How Can We Help Stop Global Warming?

We can't stop global warming if we are only focused on the problem.

You have heard from scientists that global warming is a real problem and many people are trying to find out how to become part of the solution. In response to this apparent crisis, you may react by trying to gather as much information as you can by reading or watching news-type products. Unfortunately, most of what you are exposing yourself to is material which details different aspects of global warming, often through alarmist methods. At some point, you must ask yourself why you choose to spend so much time absorbing all this scattered information when so often you feel depressed and helpless afterwards.

It's been widely observed that whenever you focus on what you perceive as negative, whether it be global warming or other environmental and political problems, you reinforce your unpleasant reactions to those experiences. Continually seeking out these unpleasant reactions is the perpetuation of suffering. Part of fighting any difficult situation is to spend less time in fear and worry, and more time taking steps towards eliminating the issue, this applies as much to the global warming problem as to any other challenge in our lives.

There is a lot of information available online that will show you easy ways you can help stop global warming by reducing your consumption, reusing in-hand resources, and recycling raw materials. These can be looked at as steps toward a wider solution; through practicing these consumption-reducing habits, you will begin to see the trend that ties them all together and soon see that taking them to their logical conclusion is how you will arrive finally at what I believe to be the solution: living simply.

The best solution to global warming is to live simply.

What do we mean when we say live simply? Part of living simply means reducing our consumption. When you reduce your consumption, you reduce the amount of energy and resources that are used to support your daily life. This, in turn, reduces the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted, reducing your global warming impact.

In our modern Western culture, everyone is taught to express themselves through consumer choices of clothes, cars, even soft drinks... Persona is created through these purchases; your persona will last as long as you keep purchasing. Living simply means living a life of creation, not consumption.

There are countless ways you can express yourself through creation, depending on your individual talents and interests. Some people love to play with language, either on paper or in conversation; others create artwork, by drawing, painting, sculpting, fiber and fabric work, music-making, or any other imaginable method. Some create beautiful and useful outdoor spaces through building, landscaping, and gardening; others create beautiful and useful indoor spaces through decoration and organization.

Living simply also means staying local. Working from or near your home, doing business and socializing with those in your area, and spending time in the physical land close to you will all lead you in the direction of greater simplicity and lesser consumption.

Living simply- a solution that's so much greater than the global warming problem.

By living simply, you will find yourself with more time for personal work, creativity, self-expression, and true slow organization that leads to efficient living. By spending more time in your local area, you can increase your time available to connect with those around you in a peaceful, long-term, trust-building way. You may find these relationships to be increasingly beneficial as you become more willing to help your neighbors and they become more willing to help you. Additionally, by doing business and trading with people in your area, you will also benefit your local economy.

By living a simpler, more fulfilling life, you may even forget how much you've begun to reduce your consumption, but you will be truly demonstrating the solution to the global warming problem!

The way to begin living simply is to take one step at a time; don't feel you have to achieve perfection or that you have to change everything at once. Focus on what you can do now instead of on fears of what is happening or may happen in the world. You can't change the whole world yourself, but you can change your world by changing yourself.