Tips to help Mother Earth

12-Step Plan for Climate Action offers:

1. Increase fuel economy for the world’s 2 billion cars from an average of 30 mpg to 60 mpg.



2. Cut back on driving. Decrease car travel for 2 billion 30-mpg cars from 10,000 to 5,000 miles per year, through increased use of mass transit, telecommuting, walking and biking.



3. Increase energy efficiency by one-quarter in existing buildings and appliances. Move to zero-emissions plans for new buildings.



4. Decrease tropical deforestation to zero, and double the rate of new tree plantings.



5. Stop soil erosion. Apply “conservation tillage” techniques to cropland at 10 times the current usage. Encourage local, organic agriculture.



6. Increase wind power. Add 3 million 1-megawatt windmills, 75 times the current capacity.



7. Expand solar power. Add 3,000 gigawatt-peak solar photovoltaic units, 1,000 times current capacity.



8. Increase efficiency of coal plants from an average of 32 percent efficiency to 60 percent, and shut down plants that don’t meet the standard. No net new coal plants, for new plants built, an equal number should close.



9. Replace 1,400 gigawatts of coal with natural gas, a four-fold increase in natural gas usage over current levels—a short-term step until zero-emissions renewable technologies can replace natural gas.



10. Sequester CO2 at existing coal plants. Sequestration involves storing carbon dioxide underground, an unproven technology that may, nonetheless, be better than nothing.



11. Develop zero-emissions vehicles, including plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles powered by renewable energy.



12. Develop biomass as a short-term replacement for fossil fuel until better carbon-free technologies are developed -- but only biofuels made from waste, and made without displacing farmland and rainforests.

A great idea for individuals is offered in Diet for a Hot Planet.

...it takes up to 16 times more farmland to sustain people on a diet of animal protein than on a diet of plant protein.

And there the hope is as close as our dinner tables. If Americans face the connections between diet and the planet by eating less meat -- thumbing their nose at the Atkins diet -- they could provide a rare act of leadership in slowing global warming.

So a little late after you stuffed yourself on that turkey. Take the plunge now - eat veggies!