Getting started as an environmentalist

If a person wants to do their part in making a better planet, what resources and web pages can you all recommend?

I figured this is a good place to ask being that you all seemed to be informed on the subject.

Regards

 

depends on your lifestyle...I'm not politically active but I've spent a lifetime in the building industry so did what I know I could do, reduce my footprint, my home is more energy efficient so less CO2 emissions and energy requirements...

and I drive less...

 

I will admit, as a recovering environmentalist (now a conservationist), my first answer to this question was "get a lobotomy" as a good first step.

On a more serious note, I would start with Sierra club, Nature Conservancy and Audubon Society web pages. Also, if you're not an outdoors person, become one. There is no way to be an environmentalist if you don't regularly go out into the environment. Hike in local areas. Canoe or kayak or bike in them. Learn about nature and love it before worrying about environmentalism.

 

Try not littering, and reusing anything that can be recycled instead of tossed. Do it in your own life first, set an example. I don't see the need to be dramatic about it unless your main goal is to have others look at you in admiration.

 

Instead of pursuing self righteous moral superiority over others with overt displays of how 'green' you are perhaps motivating yourself for the benefit of your struggling fellow man either at home or abroad might perhaps be a more laudable (if less publicly evident) goal.

Or you could join the radical public vanguard of the modern environmental movement by opposing anything that might materially benefit the progress of humanity whenever and wherever possible

 

Learn to research things yourself. There is a lot of clearly wrong information out there, on both sides of the issue. Read the studies, and results of replicating those studies (80% can't be replicated) - spend your time on the 20% that can (20/80 rule rules)

Look for inconsistencies, as an example:

1. CO2 causes global warming
2. Recycle paper (yet, growing more trees removes CO2)
3. No nukes (despite very low CO2 / KW)
4. Don't use natural gas, (even though coal generates twice the CO2 per KWH).

Make your personal decisions and spend your money as if it matters, it does.

If you don't have a solution, the problem won't go away - so focus on what can be done, not what shouldn't.

 

an ecology text is a good place to learn "from the ground up".

 

CO2 is not a pollutant, but rather is the lifesblood of our plant - so, contribute as much as you can to the atmosphere.

Also, never, ever vote for a democrat - can't do math, stealing from posterity, lie about just about everything... Republicans aren't much better.

Also, start smoking pot - good for the attitude

 

I believe we also need industrial waste management capability from the public sector as a form of intervention in that "market"; instead of a War on Drugs.