Latest Updates

Personal Actions

Personal and Interpersonal Actions

Personal and Interpersonal Actions: Overview

What we eat, what we wear, and how we deal with each other: all of these are areas in which our habits can cause us to contribute to climate change—and areas in which we have …

Personal and Interpersonal Actions

Food: Our Planet Is What We Eat

  We can not only reduce the greenhouse gas burden of our own diet, but help our neighbors do the same, by supporting access to healthy, low-impact food.     Long supply chains, like the …

Personal and Interpersonal Actions

Clothing: Dressing for the Climate

  Clothing can be a source of power and pleasure: a way to decide how we present ourselves to the world, a way to control how people see us and treat us. Because we can …

Personal and Interpersonal Actions

Exercise and Exploration: Identifying With Our World

    Doctors and psychologists agree that being active outside can relax our minds and bodies and lower our stress. It lowers our fossil fuel consumption, too, if we’re not in/on a gas-powered vehicle and …

Actions in Our Homes and Businesses

Actions in Our Homes and Businesses

Actions in Our Homes: Overview

19% of RI’s energy use is related to residential heating and hot water, and other activities in our homes use fossil fuels as well. We can reduce our emissions by reducing our energy use overall, …

Actions in Our Homes and Businesses

Lighting: Illuminating Energy Efficiency

  We no longer rise and go to bed with the sun, so we need to light our homes and workplaces. Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs give brighter light than other bulbs that use the …

Actions in Our Homes and Businesses

Kitchen and Laundry: Greening Your Chores

  Refrigerators save lives—people used to die of food poisoning much more frequently—and dishwashers and laundry machines save the time and sanity of whoever does the housework. But when we use them inefficiently, we’re outsourcing …

Actions in Our Homes and Businesses

Improving Our Supply of Electricity: Better Energy Options

  Rhode Island is well positioned for investments in renewable energy that will add to our energy independence and reduce harmful emissions. Local companies stand ready to help you evaluate opportunities to generate clean energy …

Actions for Transportation

Actions for Transportation

Actions for Transportation: Overview

Rhode Island is a small state, but most of us still have to get from place to place: to see family, keep appointments, and earn our livings. Some of us take a lot of pride …

Actions for Transportation

Biking and Walking: At Home in Our World

Biking and walking have almost no greenhouse gas emissions. Both options also benefit our physical and mental health and our acquaintance with other people.   Rhode Island has a history of walkable cities and towns, …

Actions for Transportation

Bus Transportation and Infrastructure

Taking the bus allows us to avoid the stress of driving, to extend the useful life of our vehicles, and to minimize wear and tear on roads and bridges. It reduces traffic by reducing the …

Actions for Transportation

Electric Vehicles: Burn Less, Save More

Electric cars are more effective and efficient every year. One full charge powers over 240 miles of travel, and public charging stations are becoming more common.  Where electricity can be generated with renewable resources, switching …

Actions in Our Neighborhoods and Communities

Actions in Our Neighborhoods and Communities

Action in Our Neighborhoods and Communities: Overview

Climate change has the power to disrupt and endanger every natural and social system that we’re part of: our food, our health care, our homes, our surroundings. These systems can also help us survive the …

Actions in Our Neighborhoods and Communities

Woodland Preservation and Restoration: Into the Woods

  As well as absorbing climate-warming carbon dioxide, woodlands lower temperatures under their shade, protect water supplies, provide wildlife habitat, hold back erosion, and can serve to break strong winds. In New England, it takes …

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

RI Programs for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Rhode Island’s Renewable Energy Programs: Overview

Approximately twenty percent of Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the generation of the electricity we use.  The good news is that Rhode Island has outstanding programs for renewable energy development. As members of …

RI Programs for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Net Metering: How It Works and How to Do It

  With net metering, if you install renewable energy facilities (or contract for them), your energy meter runs both ways. Incoming electricity from the grid is charged to your account. Outgoing electricity, the amount you …

RI Programs for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Distributed Generation: How It Works and How to Do It

  Distributed generation also involves a renewable installation (solar or wind), but uses two meters: one meter measures the incoming electricity used by the customer, the other measures the outgoing electricity produced by the customer. …

RI Programs for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Carbon Pricing: Energizing Rhode Island

Carbon pricing, also known as a carbon tax, is a way to incentivize society’s transition away from fossil fuels. The idea is to charge fossil fuel companies a tax on every unit of fossil fuel …

Resources

Resources

Basics of Climate Science

Here is a very brief summary of the way climate change works. You can use this as a starting point for understanding climate science and discussing it with people in your household and community. See …

Resources

Further Resources

This section is organized by topic and will continue to expand. If you have a suggestion for a good resource, please leave it in the comments and we’ll look it up!   EXERCISE AND EXPLORATION …

Copyright © 2018 | Civic Alliance for a Cooler Rhode Island