We've warmed the Earth by more than 0.8??C, with that much more likely on the way. A 2??C increase by 2050 is likely with absolutely no assurance that we can stop it there. Even in the early stages of climate destabilization we're now witnessing weather extremes that were not supposed to occur until mid-century or later.

There's more. Since CO2 remains in the atmosphere for a long time, we have committed posterity to centuries of rising temperatures, rising sea levels flooding coastal cities, ecological chaos, and collateral effects including famine, violence, political and economic turmoil, and psychological trauma. This is emphatically not an argument for doing nothing. On the contrary, the stark reality ahead is the best reason we have to act with the kind of urgency and creativity that we once showed in World War II and in the creation of the Marshall Plan. The picture is clear: If we humans want to hang around for a while we will have to quickly "disinvent fire" or else we'll fry. The big numbers that govern climate and Earth systems don't give a damn about Capitalism, the Dow Jones, or the American Dream. They work with no remorse whatsoever.

I don???t know if it???s hot as you???re reading this, but it is HOT while I???m writing it.  In Oberlin, the days we use the most electricity are the hot ones ??? everyone has their air conditioning on, and the refrigerators are working over time to keep things cool.  As the planet heats up, we are going to have more and more hot stretches to make it through.  But we can be smart about how we do it.

My family survives most of the summer without using AC ??? and the house never gets above 78 degrees (80 degrees is my freak-out point, and no one wants to go there!).  We have two main strategies:  The first is keeping heat out of the house in the first place.  The second is to get in as much cool air into the house at night as we possibly can, then lock it in during the day.

We realize that our town is in its own little bubble, don???t we?

It???s like we have our own ecosystem; a way of life that differs greatly from surrounding communities. Oberlin is certainly not perfect. But, it does have advantages. For example, I like living in a town that is trying to be ???local.??? In general, there???s a real effort to shop and support our own community. I used to run in the mornings (before P! 90! X!, that is. More on that later.) On trash day, I saw way more Lorenzo's pizza boxes than others. Of course, it's no surprise. It's good pizza. (Full disclosure: my son works there. I???m disclosing this fact so that you???ll tip Jake when he hands you the next pizza box.)

Now that summer is here, many of us are heading off in our cars on vacations and day trips.  We???d all be vacationing out at the Reservoir if we didn???t have the power of gasoline to take us hundreds of miles away.  Let???s get the most out of this superfuel.

With gas often $3.50 a gallon, there???s an obvious financial benefit to using it efficiently.  And the hot summer temperatures remind us that a planet that???s 2 degrees warmer will not be a pleasant place for our children to live.  Decreasing our gas use helps decrease our dependence on foreign oil as well.  The Consumer Federation of America estimates that simply increasing our fuel efficiency by 5 miles per gallon would save about 23 billion gallons of gasoline each year, and cut oil imports by about 14 percent.

After being in Oberlin for a full school year now, I???ve been fascinated by the local businesses and restaurants in town. All offer many goods and services at reasonable prices and still do very well, despite a Wal-Mart and several fast food restaurants located less than two miles away from downtown Oberlin. Sometimes, however, I wonder why I don???t just go down to Wal-Mart for convenience or their ???low low prices.??? And now, after listening to Michael Shuman???s passionate elegy for local investment, I no longer have that question to answer. And if I were a business owner, I???d listen up too. On April 10th, Michael Shuman, economist and prize-winning author, spoke at Oberlin College with the purpose of debunking myths about investing in your local community and promoting ways that Oberlin can get in on the action of supporting local business.

These myths actually seem credible at first glance. For example, one popular myth is that local businesses are not as profitable as their larger counterparts. As Shuman stated, ???If it were true that local, small businesses were less competitive. . .then we would have seen a dramatic drop in the small business economy.??? In fact, there has been no drop in the economy of home-based and local business compared to larger corporations. As Peter Buffett writes in the introduction to Shuman???s latest book, locally owned businesses have ???maintained their share of the US GDP since 1990???. Another myth is that local businesses lack a competitive edge, which, again, is false. This can easily be seen with a concern for everyone: oil prices. Rising oil prices means that local production of oil for consumption in the immediate area will become more competitive as foreign imports become more expensive. Shuman argues similar consequences with durable products as well. And one just has to walk down Main Street of Oberlin to see local competitiveness in action.

Food is energy. Not much thought is given to it, but every time that we eat, our bodies convert food calories into a fuel that powers everything that we do, from typing at a computer, making art, walking or biking into town, fixing a house, or digging a garden bed.

Over the past 10,000 years, humans have developed agriculture -- the cultivation of land and active management of crops and animals to increase the food-calories available for growing human populations.

Most of us live in a house that is less than ideal in terms of energy use.  In my family???s case, this fact was obvious to us the moment we moved in.  Our house is 103 years old, and when we bought it in 2002 it was about as inefficient as any house could be.  There was no insulation; the floor joists of the attic were open to the air, so cold air blew over the second floor all winter; and there were wide cracks in the foundation that let in a constant supply of winter air into the basement (where the heating ducts are).  Old empty heating ducts in the wall meant that cold, moldy air from the basement would get syphoned up as the air above heated and rose.  And there was an extra 1950???s refrigerator guzzling electricity in the kitchen.

Where to start?  We unplugged the extra fridge right away, and as soon as it got cold we called Oberlin???s local utility, OMLPS, for a free heat loss inspection.  The OMLPS technicians broke the news that outside air was leaking in from every direction.  Before Christmas, we had an insulation company blow cellulose into the walls, and we threw up some fiberglass batting in the attic.  We pulled out the caulk gun and bought cans of spray foam insulation, and starting plugging up cracks.  It was a start.

The Olympic Games kick off in London this year in just under 100 days, but students here in Oberlin, Ohio are warming up for a different sort of competition: The ECO-lympics. The Ecolympics are a campus wide competition aimed at reducing the college???s water and energy consumption as much as possible within a three week period.  This year???s competition, dubbed ???Race to a Gigawatt???, will reward the dorm that reduces consumption by the biggest margins with an ice cream party that will take place in the middle of finals.

This year???s Ecolympics, which are being run at Oberlin College as a subsidiary initiative of the nationwide Campus Conservation Nationals, aim to encourage students to become more cognisant of their personal and collective energy and water consumption patterns, as well as highlight some simple but effective strategies that can be employed on an individual basis to help curb energy and water usage.

I am a creature of habit. Sticking to my routines makes things go better.  For example, when I throw a shirt in the laundry basket, I have a habit of also throwing in a hanger, so that when I???m down in the basement doing the laundry, I can hang the clean shirt up right away, and avoid a lot of ironing later.  It took a while to remember to do this, but now I do it on autopilot. When we do something on autopilot we can do it more efficiently. 

Unless the habit itself is inefficient.  Chances are we all have a lot of daily behaviors that actually don???t make a lot of sense, but we do them automatically anyway because we haven???t stopped to think about them. Why do I not automatically put things like tools and scissors away when I finish using them? They clutter up my space, and the next time I need them I waste time and energy tracking them down. Sometimes they stay lost for months, and on more than one occasion I???ve bought an unneeded replacement.  That???s not efficient.