15 Things You Can Do to Stop Global Warming: by my son!

On Saturday I took my 10 year old son to see An Inconvenient Truth. He's a bit of science buff, so I knew he'd dig the scientific information. He was of course also blown away by the scenes of the ice caps disappearing.

He goes to a summer camp that is part of his afterschool program; great program, run by a wonderful couple (in fact, they were at the movie that night, too). After the movie, Danny came home and got on the climatecrisis.net site and made a brochure for all the kids at his camp. Okay, I did the formatting, but he did the content. Most of the "ideas" are copied from the website, but a couple are his, and so is the text at the top, and the little diagram.

Check it out:
http://tinyurl.com/gt4e2

I'm so proud of him...

doesn't mind, but I am copying it, and putting it on our bulletin board.

recommending proudly.

great flyer. What a smart young man you have there.

10 out of the last 14 have been the hottest on record...when were the other 4?

the statistic is that the 10 hottest years on record occurred during the past 14 years.

other words, 10 of the 14 years between 1991 and 2005) have been record hot. 4 of the years between 1991 and 2005 were fairly normal)

if the problem is getting worse?

I don't think the other 4 years in that span were "normal", it's just that 4 of the top 10 happened slightly outside the 10 year period.

10 years old...very good.

I love that little vegetarian graphic! That's so cute!

if he'd like one, please have him take a look. Then PM me here, let me know what design, what size and where to send it and I'll order it and have it sent directly to him.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/999005

I'll have him look and send you a PM. Thanks! :)

I feel very strongly about encouraging kids in these things!

I especially like #14. Vote for politicians who care.

He gets it. Good for you!

And he's only 10, so his lack of cynicism really changes his perspective. He doesn't get why we don't just make electric cars, if we already have the technology.

we have the market for it, why are they here for purchasing?

And the one thing no one wants to hear.

My brothers all had kids and I've always felt a responsibility to leave as small a pollution 'footprint' on the earth as possible. Sometimes I feel a little sad about it, but I figure I can still adopt if I choose to raise a child. I'm ultimately certain that it was the right choice for myself.

I'm not sure that's the right word, but that's what just came out of my mouth just now.


I used to be a roofing contractor. Over the years that I went from house to house it was nearly unanimous. Everyone had kids. I'll spare the explanations and the stories. I just don't understand it, to be honest. I won't have them. And for the same reason as you. But this one man and his wife, who were not young, didn't have kids, and because of world population. We talked about it. And the part that was so amazing was that he was older, from a time when having children was expected. It was like meeting Alan Ginsberg, or something. The guy had brains. He wasn't buying society's crap. And you know, this subject reflects back on where we are today, politically. People bought what was being "sold". And here we are, having close elections between decent candidates, and fascists. People need to use their brains.

I totally respect people who do what they think is right. It's brave.

of plastic/other nonbiodegradable things, leaving the car running, etc - every person's actions contribute to the state of things generally, but most seem to feel it's their 'right' to live however they want, rather than feeling it's their responsibility to limit their deleterious actions. I think it's sad...

We did, and we have been blessed with a wonderful daughter!

And, congrats to the wonderful author of these suggestions! P.S. I ordered my Prius about a week ago; I'm very excited!

I don't even know how to say it. Maybe just a smile. You are wonderful. I love knowing that you are part of my world. Today I am sick. I am not sure what it is. Maybe a migraine. But regardless, I have had several good things happen. Knowing that some little girls has a nice mother. And the hummingbirds that are racing around outside my window. There's one now, looking right in the window. It's not all Bush and the braindead. Thank you. I've been so stressed out for so long, looking for signs of life. You are that. Well, I had better get outside and be with those crazy birds. (:

I seriously hope that he considers a career in science/policy. We are going to need dedicated people like your son, to get us through this century. I did my PhD on global warming, and every time I start to feel sorry for myself and overwhelmed by the problem, my colleagues' children inspire me to keep working on these issues. Because if all we do is sit on our hands and wait for the next generation to become old enough to vote or run for public office, it may be too late to turn things around. And the people who are children now will be so disappointed with us ... because they're right, it's really unfair to them, especially when we are capable of so much.

p.s. you are onto something here ... if 50 million children start to demand cleaner energy and more sustainable policies, and will not listen to advertisers or industry trying to buy them off with shiny goodies ... that will go a long way towards making these steps seem, not just possible, but normal.

