UCS "Curious for Life" Ad Campaign Showcases Scientists who were once curious kids. This girl represents real climate scientist Julia Cole.

From the title of this it sounds like we all have to be Superheroes to make a difference, but actually the opposite is true.  Everyone can contribute a lot just by making a few changes in how we live. Climate change is happening now, and it cannot be completely stopped any time soon, but it can be slowed.  Eventually it’s possible we could even reverse it, but that will take a long time. That means everything we do now matters, and everything we can do to inform other people about it matters a lot.  Only by everyone contributing to slowing it down can we have any hope of success in turning human-caused climate change around.

There is a good new book you can share with people, to start with.  Environmental activist Bill McKibben of 350.org warned of the dangers of global warming 20 years ago. His latest book, Eaarth,  takes an angrier and more urgent tone as he urges a change in our lifestyles or we risk living in an inhospitable world. This radio interview with Bill McKibben is from June, and it’s very much worth listening to.

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He refutes the idea that climate science is still up for debate, and he does it very effectively.   He emphasizes that we have to change how we live, at least a little, and it shouldn’t be that hard to make some changes.

Here is an interesting statistic that should make people feel more empowered:  If everyone in America cut out one 30 mile trip per week you could reduce about 20% of your CO2 driving emissions.  You can see a lot more tips like that to save energy at Carbon Fund. It’s one of the most useful sites I’ve seen as far as things we can all do to cut our emissions.

You can see Eaarth listed here in the books from Amazon list in the sidebar. I invite everyone to check this book out, as it is more serious in tone than some of his others are, and it’s a worthwhile book.  He gives us the bad news but then outlines some practical and some visionary solutions that might even improve everyone’s lives.  It’s described as an “important” book and I agree.

The Union of Concerned Scientists are also on the offensive against climate change deniers.  They are launching a campaign this summer to focus attention on the science of climate change, the science that shows humans are causing it.  It’s good the environmental groups are fighting back against the deniers, who are all political and have agendas that include “no new taxes”.  They would sacrifice life on earth for stopping new taxes, or their ideas of what addressing climate change would entail.  The complete exoneration of the climate scientists from the University of East Anglia (by 3 groups) who had their emails stolen has not gotten nearly [...]