Be Part to STOP Global Warming Here Easy Ways To Stop Global Warming

Easy Ways To Stop Global Warming

Burning fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, oil and gasoline raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Global climate change is certainly one of the top environmental issues today.

You can help to reduce the demand for fossil fuels, which in turn reduces global warming, by using energy more wisely. Here are 10 simple actions you can take to help reduce global warming.

Global warming has increased in vast increments in the last decade. In fact, in the last 50 years, the earth’s global temperature has increased by 3%. Pollution caused by the release of carbon dioxide into the air creates a blanket over the atmosphere. Global warming can cause a whole chain of events to rupture ecosystems, weather patterns, and a variety of other factors. We all play a part in our future.

More from global warming:

1. Replace Regular Incandescent Light bulb: Replace regular incandescent light bulb with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. They consume 70% less energy then ordinary bulbs and have longer lifetime.

2. Drive Less or Carpool: By driving less you are not only saving fuel but also helping in reducing global warming. Also, look out for other possibilities, for e.g.: car pooling. If you have colleagues who live in the same area then you can combine trips. If you need to go to a local market then either walk or go by cycle. Both of them are great form of exercise. The biggest pollution emitting fumes are caused by oil and gasoline. Cutting down consumption, is a huge step to reducing energy wastes.

3. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Reduce your need to buy new products or use less, resulting in a smaller amount of waste. Even if you need to buy, consider buying eco-friendly products. It is most effective of the three R’s. It simply says cut back from where are you now.

Reuse bottles, plastic containers, and other items bought at the grocery store. Reusing water bottles, yogurt cups, bread ties, and other items is being conscious about what is already out there. It will lessen having to purchase other items that would fulfill the same function. Try to use the disposable products into some other form. Just don’t throw them away.

Recycling unwanted paper, bottles, etc…is a great earth saving tip. If possible, upcycle tables, furniture, and other outdated items to keep landfills clean. You can recycle almost anything for e.g.: paper, aluminum foils, cans, newspapers. By recycling you can help in reducing landfills.

4. Go Solar: Many people have caught the energy efficient band wagon of solar energy. Having solar panels installed is something readily possible and available. Incentives and discounts given by government agencies and energy companies make solar energy something to look into.

5. Buy Energy-Efficient Appliances: Always buy products that are energy efficient as they can help you save good amount of money on your energy bill. Energy-efficient products can help you to save energy, save money and reduce your carbon footprint.

6. Reduce Waste: Landfills are the major contributor of methane and other greenhouse gases. When the waste is burnt, it release toxic gases in the atmosphere which result in global warming. Reusing and recycling old items can significantly reduce your carbon footprint as it takes far less energy to recycle old items than to produce items from scratch.

7. Use Less Hot Water: Buy energy saving geysers and dishwasher for your home. Avoid washing clothes in hot water. Just wash them in cold or warm water. Avoid taking frequent showers and use less hot water. It will help in saving energy require to produce that energy.

8. Avoid Products With Lot of Packaging: Just don’t buy products with lot of packaging. When you buy such products you will end up in throwing the waste material in the garbage, which then will help in filling landfill sites and pollute the environment. Also, discourage others from buying such products.

9. Install a Programmable Thermostat: A programmable thermostat doesn’t cost much and its cost can be recovered from the amount that you save by reducing energy. The easiest and most cost effective advice is simply adjusting your thermostat up 1 degree down in the winter and up by 1 degree in the summer. Lower your thermostat 2 degrees in the winter. Instead of making your home a burning furnace, try putting on extra layers.

10. Turn Off the Lights: If you’re not using a room, there’s no need for the light to be on.

11. Turn off Electronic Devices: Turn off electronic devices when you are moving out for a couple of days or more. Unnecessary usage of electronic appliances will not only save fuel i.e. coal by which we get electricity but also increase the lifetime of your gadgets.

