"Polar regions are expected to experience the greatest rates of warming"
"Melting of Arctic glaciers is a contributing factor to sea-level rise around the world."
"Reduction in sea ice is very likely to have devastating consequences for polar bears, ice-dependent seals, and local people for whom these animals are a primary food source."
The holiday season is upon us, and the North Pole has issued a plea. Global warming is threatening Santa's workshop, and the elves are worried about having to work in galoshes because of the ice melting.
There has been a call for people to mobilize against wasteful energy consumption, and we have the tools to help you get started. You can start by downloading our Christmas Police Violation tickets, but the only limit is our collective imagination.
There are lots of energy solutions!
CONSERVATION The U.S. uses twice as much energy per person as Japan and Europe – countries with high standards of living. Cutting our energy use in half would make us as energy efficient as Japan and Europe already are.
EFFICIENCY Government, industry and independent analyses have shown that cost-effective energy efficiency improvements could reduce electricity use by 27% to 75% of total national use within 10-20 years – without impacting quality of life or manufacturing output.
CLEAN RENEWABLE ENERGY North and South Dakota alone have enough wind energy from its highest wind speed sites to supply over half of the nation's electricity needs. The Department of Energy estimates that a distributed solar system sufficient to meet the entire U.S. electricity demand would require an average of 17 square miles of solar panels per state. Using vacant land, parking lots and rooftops would provide enough land for this.
Another idea is to bring messages to your community through alternative caroling, which can be more inclusive of other winter holidays too. (Christmas has got a bit of a monopoly on lights, but not on songs!)
You can make up new songs to the tune of old favorites, like this one:
Joy to the World
Joy to the world, the winter's here.
Let's laugh, and play, and sing!
The leaves fall from the trees
There's frost now on the breeze
So let's all build a fire
And cuddle `til we retire
And cuddle, and cuddle `til we retire.
Seasons will change, and so will we.
Let's laugh, and play, and sing!
With every coming year
I hope we'll gather near
And sing our rousing songs
While others sing along
And others, and others sing along.
As we fight for freedom let us dance
Let's laugh, and play, and sing!
With all that we go through
And so much more to do
May we create each year
A life lived with less fear,
A life lived with far less fear.
Fa la la la la la la la la
repeat
Or, you can take a more visual approach and dress up like this fella.
The possibilities are endless!
If you try out any of these things, or come up with a new idea, please share it with us, so that we can let other folks know what's going on.
Bright Alternatives: LEDs and compact fluorescents
LED (light emitting diode) lights use as little as 10% as much energy as regular incandescent bulbs, and last 20 times longer. Both standard and Christmas LED lights are widely available online, and are becoming more popular. LED colors are true and actually emitted by the LED, and are not just tinted by colored glass. A nationwide switch to 25% LED lighting in 20 years would eliminate the need for 113 coal power plants. Three places to learn more and buy LEDs are The LED Light, C Crane and Holiday Creations.
Compact fluorescents (CFLs) use less than 1/3 as much energy as incandescents, and last 10 times as long. They also create less than 1/3 as much waste heat, thus lowering cooling cost. CFLs pay for themselves over and over in energy savings, often 20 times or more. From EnergyStar.gov: "If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars. Every CFL can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its lifetime." To purchase or learn more go to eBay or Energy Star.
This Just In:
Lots of people have check this idea out, and several people have started taking action.
Here is some of the feedback we have received:
"This Santa/lights violation thing is great! We came into the office today to find a life size reindeer with lights all over it moving back and forth. Then, an office mate heard about your violation thing, so we did a sneak attack taping with highlighted markings denoting the 3 violations. We are an enviro group too, so absurd. But thought you might want to know it worked in one place, it’s still hanging there."
"That page is great! I'll definitely send it around to some of my personal contacts and family, probably even the Jewish ones. Good work."
"What a neat site. I have got another idea for an action you can do. You get a dunk tank type thing and have someone dress up like Santa, and then have people throw presents at Santa until the weight is too much and he falls in the water. And the presents have things written on them, like "coal plants" and "cow farms" and "climate ignorance." What do you think??"
December 20, 2006
Ways To Make This A Green Christmas --
PITTSBURGH -- "The United States produces about 6 million tons of extra waste between Thanksgiving and New Year's...Maryann Donovan, the scientific director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Environmental Oncology, said it costs about $18 a month to run a standard set of 100 Christmas lights. LEDs would cost 18 cents. They also use a lot less energy and lasts a lot longer."
Hey youth and students, you can get involved in the movement to fight dirty energy consumption and global warming. Check out our Campus Activism page, sign up, and get involved.
Great animation from a Canadian group calling itself the Santa Liberation Front.
Learn more about the global warming "carbon footprint" of Christmas consumerism:
LED (light emitting diode) lights use as little as 10% as much energy as regular incandescent bulbs, and last 20 times longer. Both standard and Christmas LED lights are widely available online, and are becoming more popular. LED colors are true and actually emitted by the LED, and are not just tinted by colored glass. A nationwide switch to 25% LED lighting in 20 years would eliminate the need for 113 
Compact fluorescents (CFLs) use less than 1/3 as much energy as incandescents, and last 10 times as long. They also create less than 1/3 as much waste heat, thus lowering cooling cost. CFLs pay for themselves over and over in energy savings, often 20 times or more. From EnergyStar.gov: "If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars. Every CFL can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its lifetime." To purchase or learn more go to 