The term climate change is associated with negative emotions like guilt, anger, frustration, and fear, but lacks feelings of hope, accomplishment, and pride. The media bombards us with images that suggest we are all doomed and cannot do anything about it, and scientists blame us for ruining the planet. I am living in a country which is utterly a sufferer of climate change.
A number of natural disasters destroy our dreams every now and then. Moreover, we are not that much aware of it. Most of my fellow countrymen are directly involved with agriculture and they are facing acute problems. That is why I thought of doing something about it. I am a simple person and within my tiny world of surrounding what I can do. I thought of starting my lifestyle and my main aim is reducing my carbon footprint and environmental negative aspects that are possibly attainable.
However, I think we have the power to stop climate change if we adopt a new perspective and paradigm. This new perspective involves understanding the difference between green carbon and fossil carbon, and how they relate to the carbon cycle. Green carbon, which is the carbon of living things and the carbon of the carbon cycle, does not cause climate change because it is part of our thermostat.
Fossil carbon, on the other hand, is what causes climate change, and it is our use of fossil fuels that needs to change. I think we can surely cut our carbon footprint by 60% today if we make changes to our daily lives, and this will involve digging through some science. That is why I thought of working on these issues as soon as possible. However, I believe that we can find hope and a sense of accomplishment if we take action to stop the acute impact of climate change.
From small and easy things like reusing shopping bags and turning out the lights can play a vital role in a small perspective. I am starting it right now. To those more challenging high-impact lifestyle choices like what we eat and how we travel, we all have real power to change our culture and respond to climate change in a meaningful way.
Get rid of your car - save 2.4 tons, fly less - save up to 2.8 tons per trip, stop eating meat - probably reduce your emissions by at least a ton. But here’s a really tough one following them in a effective way. Living car-free keeps 2.4 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year.
Driving an electric car can save about a ton of carbon dioxide a year, but that still doesn’t have as much of an impact as just not driving. But compare that to the average carbon footprint of a person in the US: 16 and a half tons a year–TONS. If you cut meat out of your diet, that’s 800 kilograms of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere every year. That’s kept 200 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
On average, in the US, turning off the lights when you aren't in the room can save about a third a kilogram of carbon dioxide per day. There’s really no practical way to fly that doesn’t put hundreds of kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
We can easily avoid up to 2.8 tons of carbon emissions by skipping the unnecessary flight we take. People in rural or suburban areas have to drive more, but that's a big part of why they produce double the per capita emissions compared to people in urban areas. Here’s a choice that’s a little simpler; in a lot of places families can choose to buy green energy that doesn’t contribute to more emissions.
These are the kinds of things recommended by science textbooks, blogs and even the Environmental Protection Agencies as ways to reduce our personal impact on the climate.
Getting rid of our car is technically an individual choice, but it really requires cultural change. Using a reusable shopping bag every time we go to the store saves 5 kg a year. The choices we make about what we eat are ways to impact the climate every day. Drying clothes on a line instead of in a dryer saves around 200 kg per year.
In some places this may up your energy bill, but if you’ve got some extra change lying around I recommend throwing it at solar panels. But until we invent teleportation, flying is really the only fast way to travel long-distances to see family and do business stuff. This is far and away the most effective thing you or I or anyone in the world could do to reduce our emissions. Most importantly the developed world can come forward keeping in mind the future generation of ours.
There is a lot of culture wrapped up in what we eat, how we get around, and what our families look like. And today, 1 in 16 people in the United States say they are vegan or eat plant-based diets. But getting rid of your car maybe isn’t feasible.
Globally, raising livestock is on par with transportation when it comes to greenhouse gases. Family planning, is a family thing. I’m definitely not going to stand here and tell you not to have children. This is surprisingly easy.
From small and easy things like reusing shopping bags and turning out the lights, to those more challenging high-impact lifestyle choices like what we eat and how we travel, we all have real power to change our culture and respond to climate change.
And last of all, our commitment to environmental conservation is crucial. By working together, we can make a difference. Collective efforts, informed choices, and meaningful connections allow us to move toward a hopeful and sustainable future.
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