12. Plant a Tree: Planting trees can help much in reducing global warming then any other method. They not only give oxygen but also take in carbon dioxide, during the process of photosynthesis, which is the main source of global warming.

13. Use Clean Fuel: Electric, smart cars, cars run on vegetable oil, etc…are great examples for using renewable energy. Supporting companies that provide these products will help the rest of the mainstream manufacturing companies convert over.

14. Look for Renewable Fuel Options: If you can’t afford an electric car, buy the cleanest gasoline as possible. When car shopping, look at the benefits of options that provide renewable fuel. Although it may be a pretty penny now, you’re on the ground level of forward thinking.

15. Save Energy: When you consume less, the less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Setting your thermostat using your smart phone or changing the type of light bulb you use is a great start.

16. Replace Filters on Air Conditioner and Furnace: If you haven’t, not only are you wasting energy, but breathing in dirty air. Cleaning a dirty air filter can save several pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

17. Go Green: Using energy star appliances will not only save money, but also the amount of energy wasted in your home. Have a look at various ways to go green.

18. Tune Your Car Regularly: Regular maintenance will help your car function properly and emit less carbon dioxide.

19. Download Earth Saving Apps: Apps like Kil-Ur-Watts and Wiser EMS not only help calculate your energy costs, but provide tools and ways to save energy and money.

20. Conserve Water: This is a tired tip, but ever so important. If we added up the water wasted by the millions of Americans brushing their teeth, we could provide water to more than 23 nations with unclean, drinking water. Remember, it takes energy to draw and filter water from underground.

Taking a quick 5 minute shower will greatly conserve energy. The type of shower head used, will also aid in combating global warming. Take showers instead of baths. Showers use less water than baths by 25%. Over the course of a year that’s hundreds of gallons saved.

21. Stop Idling Your Car: It might be freezing outside, but unless your car is buried in snow, start your car as usual. It may take longer to warm up, but the world isn’t just about you.

22. Eat Less Hamburger: Besides carbon dioxide, methane introduced into the air contributes to global warning. With meat consumed by the seconds, the amount of cows breathing out methane is a huge contributor, thanks to our carnivorous diet and the billion-dollar meat industry.

use-clothesline

23. Use Clothesline to Dry Your Clothes: Think of your grandmother when you do this. Most clothes shouldn’t be put in the dryer anyway.

24. Eat Naturally: Not only do the health benefits speak wonders for those who eat naturally, but it cuts down the energy costs used by factories who produce processed food.

25. Ride Your Bike: Not only is bike riding, healthy it reduces the amount of CO2 released into the air. Walking is another easy way to reduce global warming.

26. Use a Kitchen Cloth Instead of Paper Towels: Paper towels produce nothing but wasted energy. Think of the factory pollution, as well as the tree consumption.

27. Reuse Towels: Hang towels to dry, instead of popping them back in the wash after a few uses.

28. Check Your Tires: When you drive make sure your tires are inflated properly. If not, then your vehicle might consume more fuel which in turn release more CO2 in the atmosphere. Keep your engine properly tuned and drive less aggressively. Aggressive driving and frequent applying of brakes hampers the engine and can even lower the mileage of your car.

29. Take Lunch in a Tupperware: Each time you throw away that brown paper sack, more brown paper sacks are being produced in a factory as we speak.

30. Wrap your water heater in insulation: By keeping the energy in the water heater condensed, less energy is emitted into the air. This not only helps the earth, but your pocketbook.

31. Get Home Energy Audit Done: Call a home energy audit company and get an audit done for your home that will help you to identify areas that consume lot of energy and are not energy efficient at all.

32. Become Part of the Global Warming Community: Connecting with others will help you become more conscious of the impact we all have. The Climate Change National Forum and Global Humanitarian Forum are great avenues to know the latest facts, statistics, and efforts in making a difference.

33. Actually celebrate Arbor Day and Earth day: Although most of us hear about these days in passing, see what the buzz is all about. Plant a tree, pick up trash, or join a forum.

