Global warming: There are things that we all can do

From USA Today:

Just two days after a United Nations report demanded urgency in the fight against climate change, a powerful Category 4 hurricane slammed the United States.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that a window of opportunity to sharply reduce the harshest consequences of global warming — extreme weather, food shortages, water scarcity and sea level rise — is closing fast.

But is the situation hopeless? Certainly nations that spew the most heat-trapping greenhouse gases — particularly China and the United States, the two leading emitters — must act more aggressively to switch away from fossil fuels. But individuals can help, too.

• Conduct an energy audit of your home, which can cut fuel costs.

• Cut back on red meat. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make one pound of beef, a real inefficiency. And a leading source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is — yes — bovine emissions.

Beyond lifestyle, there’s activism. Non-profit organizations can use volunteers and donations in the crusade to save the planet. Retirement investments can be tailored for climate-sensitive industries.

This week’s double whammy of the U.N. report and the Gulf Coast hurricane needn’t be a recipe for despair and paralysis. Average citizens have more power than they think to alter Earth’s fate.