Green

A couple months ago, the IPCC produced its report on global warming (see link at the bottom). Since then, global warming has dominated the headlines from Republican Bush announcing plans to reduce emissions in the State of the Union Address to Democrat Gore picking up an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth (see link at the bottom of this e-mail). Cutting across political lines, 5 Western states signed an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quicker than the federal government has pledged.

Political posturing aside, and for all of you who simply want to make money, even Wall Street is getting in on the act. "Climatic Consequences" is a 120-page analyst report put out by Edward Kerschner at Citigroup that shows you where you should invest.

If Wall Street recognizing that money can be made is not proof enough, here's further proof that going green is going mainstream. The NY Times magazine just had a very long article by Thomas Friedmann (also at the bottom). Levi's is now marketing organic denim jeans. And of course, Ah-nold the Governator drives a bio-fueled Hummer.

But, the key question for you is likely to be "what can I do to make a difference?" To make a difference you should consider: how can I reduce my carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions?

By looking at your own behavior, you can reduce your carbon footprint (which is a measure of how much greenhouse gases you produce). In addition, by choices you make on what you consume and purchase, you can benefit companies that have a lower carbon footprint (or potentially encourage other companies to have a lower carbon footprint). There are things I do every day which achieve that:
Drive less: walk, bike, take mass transit, and when I drive, I keep my tires inflated
Recycle more
Avoid products with a lot of packaging
Adjust my thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer
Use less hot water by using cold/warm water when washing clothes and only running fully-loaded dishwashers
Buy locally grown & produced (ideally with sustainable farming methods), fresh (not frozen), organic foods (like those found at a farmer's market)
Turn off electronic devices when not using them
I've started looking at changing all my lightbulbs to CFL's
Other things I could be doing more of:
Carpool or join a car-share program
Install a low-flow shower head
When purchasing a new appliance, get one of these
Plant a tree
Unfortunately, San Francisco's PG&E does not allow me to switch to clean, renewable sources of energy
To get to completely zero impact, you would have to become carbon neutral, which means that you've reduced your global warming pollution to zero. All of the above will help you reduce your carbon footprint. No matter what you do, though, you will never get to zero (you still have to stay warm in the winter, you have to get to work, you don't always have the opportunity to recycle, you have to fly to places, you have a fuel-UNefficient car, etc.).

You can calculate your carbon footprint and purchase offsets at many different place, such as http://www.nativeenergy.com/. How does purchasing an offset work? If you produce 8 tons of emissions and you purchase 8 tons of reductions, you are at a net zero (or carbon neutral). Purchasing an offset means you are helping to finance and build new clean and renewable energy projects. These new projects are aimed to displace electricity generated from fossil fuels or reduce other greenhouse gas emissions making up for the CO 2 emissions you can't avoid.

A month-and-a-half ago, I looked at what I could do better, calculated my carbon footprint, and purchased the appropriate offsets. I also thought that I would post this to show that the actions you take don't have to be that drastic and you are probably incorporating them in your every day life already.

To find out more about global warming:http://www.ipcc.ch/
http://climatecrisis.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/display.cfm?id=7933604
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15green.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin