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Considering the immensity of the climate change challenge, it's very easy to despair. However, I usually manage to counter this by taking action in the political sphere. This means working hard to elect candidates- usually Democrats- who I believe can make a difference. I also try to live my personal life in a way that minimizes my carbon footprint without totally screwing up my quality of life.

I also try to keep abreast of developments in the field of renewable energy that show promise to alleviate global warming and I propagate the news of such developments among my friends and my elected representatives. Some recent examples are the January Scientific American article "A Solar Grand Plan": http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan
and Berkeley, California's innovative plan to finance solar rooftops:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/26/MNAIT0DQO.DTL

I also think we need to keep in mind Michael Shellenberger's idea which is that attacking global warming is not only a daunting challenge, but a tremendous opportunity to create millions of good jobs and to revitalize our material and spiritual well-being: http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/01/13/doe-reprint/

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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