Shifting Lifestyles to Help Slow Down Climate Change

Each person leaves a carbon footprint. The size of his footprint depends on his lifestyle and his attitudes in life. How one lives his life determines the carbon footprint he leaves and no matter what, he is responsible for making his footprint as small as he can to help slow down climate change.

A carbon footprint has historically been defined as "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person (Wikipedia). The type of house where one lives, the appliances he uses, the food he eats and how he cooks it dictates on how much greenhouse gas he produces.

A concrete house or building with glass windows and very little wind flow needs air conditioning units to cool and make it more comfortable for people living in it. High rises not only need air conditioning units and expensive lighting but also elevators and escalators to get from one floor to the next. Such buildings would consume several times the amount of electric power needed by a sprawling one storey building with the same floor area which had been designed correctly with eco-friendly features and with energy efficiency in mind.

The trend for high rises started in the early 1900s when people thought of cities and urban centers as the focal point of economic and political leadership. Factories and other places of employment arose to attract people from the agricultural areas looking for employment and perhaps a better way of life. This urban trend also set the trend for people to build vertical structures because of the pressure on land availability. Technological breakthroughs also enabled people to build taller building and create support structures for them such as more and reliable power so that the basic amenities are supplied to the residents.

All these main and support systems resulted to one ultimate product: greenhouse gas (GHG) production and its pressure on the environment. GHG had been determined as the main culprit behind the rising temperatures (global warming) and climate change. Many savants however say that global warning is a misnomer. They say that while one part of the globe may have rising temperatures like the North and South Poles resulting to the melting of ice in these areas and causing the seas to rise, some areas may have opposite effect like the cooling of the temperatures which result to deaths of plants and other organisms not adopted to lower temperatures.

Doing One's Part to Help slow Down Climate Change.

So how can each individual do his part in helping slow down climate change? A single individual doing his part may not seem much, but with many following suit, then maybe there would be substantial effect that would eventually lead to a movement that can turn the tide of this accelerated phenomena of the changing climate. Here are some recommendations from experts:

Major structural changes. One major cause of GHG is the propensity of people to opt for large buildings as a sign of progress, change and wealth. These large buildings despite many new innovations to make them more earth friendly, power efficient, etc., all are still heavy consumers of electricity, most of which are generated either by petroleum and coal fired power plants. Both of these power sources notorious for generating large volumes of GHG. “Back to basics advocates” had been agitating for buildings and habitats that have low carbon footprints.

While we look down to a large degree about the houses and structures that our parents and forebears had been building and where many of us had been born in, these are in fact the types of houses that are truly eco-friendly. Houses made of bamboo and with nipa shingles as roofs, are relatively cooler than those built of concrete or even lumber. Bamboo slats have natural openings in between that allow for passage of outside air. More so when bamboo is also used as flooring. Nipa shingles are natural insulators against the heat generated by the sun's rays. Even without ceilings, a nipa roofed house is several degrees cooler than a concrete house even without the use of an electric fan.

But nipa and bamboo houses can be modernized, like what the Am-Fil couple, Bob and Carol Hammerslag, did at their residence in Tigbauan (http://myphilippinelife.com/we-build-a-bahay-kubo-bamboo-guest-house/). While looking much like the traditional nipa house, the columns are made of concrete so as to withstand time and the ravages of nature.

When bamboo and nipa is not available and not the first choice of home-owners, earth advocates push for natural materials and for recycled materials which are also biodegradable. These advocates push for smaller but cozy houses which not only saves on electric energy but human energy as well since spaces are small and one can access all parts of the house with just a few steps. (http://www.huffingtonpost. com/2011/01/14/11-small-homes-houses_n_808518.html#s223304&title=Small_Wood_Cabin).

In Mindanao, several NGOs had advocated the use of earthen bricks which are a combination of tamped earth mixed with cement (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Compressed_Earth_Blocks). Using a presser of their own fabrication, the earth is mixed thoroughly with the cement and rammed through a manual machine (http://www.windward.org/notes/notes67/walt6720.htm) to fabricate the blocks which can withstand both vertical and horizontal pressure. Such a manual machine can be seen at: http://www.ferncometal.com/products.htm.

Earth friendly construction however is also taking root in other parts of the globe especially in the US where it had long history among earth advocates and the back to nature groups. Even then they had been pursuing the low carbon footprint lifestyle and many have reconverted to this philosophy. While the current vogue among the affluent is the size of the floor area, there are minimalists who can survive and grow on a few square meters or home space. These houses are also very earth friendly with low power requirements, confined mostly to lighting and heating (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2011/01/14/11-small-homes-houses_n_808518.html#s223304&title=Small_Wood_Cabin).

New technologies are also paving the way for energy efficient gadgets and appliances which means for lesser energy consumption. Even compact flourescent lights are now being replaced by the even low consuming light emitting diodes (LED). Even televisions are also being revolutionized with the new LED technology that consumes barely 20% of the previous models. The inverter technology for compressors have also lessened power consumptionfor refrigerators and air conditioners. But the most important revolution is the banning of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants which had been determined as the most destructive ozone depleting compound man has ever discovered.

The shift for man towards creating a smaller carbon footprint should not be so hard after all. The most important step however is the resolve or the decision to do one's share in helping reduce pollution, reduce carbon emission and be more earth friendly.