34. Become Aware of Your Contribution: With technology within your fingertips, finding information about protecting the environment is everywhere. To help emit less CO2, the first step is being aware of how much you contribute.

35. Spread the Awareness: 

Always try your best to educate people about global warming and it’s causes and after affects. Tell them how they can contribute their part by saving energy that will be good for the environment. Gather opportunities and establish programs that will help you to share information with friends, relatives and neighbors.

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WHY WORDPRESS IS THE BEST PLATFORM

Key role to the success of every online business is a professional and effective website. A well maintained and effective website can open door to earn unbelievable profits hence it’s a gateway to run any online business. WordPress has transformed over the years from a simple blogging platform to the world’s most dominant CMS. Nowadays, over 24% of all websites are managed by WordPress. It includes some of the most known brands like Bata, Mashable, CNN, BBC, and TechCrunch etc. In the past, most of the people used to avoid using WordPress for setting up an eCommerce store, but things have now completely changed. the time is not so far when WordPress will become the best platform to setup your eCommerce store.

WordPress The Best Platform To Setup your eCommerce Store

WordPress has become one the best platform to setup your eCommerce store for the large known online stores to new building in-house or small online stores. WordPress provides loads of resources and flexibility, which can help you to save lots of money in development.

Incredibly Easy to Install, Configure, Use, and Manage

It’s not necessary to be a coding expert to get started with a WordPress. Just spending a few hours on training, you will be able to set up and run an eCommerce site within minutes. Let it be the order management or sales monitoring, everything is very easy to manage with the help of WordPress. In most cases, it’s not even necessary to call a WordPress expert because with all the documentation provided, you can manage almost everything by yourself.

Offers a Wide Range of eCommerce Themes

WordPress works on the source of its theme system and architecture. The theme makes a site look more appealing and interesting. It helps the user to easily turn a regular WordPress blog into a multi-million dollar shopping site. WordPress offers a vast variety of eCommerce themes.

The user can not only makeover a WordPress with just a single click but also can add desired eCommerce functions to a site as well. While using WordPress it’s not even necessary to hire a professional developer for such tasks.

Open-source with a Massive Community

WordPress is open-sourced software that means you can modify and change the source code in any way to fit your required eCommerce business needs. With WordPress, you will not only have full control over your online shop but also it will be free from several commercial limitations and restrictions imposed by a regular eCommerce company.

On the other hand, the supportive and vibrant helpers behind WordPress are always ready to help users in case of getting stuck somewhere. Setting up an eCommerce business with WordPress virtually costs almost nothing. All you need to have a relevant domain name and a reliable web hosting service and you’re good to go.

Best Blog Hosting Sites for your Domains

Scalable, Flexible and Secure

It has mostly heard that WordPress isn’t secure enough to manage eCommerce exposures but actually, that’s not the case. The security of your online shopping business depends on how you use and set-up the WordPress. There are various numbers of dominant security solutions such as, (Security and Wordfence), which can be used to protect your WordPress based eStore against today’s ultra-advanced cyber-crimes. Hosting websites like Page, WP Engine, Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine make it possible easily for WordPress to handle huge headache of traffic. This makes WordPress the best platform to setup your eCommerce store

WordPress Plugins

Nowadays we have a wide range of eCommerce plugins available; they easily can improve your sales by placing your choice on the right eCommerce plugins for your online shops. Each of this plugin is designed to turn a normal blog into an eCommerce site.

A noble plugin comes with a great flexibility and functionality that keeps a website smooth in running and enhances your site performance. A good plugin enables the customers to experience an enjoyable online shopping and also enables the registration process more easy and comfortable.

