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CLIMATE CHANGE

The

Solution Is

You!

Climate change is one of our greatest environmental, social and economic threats. bservationsshow increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snowand ice, and rising global mean sea level. It is very likely that most of the warming can beattributed to the emissions of greenhouse gases by human activities.Theimpacts of climate changeare already being observed and are projected to become more pronounced. Extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts and floods, areexpected to become more frequent and intense. In Europe the largest temperature increasesare in southern Europe and the Arctic region. Precipitation decreases in southern Europe andincreases in the north/north-west. This leads to impacts on natural ecosystems, human healthand water resources. Economic sectors, such as forestry, agriculture, tourism and buildingswill suffer mostly adverse consequences.Climate change is already affecting our lives and the places we live, and has the potential todramatically impact the lives of future generations. To halt climate change, global greenhousegas emissions must be reduced significantly.If we don’t act now, we will leave a much larger problem to our children. The good news isthat, if we all join in to stop climate change, we can reduce its impact on our lives, on our environment and on future generations.

What You Can Do

Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced through simplemeasures like changing light bulbs and properly inflating your tires. These pages provide over 45 easy steps you can take tonot only reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, but alsoreduce air pollution, increase the nation's energy independenceand save money.

Here are some, simple, everyday things each of us can do at home, on the road, at the ofiice, at school and atwork, to help stop climate change. Pick one, some, or all. Every little effort helps and adds up to a whole lot of good.Turn your thermostat down by 1-2°C…Keeping your thermostat at 20 degrees in winter and 25 degrees insummer not only helps with your energy bills, but it canreduce carbon dioxide emissions as well.Install a programmablethermostat…A programmable thermostat is one of the easiest ways to lower energy use and reduce heating bills.Replace your light bulbswith energy saving ones…They use just 20% of the energy of traditional bulbs and last 12times longer. If every household changed five regular light bulbsand started using the compact fluorescents, it would be theequivalent of taking 8 million cars off the road for a year.Turn Appliances off whenyou’re not usingthem…Simply turning off your TV, VCR, computer, mobile phonecharger and other electronic devices can save each householdthousand of pounds of carbon dioxide each year.Use your appliancesefficiently…Οnly boil the water you need in the kettle, hang washing upinstead of using a tumble drier, totally fill the dishwasher and washing machine up before putting them on.

Use less hot water…

It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Reducing the amount usedmeans big savings in not only your energy bills, but alsoin carbon dioxide emissions.

Check the tire pressure onyour car

…Properly inflated tires mean good gas mileage.

Drive less

…Use public transport, cycle or walk. Car share where possible.Drive at a lower speed to increase fuel efficiency.Consider a more fuel efficient model when buying a newcar.Reduce_ Buy in bulk…Avoid products with a lot of packaging. Preventing waste from being created in the first place means that there is less energywasted and fewer resources consumed.Reuse everything…reuse shopping bags. Take paper clips off of letters you receiveand reuse them.Recycle…Recycle more and buy recycled.

By recycling and buying productswith recycled content you also save energy, resources and landfillspace!

Plant a tree

…A single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over itslifetime. Stop using leaf blowers.Forward an article to ten people ...Just because something is printed in the newspaper doesn’t meananyone sees it. Often, really critical articles are buriedinside the paper.Pass …Pass your magazines on to a friend, hospital, library, or nursinghome.Bring a garment bag to thedry cleaner…So your clothes don’t have to be wrapped in all that plastic and paper. Return all those extra hangers.

Defrost your freezer…When ice builds up, it actually requires more energy to keep itcold.Run your dishwasher onlyif it’s full…Don’t pre-rinse dishes.Think about where thingscome from, howthey get made…If every household replaced just one roll of virgin toilet paper withone roll of recycled post-consumer wasterecycled toilet paper ,1.000.000 trees would still be standing.Buy paper products that aremade from post-consumer waste.The paper industry is the third-largest contributor to globalwarming pollution.Opt for reusable bags instead of plastic bags.Plastic bags come from petroleum, and the manufacturing of justfourteen of those plastic bags uses the same amount of oil that it would take to drive a car two kilometersBring your own reusablecup to cafe…Buried in a landfill, a plastic bottle can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.use reusable coffee filters…Get your office to employ reusable coffee filters (metal mesh or unbleached cloth) — and use them at home — instead of paper ones.Supportorganicandlocal farmers…The average European meal travel more than 2.000 kms fromfarm to fork.Drink tap water…Billions of water bottles end up in landfills every year, where ittakes an average of 700 years before they even begin todecompose. Switching totap water will conserve valuableresources and significantly reduce waste.Buy phosphate-free laundrydetergent…Shop for detergents that are phosphate-freefor thesame cleaning power and no environmental impact.Replace your plasticshower curtain liner…Most shower curtain liners are made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC, a material that emits harmful gases. You might be breathingintoxinsevery time you take a shower. Choose a nylon shower curtain instead. Nylon is waterproof and contains no PVC.Change the margins onyour printer…Simply changing the margins you will reduce the amount of paper you use by almost 5 percent. It might not seem like a lot, but if everyone in the world made the change, it would save 15.000.000trees every year.Pack a waste-free lunch…Eliminate plastic bags, disposable containers, paper napkins and plastic utensils from your lunch.Clean the lint screen inyour dryer…Cleaning the lint screen could reduce your energy use by up to 30 percent.Change Your Air Filter…Check your car’s air filter monthly.Change the Air Conditioner Filter…Clean or replace dirty air conditioner filters as recommended.Take Shorter Showers…Showers account for 2/3 of all water heating costs.