Climate action starts here

Solar energy. Recycling. Green power. Each is a small step, but all can help to reverse damage.

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published November 16, 2008

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OLYMPIA – The war against climate change has many battlefronts in South Sound, from Olympia City Hall to the campus of The Evergreen State College to two homes on Rogers Street in west Olympia.

Glossary of terms

• Carbon dioxide: A colorless, odorless gas that contributes the most to human-induced global warming. CO2 levels from fossil-fuel burning, deforestation and other human activities has increased 30 percent since the industrial revolution.

• Carbon footprint: A calculation of how much carbon dioxide is generated annually by a family, business, local government, nation, etc.

• Climate change: Changes in the long-term climate trends, such as average temperature.

• Emissions cap and trade: A plan that sets a limit within a geographical area (state, region, nation) on carbon dioxide emissions, then allows emitters that come in under the ceiling to sell credits to those that don't.

• Global warming: A gradual rise in Earth's average surface temperature thought to be caused in part by increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

• Greenhouse effect: The insulating effect of atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide and methane and water vapors that keeps Earth's temperature about 60 degrees warmer than it otherwise would be.

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: A United Nations scientific and technical review group that issues periodic assessments of climate change. The panel's 2007 report estimates that worldwide global warming of 2 degrees to 11.5 degrees in the 21st century, much of it the result of human activities.

• Kyoto Protocol: An international agreement adopted in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, calling on developed nations to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States didn't sign the agreement.

Source: Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Reduce your carbon footprint

• Drive less: Every mile of driving you reduce saves 1 pound of carbon dioxide.

• Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs and eliminate 150 pounds or more of C02 per bulb per year.

• Run only full loads in the dishwasher and washing machine.

• Move your thermostat down 2 degrees in the winter and save about 2,000 pounds of CO2 per year.

Source: State Department of Ecology