One last thing you need is a hi-quality blogging that summarizes your products. And will help the probable customers to realize the products. A correctly written explanation of products will help the buyers. All these plugins make WordPress one of the best platform to setup your eCommerce store

No Ongoing Fees

Dissimilar other eCommerce stages, which charge a regular transaction fee along with the fixed monthly fees, WordPress ask you to pay only for what you really need. A small business owner may get hard to pay monthly subscription fee. WordPress understands it well and thus offers a comparatively a cheaper way to set-up an online store. WordPress eCommerce themes and plug-ins come with the one-time purchase you may just need to pay for a hosting company and the domain name you are using.

Conclusion

Since it’s understood, there have been a number of improvements and updates made to WordPress. With the achievement of WooCommerce, it is proved that WordPress is focusing more on selling than publishing. The dedicated team of developers behind WordPress is endlessly working hard to make it the world’s most powerful, multi-purpose Content Management System (CMS). That is the reason why anyone can create any website including eCommerce business websites with WordPress. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that soon WordPress will be known as the best platform to setup your eCommerce store.

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Top Online Scams Used by Cyber Criminals to Trick You

Cyber criminals affected the online businesses and individuals since the internet networks first appeared and spread all over the world.

Internet services and websites make it easy for us to pay bills, shop, make online reservations and even work. And you can do any of these actions from any place in the world. Old boundaries and human limitations were dropped, in order for us to have access to almost any information. Our lives became so much easier.

But the same thing is true for CRIME.

Our freedom to navigate and access a wide number of online locations represents in the same time a main vulnerability, because an open door always allows access in both directions.

Criminal minds can reach these days further than before, into our private lives, our homes and work offices. And there is little we can do about it.

Attack methods and tools vary from traditional attack vectors, which use malicious software and vulnerabilities present in almost all the programs and apps (even in the popular Windows operating systems), to ingenious phishing scams deployed from unexpected regions of the world, where justice can’t easily reach out to catch the eventual perpetrators.

The most common ways for you to become vulnerable to a malware attack orphishing scam take place when you:

• shop online
• check your email
• access social media networks

For this reason, we need to know what are the most popular schemes and techniques used by cyber criminals in order to obtain our private information and financial data.

We must not forget their final target is always our money and there is nothing they won’t do to accomplish their mission.

1. Phishing email scams

Phishing scams are based on communication made via email or on social networks. Cyber criminals will send you messages and try to trick you into giving them your login credentials – from your bank account, social network, work account, cloud storage or any other personal data that can prove to be valuable for them.

In order to do that, the phishing emails will seem to come from an official source – it can be bank authorities or other financial institutes, but also delivery companies or social networks representatives.

This way, they’ll persuade you to click on the links contained by their messages and access a website that looks legit, looks like the real one, but it’s actually controlled by them. You will be sent to a fake login access page that resembles the real website.

This way, if you’re not paying attention, you might end up giving your login credentials and other personal information.

In order for their success rate to grow, scammers create a sense of urgency. They’ll tell you a frightening story of how your bank account is under threat and how you really need to access as soon as possible a web page where your must insert your credentials in order to confirm your identity or your account.

Of course, the provided link will only lead you to the fake web location and not to the real login page.

After you fill in your online banking credentials, cyber criminals use them to breach your real bank account or to sell them on the dark web to other interested parties.

It’s one of the main scamming techniques used to spread financial and data stealing malware. There isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t be very well prepared for this attempt. However, even if you install a good antivirus program, there is no better way to stay safe from this threat but to avoid the initial infection phase.

Here’s a complete guide on how to detect and prevent phishing attacks – filled with screenshots and actionable tips.

2. The money laundering scam

This money laundering scam – also known as the Nigerian scam – is actually one of the oldest and most popular scamming schemes. Most of us already encountered it in our own email inbox, in one form or another.

Since it’s an old scam, it suffered multiple variations along the years.

The typical scam starts with an emotional email message. It can be from an official government member, a businessman or a member of a very wealthy family member (usually a woman) who asks you to provide help in retrieving a large sum of money from a bank, paying initially small fees for papers and legal matters. In exchange for your help, they promise you a very large sum of money.

