What You Can Do to Help Stop Climate Change – A List of Ideas

When I was looking for what I can do to help, I found it kind of hard to figure out.  I mean, there’s a few lists around that either are general or list a few top 5 items, but what about in my particular case?  There are so many things and it’s hard to know where to start.

When thinking about your total carbon footprint, the key categories are energy use in the home, transportation, food, garbage and waste, and voting and politics.  Your carbon footprint includes all the fossil fuel energy you use, plus all the energy used to produce, transport, and dispose of everything that you consume.  That’s why beef has such a high impact – the energy and water used to feed the cow, plus transport the meat, plus the methane gas that the cow emitted over their lifetime, and the impact on the land that the cow lives on.

I’ve tried to make a master list here, and I will keep it up to date.  Another hard thing to quantify is which things make a bigger difference than others. Maybe one way to tackle it is one item per week.  Making incremental changes will make a difference in the long run.

If you can make changes that make a permanent difference, and where you don’t have to make any extra effort, those are the best kind.  Your car’s mileage and solar power on your house are like that.  Or using LED light bulbs.

Reduce energy used in the home

• Get solar panels on your home.
• Sign up for a renewable energy option through your energy company.
• Turn up your thermostat in the summer (if you have A/C) and turn it down in winter.
• Insulate your house and weatherproof windows and doors.
• Change light bulbs to LED. Change light fixtures to LED only.
• Service your furnace.
• Wash laundry on the cold setting.  Laundry soaps now work well on cold because they have enzymes added.  Line dry your clothes, or even just some of them.
• Plant trees in your yard.
• Replace old appliances with Energy Star efficient newer models.

Transportation

• Get an electric car or hybrid.  The next time you buy a car, make it the highest MPG that you can.  Even just 25% higher MPG will save a great deal of gas and emissions.
• Use a bike, walk or take public transportation.
• Carpool.
• Reduce air travel, especially for short trips.  If you have to fly, go nonstop and use coach rather than business or first class.

Waste

• Reduce excess packaging such as plastic bags, single serving containers, take out cups and packages.
• Wash and reuse ziploc bags.
• Recycle plastic bags and films at the grocery store recycling bin.  Keep a bag for collecting cereal bags, plastic packaging, ziplocs with holes, bread bags, air pillow packaging, and more. Read my article about what’s allowed.
• Recycle all that you can including plastic bottles, cans, glass, cartons, and paper.  Find out what is allowed in your recycling bin and try to put all the items in that you can.
• Get a soda stream machine to make bubbly water or soda, which eliminates the usage of hundreds of bottles or cans.
• Buy mesh bags for grocery shopping for small items such as mushrooms, new potatoes, and food from the bulk shopping bins.
• Carry a reusable cup with you, with water or for coffee or other purchased drinks.
• Reduce disposable items such as laundry dryer sheets, wipes, napkins, paper towels, kleenex, disposable cutlery, etc. and replace with reusable ones.
• Drink filtered or plain tap water rather than bottled water.

Food

• Reduce consumption of beef and lamb, the two most carbon intensive foods to produce.
• Increase consumption of beans, fruit and vegetables over meats of all kinds.
• Eat food produced locally to reduce amount transportation of food.
• Buy organic fruit and vegetables.
• Reduce food waste. Sign up for Imperfect Produce which delivers produce that would have been thrown away (full disclosure: I will receive credit for the referral).

Voting and Politics

• Vote for candidates that support working to fight climate change.
• Support your neighborhood or city efforts to stop climate change such as bike lanes, public transportation, high density housing close to public transportation, e-bicycle rentals, and solar power projects.
• Wear t-shirts and use bumper stickers that remind people of the issue.
• Use your social media and conversations with friends to influence those around you.
• Make a contribution to offset your carbon footprint.  Developing nations do not have the resources to invest in renewable energy.  But their emissions are affecting us since the air is all connected around the world.  You can donate to help renewable energy projects.
• Support some kind of carbon fee or tax.  Economics has proved that taxing or charging fees on something is the best way to reduce behaviors.  This has bipartisan support and provides motivation for individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprints.

Please comment below with any additional ideas or your feedback.