I would not be surprised to see him pursue a career in science -- he loves it and has a great mind for it. And he's compassionate, which I think is also necessary.

Of course he's 10, so right now he wants to be a scientist but also a pro baseball player and Billie Joe from Green Day! :)

You know, I thought I would leave the movie feeling hopeless, but the ending was so hopeful and there are SO MANY things we can do. On the way home I was telling Danny how when I was a kid there was so little awareness about the dangers of smoking but that his generation is now growing up so much more eduacated about how harmful it is, and so many fewer kids smoke now. I do believe it's possible to have a radical change in environmental policy and awareness, but it's going to take a change in leadership.

As someone who has a PhD in Global Warming (how cool is that, pardon the pun) -- what did you think of the science in the movie? I thought Gore and the moviemakers did a great job.

Just being a scientist or getting a postgraduate degree in the environmental or policy fields doesn't mean that you can't have an exciting life aside from that. One of the other grad students here is an actor who's appeared in independent films, and two more are champion rowers (one nearly made the cut for the Canadian Olympic team). My prof, also a climate change guy, was a folk musician back when he lived in NYC (and he used to jam at a club where people like Dylan frequently dropped by!). He also used to compete in marathons, and still goes on hundred-mile bike rides regularly. A physicist I used to date was the lead programmer for Moog (the inventor of music synthesizers), and went on to earn his way through grad school as an electrician/roadie for rock bands.

Re: the science in Gore's movie -- I thought it was quite good. Quite a pleasant surprise, since most of my job consists of jumping up and explaining to people that increasing CO2 does not mean mass deaths by suffocation, and straightening out other such misunderstandings! They made a particular effort to get things right up to date (for example, they were citing the 650,000 year ice core record, while some textbooks are still using the 400,000 year one). And any nitpicks I might have had are mainly addressed in the accompanying book. For example, the acidification of the Pacific Ocean is discussed further in one of the chapters, and I can understand why they didn't go on about it in the movie because there is just so much to cover.

Actually I am rather jealous of Gore's graphics. It took him about 30 seconds to explain concepts which generally take me half of a lecture period to cover.

And you're right -- studying this stuff IS rather cool! The ice core guys I used to work with would say it all the time.

graphics available for lecturers; maybe there is some way that they could do that.

One of the themes of the movie was that Al Gore is tirelessly going city to city with his presentation, trying to get the word out. It occurred to me that he should get a grassroots effort to get people in every city to be presenting it, and therefore cover much more ground.

I realize that a big part of the presentation is Gore himself, but a lot of people could learn to give this presentation effectively (maybe without the giant ladder thing, but that was cool!).

I'm all for grassroots efforts, and this seems like a perfect opportunity. I haven't done the research; does anyone know if Gore makes his presentation available to others?

At the very least, the movie should be shown in every single public school classroom in the fall. I'd be willing to work for that.

I covered my daughter's eyes (she's 9)(I probably over-reacted) when the bodies were floating in the water post-Katrina; other than that, I had no problems.

Carry on!

You should be really proud of him.!!

I'm very impressed! Give your son a pat on the back and a hug from us.

Tonight we were talking to a neighbor, very sweet lady but not much of a critical thinker. A non-questioning Republican. In response to a comment on how we could stop global warming, she said, "Oh the earth is so big, I don't think we could ever have any effect on it!" And Danny just laughed out loud and said, "We already HAVE had an effect, a bad one!"