Real Solutions:
The right answers for global warming
The first step is Efficiency
The first and most cost-effective step toward stopping global warming is to use our energy more efficiently. Across the country, people are already doing it. Insulating doors and windows, buying energy efficient appliances and light bulbs, and using a water-saving showerhead are just a few of the things we all can do to help. In fact, if every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), it would prevent enough pollution to equal the removal of one million cars from the road.1 But while important, these individual actions won’t be enough to stop global warming. We’re going to have to implement these changes on a large scale. Doing it will require real leadership from our elected officials.
Public transportation systems like buses, light rails, and commuter trains not only save on traffic headaches, but also go a long way toward cutting our global warming pollution. And by making sure that our cities are growing in a smart and sustainable way, our cities, counties and states can do their part, too.
Energy efficiency also counts when we're behind the wheel. Right now, cars and trucks account for nearly a quarter of global warming pollution.2 But we have the technology to make our cars go much, much farther on a gallon of gas. By raising fuel efficiency standards to 40 miles per gallon (are we sticking with 40?), we will improve the health of our children, save consumers money at the pump, and take a huge step toward stopping global warming.
Wind and solar power today
Right now, we get nearly half of our electricity from coal-burning power plants. But those power plants are the single largest producers of global warming pollution.3 Fortunately, we've got a few almost unlimited energy sources that don't pollute at all—and we can find them just by looking out the window.
Wind power is the world's fastest growing energy source.4 Today, a wind farm can generate the same amount of power as some conventional power plants, but unlike coal-fired power plants, wind turbines don't dump mercury, sulfur dioxide, and global warming pollution into the air. And while wind power is still growing here in the U.S., about 19 million households in Europe already are getting their energy from wind.5
Every 30 minutes, the sun sends more energy to our planet than is consumed in a whole year. In fact, the energy generated by the sun in just 20 days is equal to the energy of all the coal, oil, and natural gas buried underground.6 And just like wind power, solar energy is already being harnessed in many parts of the world, and is quickly becoming a real alternative to dirty coal-burning power plants. In the Southwest alone, over 85,000 homes get their energy from the sun.7 But it’s not just sunny desert states taking advantage of solar power. New Jersey is now the fastest growing solar energy market in the U.S., and in 2006 was second only to California in the number of solar panels installed.8 With the right leadership in Washington, we could all be getting energy from the sun.
New technology, new energy
Our busy world requires a lot of power. Our planet has more than enough energy to keep the juice flowing, if we look in the right places. For example, we can use plants—from switchgrass to agricultural waste—to help power our homes and cars as second-generation biofuels. We’re learning to harness energy from ocean tides along our coasts. And we’re even tapping into the energy that rises from our Earth’s own core, generating electricity and helping to heat and cool our homes. These are just a few of the energy sources that are beginning to emerge—and all of them will help us end the use of dirty coal-fired power plants and stop global warming.
For more information, see Greenpeace's Energy [R]evolution report.
1. Sierra Club http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/efficiency/
2. UCS http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/vehicles_health/cars-and-trucks-and-global-warming.html
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2005," April 2007. Based on calculation of CO2 emissions from tables 3-1 and 3-3.
4. American Wind Energy Association http://www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets/2008_Market_Update.pdf
5. Greenpeace International http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/solutions/wind/
6. UCS http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/how-solar-energy-works.html
7. Natural Resources Defense Council http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/renewables/solar.asp
8. State of New Jersey http://www.state.nj.us/bpu/pdf/boardorders/EO04121550_20060831.pdf
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