We have to decarbonize our economy, not just our personal habits—and do it soon—or “the second half of this century will not be a time you would choose to live in.” - Gwynne Dyer in Climate Wars

Slowing and then reversing climate change is a key challenge of our times. NCP believes the changes we need to turn things around won't come from the top—political or corporate leaders—but from people who care deeply for our planet and its people and its future. So while this plan invites personal changes, it calls on all of us not to stop there, but to become an agent for change in our communities and society. We have to—the stakes are too high, the crisis too imminent, our energy and vision too critical.

Beginning with YOU (Calculate your CO2 footprint)

Our main global warming-causing activities are cars, consumption, housing and diet. So let's get started!

Quick and (relatively) easy immediate impacts:

• Personal vehicle use accounts for about 5-7 tons of CO2 per year per person—see car driving as a last resort (beware of simple things like trips to the grocery store—70 percent of the carbon footprint of a food item can accrue as you drive the car to purchase it, rather than in its production or shipping)
• Food choices have a super-sized climate impact : Move away from a meat-based diet and save a ton of CO2 per year ; eat seasonal & local & organic foods—better yet, grow at least some of your own
• Get comfortable with hotter and cooler temps in the home, caulk windows, unplug unused appliances, shorten the shower, hang up clothes to dry—all this helps reduce the 7.4 tons of CO2 per household per year in the USA just for electricity (EPA)
• Use the roof of a congregation or other building to install a solar array; here are some folks that did!
• Use the sign in front of your building to promote climate friendly actions; here are some ideas.
• Offset the emissions from your driving or other CO2-producing behavior through NCP's new Upset? Offset! carbon offset program. An acre of rainforest covers your car driving; 1000 trees ($100) compensates for your diet. 
• Reduce consumption: for instance—one t-shirt made of non-organic cotton can be responsible for 8-12 pounds of CO2 (check out Skunkfunk for a better option); US'ers purchase about $15 billion worth of bottled water every year—that's about 30 gallons or 300 12 oz. bottles per person (GAO)—making, shipping, storing, and disposing of them (40 million a day are thrown in the trash!) requires 50 million barrels of oil per year (Pacific Institute), creating 21 million tons of CO2 (2000 times as much as a similar amount of water from your faucet)
• Visit climate-impacted or -vulnerable areas of the world like the Arctic or Amazon or East Africa on an NCP Learning Tour —come back with stories that will inspire and challenge others
• Radical recycling—every pound recycled saves about a pound of CO2

Loads of facts and figures on climate change—and a lesson plan for educating others—on our Time's a'wastin' page

Need inspiration and information? Check out these books on NCP's Reading List: Climate Wars, The Flooded Earth and Diet for a Hot Planet; take a look at this weather-and-climate change blog and a website that focuses on the science of climate change.

COyou —find out where you stand on carbon emissions (EPA calculator covers most activities other than diet—is even the US government afraid of Big Ag and the beef lobby?!) or here

Going Public

Just changing ourselves is not going to put the brakes on climate change—we have to get the message to others.

Engage others by being visible and vocal:

• Tell your friends why you're not having meat at dinner; get a bike and ride it to “regular” appointments like meetings or work or church—or ( gasp ) walk if it's under a mile or two; invite the neighbors to visit your backyard garden to let them see what can be done!
• Push your employer or church or school to set goals for lowering their carbon output; in the short term, encourage less paper consumption (3 pounds CO2 for every pound of paper used),changing light bulbs (one compact florescent bulb saves 500 pounds CO2), encouraging car-pooling, cutting out bottled water and junk-food machines
• Plan an Un-doing Global Warming workshop for your community
• Organize climate change awareness events by contacting 350.org or inviting in a speaker from NCP
• Challenge your group to buy and protect rainforest. Tropical forests can store up to seven tons of carbon per acre—and you protect biodiversity at the same time!
• Alert your community to the fact that the world's poorest people in South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the island nations—who are not causing climate change—will feel the impacts of a warming world first and worst, making this a matter of justice as well as environmentalism.

The bar is set so low—so few people doing anything significant—that even small deeds of noncarbonity will stand out!

Change the System

We can't do both—have an ever-growing economy AND have a livable planet. If our first priority is passing on a livable planet to future generations, we have to begin living within our ecological limits as a society, even if it means downsizing our appetites for more and newer and bigger. Therefore...

...we need deep and far-reaching changes in the way our society and economy are arranged. Most enviro groups choose to not to address this. NCP thinks we must—and that corralling climate change won't happen unless we do. Here are some starting points:

• Live with less—we need an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases to stabilize the planet, and that means changing the way we live. We need to reconceptualize our lives away from things and toward people, away from “now” and toward tomorrow, away from “me” and toward “us”—including all other life forms on our planet.
• Disempower the ones ravaging the planet. Invest your money in companies or accounts that don't further climate change. (A recent report on Socially Responsible Investments showed that the vast majority had money invested in Big Oil!)
• Work locally to change the way things are done to make doing the right thing easier—for instance, advocating for bike lanes on nearby roads, changing zoning to allow for small livestock or clotheslines , reinstating bottle bills to bolster recycling rates—or better, pushing for returnable/reusable bottles
• Read Prosperity Without Growth, Cornered, or State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures to learn about the disconnect between the capitalistic economic system and a sustainable future