What You Can Do About Global Climate Change

Image Gallery This 1968 image of the Earth from space helped spark the modern environmental movement. Now we know more clearly than ever that human activity is changing our environment, and threatening our own future. NASA

Today we were excited to learn that Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread knowledge and awareness of global climate change.

For most of our readers, concern about global climate change is nothing new, but we hope this international recognition of the problem will inspire more people to ask the logical next questions: What can we do about climate change? What can we all do to live more sustainably on this planet?

If you're ready to step up your own efforts at sustainable living and learn more about what you can do to combat global warming, here are a few resources we highly recommend:

Check out the resources in An Inconvenient Truth. Last fall, at Mother Earth News, we printed an excerpt of Al Gore's book An Inconvenient Truth. During that time, we all spent quite a bit of time checking out the book and the many resources it lists. We were impressed by the book and the affiliated Climate Crisis site. They are great places to help you start taking positive action.

Calculate your carbon footprint. The Climate Crisis Site has a carbon calculator so you can learn what your personal contribution is to global warming, and where you can start making changes in your lifestyle that will make the biggest impact. Here's another carbon footprint calculator, available from the Union of Concerned Scientists.