What Should We Be Doing About Global Warming? Why? CLS 101

What Should We Be Doing About Global Warming? Why?
First and foremost is education. Getting people educated about what is going on is the first step to prevention. Global Warming is a rapidly increasing fact, with more evidence supporting that humans are the main contributor (Chart p. 137). Making people aware of what is going on and why, will hopefully help them to more readily want to contribute to its reversal. I feel that what politicians who support that Global Warming is indeed a fact, should be speaking out about it. Governors and Senators should be doing their part to educate their states and cities about ways they can reduce their emissions and save energy.
As the United States is the largest contributor of greenhouse gasses(!) our government should do its part in working to reduce emissions by signing such documents as the Kyoto Protocol. Being one of the most powerful countries in the world means that we have to set an example. The United States is “one of only two industrialized nations that have rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and, with it, mandatory cuts in emissions. (The other outlier is Australia)”(149). I am a firm believer of accomplishing something from the inside out. Even though the US has yet to sign the Kyoto Protocol I feel that if our government can start to get people moving on the reduction of emission then we can begin, as a country, to lead the world in reduction. It has happened so many times that the US is the leader by example that “if a country like the United States embraces a cleanup technology, then the market starts to drive the price down, other countries start to see that it is doable”(180). More nations are jumping on the train to slow global warming; it is time the US gets involved in a big way.
By increasing the number of more fuel-efficient vehicles, the US can set an example in preventing more carbon emissions. Other methods of reducing emissions are capitalizing on our recycling. We have got the resources and the knowledge to increase the percentage of waste that is recycled. Also, a gradual, yet swift change from un-renewable resources to renewable resources. Efficiency is so important in the reduction of emissions. Using coil light bulbs, hot water heaters and solar panels are just a few things that will make homes and businesses more efficient and environmentally friendly.
All these things: educations, action, efficiency, are all things that need to be done to make us a less wasteful world. Even if these things do make more than a dent in the emissions, or ‘global warming’ turns out to be part of a cyclical climate change, all of these forward movements will still contribute to our health and better appreciation for the nature that we take from. This effort will cause us to be more resourceful and develop a replenishing attitude, which will only help in the long run.