It’s a provocative question: Can decades-old war posters inform our thinking about what people can do to fight climate change?
That’s being asked today on the blog Treehugger, which presents a photo gallery made up mostly of World War II-era posters in the U.S. The posters encourage Americans to conserve everything they can to help the Allied war effort against the Axis powers.
What’s striking is that these messages encourage actions that still have value today. Carpooling, driving less, recycling, even taking what modern society has dubbed a staycation – these are all valuable actions that individual people can take, today, to cut back on their carbon footprints.
(Seriously, the guy on that aforementioned staycation looks like he’s having the best time ever. A dog, a fan, a good magazine, and a huge glass of Scotch – what else do you need?)
We’re not saying that there’s a broad, political message to be gleaned here. But these posters are a fascinating reminder that resources are precious – whether your end goal is to win a war or to save the planet.
Want to do your part? Take our climate challenge today.
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Read more about: carpool, climate change, posters, staycation, war posters, World War II, WWII
Despite good intentions, people simply aren’t aware of the best ways to save energy.
That’s according to a new study (hat tip to TechCrunch for the link) that’s making headlines worldwide.
Among the misconceptions people have about energy: Read more »
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Read more about: CFL, energy efficiency, hybrid car, Rocky Mountain Institute, save energy
Ever been unsure of how to talk to your friends or family about climate change? It can be tough. It’s a complicated topic even among people who understand it – and lots of people don’t understand it!
So we wanted to pass along this piece, from the Guardian newspaper in the U.K., because it offers a useful way of talking about one specific outcome of climate change: a rise in extreme weather.
Basically, the message is this. There have always been weird weather patterns around the world. What climate change does is increase the odds of those events.
What does this mean in practical terms? You can’t point to one event – even an event as devastating as the current flooding in Pakistan or the heat waves in Russia – and say, “Climate change caused this.”
But you can say that such events are part of a larger pattern.
Or as the author of the Guardian piece puts it:
It can still be problematic to blame a specific individual extreme weather event on climate change, because there have always been extremes of weather around the world. However, if the likelihood of a particular extreme weather event has changed it is possible to say something.
We’d add that it isn’t just possible to say something. It’s important to say something. Particularly with a bill to regulate carbon emissions now stalled in one of the world’s largest emitters, the U.S., it’s up to us to take action against climate change – for our economic prosperity, for our health, and for the planet.
Climate change is our challenge. But we have the opportunity to stop it. Our small actions can add up to major change in the world.
Will you join us?
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniscollette/ | via Creative Commons
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Read more about: climate bill, climate change, extreme weather
