paper towels, then make sure to buy the recycled ones that have the highest content of POST CONSUMER WASTE. If this percentage is not made obvious on the packaging, then it is probably not REALLY recycled.

5. When you leave your desk, just let your computer go into "standby" mode. Rebooting your entire system uses twice as much electricity than just letting the screen re-light.

6. Exercise for 20 minutes or more before you shower. This is a little trick that you can play on yourself to take colder, quicker showers and get all that excercise you've been putting off.

7. Walk or ride a bike whenever possible. The next option is to take public transportation. If those first two options are absolutely not possibe, then carpool. If you can't find a buddy to ride with, then keep your mind on the road and don't wander all over the place. Plan your route to include everything you need to do in one trip. Fossil-fuel driven cars are absolutely the biggest anthropogenic (human-caused) threat to our climate and environment.

8. Eat more organic vegetables and less meat. NEVER eat fast food - it's just as bad for your body as it is for the environment. On average, it takes nearly 10 times as much fossil fuel to produce animal protein (including commercially caught or farmed fish) as it does to produce plant protein. According to a 2006 University of Chicago study, a vegan diet contributes 1.5 fewer tons of CO2 or CO2 equivalents to the atmosphere each year than the average North American diet. And buy as much organic and locally grown food as you can. Organic and other traditional or natural farmers use minimal fossil fuel inputs. <source

9. Learn everything you can about global warming. Check out the links on this page, discuss it at great length on your blog. Read peer-reviewed scientific journals on the subject. (It's a thick read, but imagine what a brainiac you'll be... total bragging rights!) Join a national or local environmental group that is fighting the climate crisis everyday so their membership numbers swell and their voice has more power.

10. Make sure to talk to people who drive Hummers and don't recycle. Tell them that they should change their evil ways and why. Too many of our friends and neighbors think that we accept their destruction and self-indulgence. They should be informed otherwise. Be nice about it, but let them know it bothers you.

Note: This is an Archived Article - To see more recent contributions, click on the Articles Tab above. This is a permanently linked page to keep as a reference but is no longer an active page on the main site.
Title: The 10 Commandments of Global Warming	Author: Jarrett Terrill	Date Archived: 04-10-08