Meet Benjamin

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Do curso por University of Michigan

Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action

25 classificações

University of Michigan

Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action

25 classificações

Are you concerned about climate change? Would you like to learn how to address and respond to this challenge? If so, this course is for you. Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action is intended to help learners understand, address and respond to climate change as individuals and in partnership with their communities and political leaders. The course focuses on how to translate learning into action on climate change in the areas of food, energy, transportation and the built environment (cities). This course was co-developed and taught by Michaela Zint, Professor of Environmental Education and Communication, and University of Michigan Students. A range of academic climate change experts and professional leaders are featured. As a result of completing this course, you will be able to: 1) Identify individual, community, and political actions you can engage in to effectively address and respond to climate change. 2) Describe how insights from the social sciences can be employed to create change at the individual, community, and political levels. 3) Feel empowered to continue to influence how you, your community, and political leaders address and respond to climate change. Use #UMichActonClimate on social media to share what you're doing and connect with other learners.

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Energy

We use energy in almost everything we do, but there are also many ways we can reduce emissions from our energy consumption. This week, you will hear from Benjamin about saving energy in cold winters and from Dr. Kaitlin Raimi about the theory of environmental peer persuasion. You will also learn several actions you can take to reduce energy consumption in your home, on your campus, and in your community.

Meet Benjamin4:21

Meet the expert - Dr. Kaitlin Raimi14:07

Conheça os instrutores

Michaela Zint
Professor of Environmental Education and Communication

Hello. My name is Benjamin and I'm a graduate student at

the University of Michigan studying Environmental Behavior and Public Policy.

Originally from Colorado, I am no stranger to cold winters and high energy bills.

While pursuing my bachelors degree in Colorado,

I rented various apartments and houses that were close to campus.

Many of my landlords didn't have the incentive to invest in energy efficient windows,

programmable thermostats or proper insulation because you built,

the utility bills were paid by us, the renters.

I remember being frustrated with the situation but I wasn't sure what steps

I could take as the renter and I continued to pay high energy costs.

When I moved to Detroit in December of 2013 it was one of the coldest winters on record.

My wife and I rented an apartment on the 12th story of a very old building.

When the wind began to howl there was little that we could

do to keep the cold air from entering our apartment.

After talking to some of our neighbors we learned that there were

actually lot of things that renters can do to make

their apartments or their houses

more energy efficient without the support of their landlords.

My neighbors taught me how to put plastic shrink wrap

over our windows to create another barrier against the elements.

To my surprise, this really did work even on the 12th story.

My wife and I now live in Ann Arbor where we bought our first house two years ago.

As homeowners, there are also a lot of other things that we can do,

that we can do to save energy.

Federal, state, and local utilities offer financial incentives such as

tax breaks which are becoming more

and more available for homeowners across the United States.

Using these programs we replaced our windows,

we added a programmable thermostat,

and we are currently in the process of installing a solar system that will cover over

100% of our annual energy needs and it will cut our monthly bill almost in half.

With our four kilowatt residential solar system we can expect to offset

nearly 200,000 pounds of CO2 over the next 25 years.

If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is.

That level of offset emissions is equal to planting over 2,000 trees.

The world's current energy system presents one of

the greatest challenges to tackling climate change.

The energy sector powers the world economy but also remains heavily

reliant on carbon intensive fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.

Because of this dependence many countries continue to favor

policies that support or expand fossil fuel production.

Coal and gas-fired power plant emissions still generate 63% of

today's global electricity supply and produce 35% of global sector emissions.

Although investments in renewable energy have risen remarkably in the past decade,

around 70% of energy supply investment in 2013,

which is more than one trillion U.S. dollars,

was related to fossil fuel extraction,

processing and transport, and construction of fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Global optimism about a clean energy revolution needs

continued support from learners like you if

we are going to see a system wide change that we need.

We need to look at how we source and how we use our energy.

The good news is that there are millions of people just like

you that are leading this clean energy revolution around the world.

Between 2014 and 2015 global capacity grew by

43% in the solar sector and wind power capacity grew by 41%.

And for the first time ever,

solar and wind is now the same price or cheaper

than new fossil fuel capacity in more than 30 countries.

There are many ways to approach mitigation and adaptation in

the climate change sector within energy such as increased LED lighting,

which total insulation doubled between 2014 and 2015,

or promoting electric vehicles of which 115,000 people purchased in 2015.

Many of these actions are marginal,

meaning that we can't rely on just a few individuals to make a large difference.

We have to make system-wide change through collective action.

In this module we hope to empower you to act on climate and specifically act on energy.

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