Of course, this is just the beginning. Afterwards, they ask you to pay more and more for additional services, such as transactions or transfer costs. You even receive papers that are supposed to make you believe that it’s all for real. In the end, you are left broke and without any of the promised money.

There were also cases where not only money was lost in the scam, but people were kidnapped or even worse.

In this blog post we exposed more examples of scams carried on social media networks (tips on how to stay safe from them included).

3. Greeting card scams

This is another old scam: the greeting cards that you receive in your email inbox and seem to be coming from a friend.

If you open such an email and click on the card, you usually end up with malicious software that is being downloaded and installed on your operating system.

The malware may be an annoying program that will launch pop-ups with ads, unexpected windows all over the screen. However, it can also be ransomware or one of the worst financial malware that’s been around, part of the infamous Zeus family.

If your system becomes infected with such dangerous malware, you will become one of the bots which are part of a larger network of affected computers. In this unfortunate event, your computer will start sending private data and financial information to a fraudulent server controlled by IT criminals.

To keep yourself safe from identity theft and data breach, we recommend using a specialized security program against this type of dangers.

To find out more information about financial malware, read this article.

And here’s how you can tell if your computer was infected with malware.

4. A guaranteed bank loan or credit card scam

Difficult times push people into getting trapped by “too good to be true” bank offers that guarantee you large amounts of money and have already been pre-approved by the bank.

If such an incredible pre-approved loan is offered to you, simply use your common sense to judge if it’s for real or not.

How is it possible for a bank to offer you such a large sum of money without even knowing your financial situation?

Though it may seem unlikely for people to get trapped by this scam, there’s still a big number of people who lost money by paying the “mandatory” processing fees required by the scammers.

Here are more tips and tricks from top security experts:

5. Lottery scam

One more classic scam which never seems to get old. The lottery scam comes as an email message informing you that you won a huge amount of money and all you need to do to collect your fortune is to pay some small fees.

Lucky you! It doesn’t even matter that you don’t recall ever purchasing lottery tickets.

Since it addresses some of our wildest fantasies, such as quitting our jobs and living off the fortune for the rest of our lives, without ever having to work again, our imagination falls prey easily to images of a dreamhouse, endless summer vacations or expensive items that a normal man can only dream of.

But the dream ends as soon as you realize you have been just another scam victim.

6. Hitman scam

One of the most frequent scams you can meet online is the “hitman” extortion attempt. Cyber criminals will send you an email threatening you in order to obtain money.

This type of scam may come in various forms, such as the one threatening that they will kidnap a family member unless a ransom is paid in a time frame provided by the scammers.

To create the appearance of a real danger, the message is filled with details from the victim’s life, collected from an online account, a personal blog or, more and more frequently, from a social network account.

That’s why it’s not wise to offer sensitive, personal information about you on social media. It might seem like a safe and private place, where you’re only surrounded by friends, but in reality you can never know for sure who’s watching you.

That’s why sometimes it’s better to be a little bit paranoid.

7. Romance scams

How many of us have already been fooled by this one? Since this one addresses our subjective self and not our rational side, we tend to drop our guard and leave aside any logical analysis.

This scam takes place on social dating networks, like Facebook, or by sending a simple email to the potential target.
The male scammers are often located in West Africa, while the female scammers are mostly from the eastern parts of Europe.

Cyber criminals have abused this scamming method for years by using the online dating services. They improved their approach just by testing the potential victims’ reactions.

This scheme or this game may take place for several months or more in order to gain the trust of that person. In many cases, it even goes to the moment when a meeting is arranged.

When this happens, two things may take place:

an “unpredictable” event occurs and the scammer needs money as soon as possible for his/her passport or other details.

if the victim comes from a rich family, he/she may be kidnapped and a large sum of money could be requested from the family.

In a recent romance scam case that was mediatized, a woman lost 

8. Fake antivirus software

We all saw at least once this message on our screens: “You have been infected! Download antivirus X right now to protect your computer!”.

