A Guide to Climate Change for the Perplexed

earth.jpgNew Scientist has a great article for people who are at all confused, misinformed, ignorant, or othwerise boggled by all this talk about climate change. They clarify many things that people may not know much about. It’s worth a read if you don’t think you know enough about climate change, or if you just want a reminder what climate change means.

Our planet’s climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors.

Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and ever-growing body of evidence points to a clear picture: the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.

Record Your Thanks

There’s a new website out there on the interweb that wants to record what you are thankful for, it’s called the Journal of Gratitude. There, they invite you to tell the world what you are thankful for. Go ahead and tell them.

“Taking the time to list the things we’re grateful for helps us focus on what’s really important,” said Keith Cohn, Gimundo CEO. “It’s too easy to go through an entire day lost in the frustrations and hassles of living. This Journal of Gratitude is our way of spreading good thoughts and thankfulness throughout cyberspace. Think what a positive force this could be as people pass it around, read what others share and purposefully think about the good things in their own lives.”

Green Website for Kids

An Indian NGO has started a website directed at kids to educate them about the environment. OneWorld has a great description of the site with some good background too.

Indian NGO Center for Environment Education (CEE) is working to promote awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the country. It has recently introduced a website for children – www.kidsrgreen.org – that allows children to explore and discover environment-related issues.

Clinton Cities are Green

Former US president, Bill Clinton, has managed to get 5 billion dollars to green some of the world’s largest cities. The money comes in the form of loans and will double the world market for energy saving retrofits within 18 months.

Toronto is one of 16 cities which will be part of the project.

The project, organized by the Clinton Foundation, will involve replacing heating, cooling and lighting systems with energy efficient technology.

It will also involve turning roofs white or reflective to deflect heat from the sun, sealing windows to prevent heat from escaping, replacing windows to allow for more light and setting up sensors that will make lighting and air conditioning more efficient.

Thanks, Arvin!

Playgreen: a Wiki for Being Green

Wikis are dandy things that have been used to make entire encyclopdeias. Well now you can join a group of people that are trying to create a great online resource of how to be green, it’s called Playgreen.

You can learn how to become more environmentally friendly and you can help others learn what you know by writing your own entries or contributing to others.

Their bottom line:

‘We’ are smarter than ‘me’. The central premise of this assumption is that large groups of people (‘We’) can, and should, make a fantastic resource site to foster responsible consumption habits in our daily life, economy, industries.