Try to conserve energy anywhere you can: take a shorter shower, walk to the store instead of driving, change your light bulbs to compact fluorescent when they burn out, fix the weather stripping on your door, buy a timer to turn down the temperature on your furnace at night.

One of the big questions that people ask is: How much will it cost?

Logic says that if we reduce our consumption by 20%, then we should also reduce our costs. Many of the changes that will spin out of the Kyoto will actually save us money.

The following ideas show us how we can go forward by making some simple changes in our daily life.

The shift in our society will be slow and subtle at first, but our habits will change. We will purchase power from zero emission wind turbine farms, our next car will be a hybrid electric/fuel cell vehicle, the high efficiency appliances we upgraded to will be paying for themselves in electricity savings. The light bulbs we use to replace our old ones will be high efficiency fluorescent, and will last 10 times longer than our old ones. We will shower with water heated by the sun rather than natural gas. The technology to reduce our consumption of GG is ready and available, but our old habits keep us from embracing change. Bill Gates has said "most people overestimate what is going to happen in the next two or three years and underestimate what is going to happen in the next decade." A decade from now we may be looking back at the decision to enter Kyoto as the key factor that pulled us out of the recession of the tech markets.

So what about the other questions: Will my efforts be worthwhile? Will my efforts really make any impact on Climate Change?

David Anderson, the Canadian Minister of Energy, recently spoke at the University of British Columbia regarding Kyoto and he responded to these questions. He responded that the `science' says that our global climate is changing due to human activities, and that we need to take action to create a sustainable future. He commented that the 2012 window is only the first phase of Kyoto, which will set us on a path towards a future world 50 years from now where we have reduced our emissions by 50%, where technologies will provide our needs for energy without destroying the environment. Making these small changes in our lives will make a huge difference if we all contribute. These efforts will not only save us money, but they will set us in the right direction towards a clean future world for our children to inherit.

Embracing change is the answer! As a nation, we need to look at this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. This attitude and approach will lower our cost of living while creating a new market opportunity for green technologies. This opportunity can lead us to new industries and new jobs carrying our economy forward into a future world where we have learned to optimize, to adapt and overcome. Let us seize the day and welcome the future, letting the progress of energy technology unfold.

Scott is a mechanical engineer who cares about the degradation of the environment and believes that we need to find new ways of enjoying our lives while consuming fewer resources. He has lived in the rainforest, taught environmental education to kids in India, and has recently returned from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johanessburg, South Africa. His company Sinclair Environmental Solutions is dedicated towards finding solutions that meet the needs of the modern individual while considering the needs of the natural world. He believes that there are many paths in life, and that by shifting the value structure of society to incorporate the preservation of the environment, we will discover a new way of living that is richer and more fulfilling than it was in the past.