Earth Day: 3 things you can do

The Earth's most serious and menacing problem is global warming, a problem that will grow in coming decades.

Global warming is due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, and the United States creates more of these gases by far than any other nation.

So here are 3 big things you can do to reduce our production of greenhouse gases.

1) Reduce fossil-fuel use with your travel. Specifically, drive a car that gets good gas mileage, or use public transportation or a bicycle, or car pool.

2) Change all the light bulbs in your house to compact fluorescent bulbs, which use about 10% of the electricity of an incandescent bulb and last for several years. Using less electricity means making less demand on coal-fired power plants, which are one of our biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollution. These bulbs are available at Home Depot. They cost more than regular bulbs, but the longevity of the bulbs makes them less expensive in the long run. We changed all of our bulbs and it made about a 30% difference in our utility bill! For more information about this, watch the movie "Kilowatt Ours" by Jeff Barrie.

3) Eat fewer animal products. According to a recent report from the U.N. ("Livestock's Long Shadow"), the livestock sector is one of the top 2 or 3 biggest sources of greenhouse gases. And Americans eat way more meat than any other nation, per capita - a whopping 248 pounds per year per person, compared to only 176 pounds per year per person in other industrialized nations, and only 66 pounds per person per year in developing nations (from a Worldwatch Institute document available online, "Happier Meals" by Danielle Nierenburg).

The U.N. document "Livestock's Long Shadow" is available online - just google the title.

Keywords:: Earth Day 3 things you can do 3 biggest things you can do what you can do greenhouse gases global warming fluorescent bulbs eat less meat fossil fuels