Inconvenient Truth

Tonight I watched a documentary called the Inconvenient Truth. I really wasn't a strong believer in global warming nor am I a huge supporter of Al Gore, but he does present some very persuasive evidence.

So first I see that our polar ice caps are melting at rates never before seen. There were claims in this film that if half of Greenland were to melt the sea level across the globe would raise 20 feet. That is quite a claim.

The US creates just a shade over 30% of the greenhouse gasses worldwide. This is more than all of South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia combined. What is more astounding is that if we (the US) make small changes like using energy star rated appliances we can drop the increase of greenhouse gasses by 1.6 percent. Aligning our automobile standards in the US to match those of China would also reduce the increase of the same gasses by 2.8 percent. Make our automobile manufacturers align with EU and we will see a reduction in the range of 5.6 percent.

So, in doing a little research on what I can do in the comfort of my own home to help is replace all of my incandescent light bulbs with CFL (Compact Florescent Light) light bulbs, it appears you will get a longer lasting bulb that consumes much less energy. These bulbs are considerably more expensive than the traditional incandescent but they last much longer. These bulbs can be purchased at your local home center or hardware store. A good resource for information on these types of bulbs can be found here: www.energyfederation.org.