Many of these pop-ups were very well created to resemble actual messages that you might get from Windows or from a normal security product.

If you are lucky, there is nothing more than an innocent hoax that will bother you by displaying unwanted pop-ups on your screen while you browse online.

In this case, to get rid of the annoying pop-ups, we recommend scanning your system using a good antivirus product.

If you are not so lucky, you can end up with malware on your system, such as a Trojan or a keylogger.

This kind of message could also come from one of the most dangerous ransomware threats around, such as CryptoLocker, which is capable of blocking and encrypting your operating system and requesting you a sum of money in exchange for the decryption key.

To avoid this situation, we recommend using a specialized security productagainst this kind of financial malware, besides your traditional antivirus program.

9. Facebook impersonation scam (hijacked profile scam)

Facebook is today the most popular social media network. For this reason, important companies and businesses use it to communicate with customers and promote their products.

With so many friends and connections on this online platform, we use Facebook not only to check our friends’ activities and updates, but also to chat with them.

If most friends, colleagues and social connections are on Facebook, it is perfectly normal for such a place to also attract the unwanted attention of online scammers.

Just imagine your account being hacked by a cyber criminal and gaining access to your close friends and family.

Since it is so important for your privacy and online security, you should be very careful in protecting your personal online accounts just the way you protect your banking or email account. Set a double authentication method as soon as possible. This will act as an additional layer of security, besides your password.

10. Make money fast scams (Economic scams)

The following common online scam is extremely popular: cyber criminals will lure you into believing you can make easy money on the internet. They’ll promise you non-existent jobs, plans and methods of getting rich quickly and money from official government sources.

It is a quite simple and effective approach, because it simply addresses one’s basic need for money, especially when that person is in a difficult financial situation.

From this point of view, this scamming method is similar to the romance scam mentioned above, where the cyber attackers address the romantic needs of the victim.
The fraudulent posting of non-existent jobs for a variety of positions is part of the online criminals’ arsenal.

Using various job types, such as work-at-home scams, the victim is lured into giving away personal information and financial data with the promise of a well paid job that will bring lots of money in a very short period of time.

11. Travel scams

These scams usually appear in the hot summer months or before the short winter vacations, for Christmas or New Year’s Day.

The scenario is usually like this: you receive an email containing an amazing offer for an extraordinary hard to get to destination (usually an exotic place) that expires in a short period of time and you must not miss.

The problem is that some of these offers actually hide some necessary costs until you pay for the initial offer. Others simply take your money without sending you anywhere.

In such cases, we suggest that you study very well the travel offer and look for hidden costs, such as: airport taxes, tickets that you need to pay to access a local attraction, check if the meals are included or not, other local transportation fees between your airport and the hotel or between the hotel and the main attractions mentioned in the initial offer, etc.

As a general rule, we suggest that you go with the trustworthy, well known travel agencies.

You can also check if by paying individually for plane tickets and for accommodation you receive the same results as in the received offer.

Conclusion

Online scams developed using increasingly sophisticated means of deceiving users, especially in the rich Western countries.

According to FBI, online scams have increased over the last 10 years and the total losses doubled in the recent years, affecting both private individuals and large scale businesses. For this reason, cyber criminal activities are now subject to federal investigations and are treated as a very serious problem that affects us all.

For an extended list of common fraud schemes discovered and analyzed by FBI, you can check this article.

You may think that you can’t be fooled by these online scams, since some of them are quite hilarious, such as the one promising to send you money or the one where the scammers pretend to be FBI agents.

But some stories are so convincing for the potential victims that it is difficult to know how to deal with them.

Since some scams are so well organized and convincing, and the people behind so difficult to catch, we need to always keep our guard up. Stay informed about the latest scamming strategies.

* This article was initially published by Aurelian Neagu in September 2014 and updated by Cristina Chipurici in May 2016.

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