Take Political Action

■ Lobby elected federal, state and local officials to sponsor/support legislation to effectively address global warming and climate change, e.g. the Sanders/Boxer bill in the US Senate and the Waxman bill in the House of representatives.

■ Support policies which promote en ergy conservation and efficiency and the development of clean, renewable energy technologies such as solar energy, wind power, biofuels and geothermal energy.

■ Advocate for forest protection, since trees draw carbon out of the atmosphere.

■ Challenge/protest elected officials who are aligned with the fossil fuel industry or refuse to act on climate change. For federal environmental voting records, see www.lcv.org.

■ Support candidates running for political office who will act vigorously to stop global warming. Publicly oppose those who are not. If there are no good candidates, find one or run yourself.

■ Organize public vigils, demonstrations and other visible, noisy community events to speak out and rally the community.

■ Ask opinion-makers, editors and journalists to cover global warming responsibly, recognizing that there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that this problem is real and getting worse.

■ Call on your city or town leaders to sign the US Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement (www.ci.seattle.wa.us/mayor/climate), and then help them develop and implement serious CO2 reduction plans. The City of Buffalo has signed on but not done much yet. Ask Mayor Byron Brown to develop programs to address climate change.

■ Encourage members of your community or religious group or professional or trade association to address the climate change issue through resolutions, public statements and direct action.

■ Work with businesses, schools, churches or temples, or any large institutions or organizations to develop and implement plans to reduce CO2 emissions by conserving energy and switching to clean, renewable energy resources. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst meets its electric needs by buying 100 percent wind power.

■ Oppose plans for new coal-burning power plants (e.g. Jamestown) or the expansion of existing ones (Tonawanda) unless these plants remove and sequester carbon dioxide emissions. Coal is the most carbon-rich fossil fuel and burning it puts the most C02 into the air.

■ Demand the phasing out of existing coal-burning power plants (e.g. Tonawanda, Dunkirk, Somerset and Jamestown) unless they are retrofitted to sequester carbon.

■ Fight plans to build any new fossil fuel power plant and insist that energy needs be met through a combination of energy conservation and efficiency and clean renewable energy resources.

■ Demand that the New York State Public Service Commission create financial incentives for electric and natural gas utility companies so they will aggressively promote energy efficiency by their customers. Right now, the more energy ratepayers consume the more money the utilities make—hence the last thing these companies want to do is encourage conservation.

■ Support sustainable economic development and oppose development which makes suburban sprawl worse.

■ Support legislation to double car/truck fuel economy in the next 10 years, phasing in alternative fuels.

■ Support plans to expand public transit.

■ Join e-mail action alert lists sponsored by major national environmental groups. Sign up for their global warming and clean energy alerts.

■ Put your money where your mouth is. Contribute generously to groups fighting global warming.

Become a Climate Educator

Start by educating yourself—so you can educate others. See the Web sites listed below, which are loaded with up-to-date information about the causes and consequences of global warming and what we must do to stop it.

■ An Inconvenient Truth: www.climatecrisis.net

■ Climate Crisis Coalition: www.climatecrisiscoalition.org

■ David Suzuki Foundation: www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/

■ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: www.ipcc.ch/

■ Natural Resources Defense Council: www.nrdc.org/globalWarming

■ Pew Center: www.pewclimate.org/

■ Ross Gelbspan: www.heatisonline.org

■ Union of Concerned Scientists: www.ucsusa.org/

■ Hand out literature (like this copy of Artvoice) to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and colleagues, to school, church and temple, business, professional, trade and community groups.

■ Write letters to the editors of various publications explaining the dangers of global warming and calling for action.

■ Show videos and DVDs on climate change, e.g. An Inconvenient Truth, Kilowatt Ours, The End of Suburbia, etc., to raise awareness and motivate action. These can be easily purchased on Amazon.com or borrowed from the UB Green Environmental Library (829-3535).

■ Organize and/or give a talk on climate change to a school, church/temple or community group. The WNY Climate Action Coalition will provide a speaker or train you to be the speaker.

■ Explore ways to deliver information about global warming; if you are a teacher, explore ways to deliver this information through your lesson plans and teaching.

■ Help students form an environmental club to address this problem; perhaps you can be the club’s advisor.

Reduce Your Own Greenhouse Gas Emissions

■ Conserve energy and maximize efficiency in everything you do. Strive to cut the amount of energy you use in half. See www.getenergysmart.org.

■ Drive less, carpool, use public transportation, bike and walk as much as possible.

■ If you must drive, try to switch to a smaller, fuel-efficient vehicle which gets 35-40 miles per gallon or more, e.g. Toyota Prius.

■ Meet as much of your remaining energy needs as possible with clean renewable energy.

■ Buy green power. See wings.buffalo.edu/ubgreen/greenpower/index.htm.

■ Generate your own clean electricity with photovoltaic (PV) solar electric panels etc. See: www.powernaturally.org.

■ Use solar energy for space and water heating if you can. Visit the UB Green Library for resources on passive solar design and solar hot water systems.

■ Purchase carbon offsets. See www.carbonfund.org, www.nativeenergy.com.

■ If you must build a new house, build it small, green and near where you work—maximizing energy efficiency and incorporating passive solar design and other solar and green technologies.

■ Consider becoming a vegetarian or eating less meat and dairy. Meat and dairy production use far more energy than eating grains and vegetables directly. Eating lower on the food chain also promotes better health by reducing consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol.