Anything else I can do re: climate change and lifestyle?

[ifonly4]

1. We both walk/cycle everywhere within our large village (so car only used for work, odd day trip, essential purchases). Often go on a walk up local hill rather than use car for day trip,

2. We eat vegetarian about 5-6 days a week, fish the other days. DH might chose a meat option if eating out.

3. Try to only make essential purchases (and not keep replacing things like phones, tvs until broken), and recycling/taking items to charity when no longer needed.

4. Try to keep gas/electric bill down (our bills are a lot lower than many).

Financially I need to rule out renewing heating system, electric car and solar panels.

I know the changes one family can make are miniscule, but I'm find it quite alarming reading about global warming today, and what we're going to pass onto our children, grandchildren.

Forgot to say, we rarely throw food out and have insulation and double glazing.

If you have a garden you can make sure it’s as friendly as possible for birds and bugs and wildlife. Have a water butt, a compost bin, grass not patio, grow veg and wildflowers and don’t use pesticides.

See here:

I mean, it's impossible to tell really. For example,

Is your work too far to cycle? If so, could you car share with neighbours? Could you get a job closer to home, even if that means a pay cut?
Vegetarian food could be carrots grown down the road, or avocadoes grown in Florida. Big difference!
I assume you never fly anywhere.
Do you actually need a TV at all?!

To be clear I'm not saying you shouldn't replace your TV when it dies! I have a TV myself. But more saying that yes, there is always more you can do - it depends how far you are prepared to go.

Do you have kids? If not then don’t have them -overpopulation is the biggest harm (but that ugly truth is never aired.
Don't have pets either -incredible that food supplies are wasted on cats and dogs.

Don’t have any more children.

Discourage your children from having them.

If you have kids and want grandkids then it's all a bit hypocritical

Global population numbers are falling so I don’t think it’s fair to tell people not to have any children!

And going vegan is a an obvious next step OP if you want to.

Make sure you're with a green power supplier.

Why is it hypocritical? If she does have children, she can still try to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Of course not having children is better for the environment, but it's not hypocritical for parents to try to make other aspects of their lives greener. What's the alternative? Thinking "I've had children so I may as well not bother, let's all fly to Tesco"?

Get renewable energy.

Change to a green and ethical bank.

See if you can change to a green and ethical pension provider / pester your employer if that's not in your gift.

Delete emails. It uses a lot of power to back things up on the cloud.

Speak to others, share your experiences and thinking.

Join the green party.

Volunteer locally.

Join XR.

If you have children, you cannot lecture others about carbon emissions or driving a diesel.

OP hasn't lectured anybody.

Do you have savings or a pension? Sustainable investing will make more difference than most of the changes you've mentioned (because it affects corporate behaviour).

It's not about being perfect individuals. It's about getting the system change we need.

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2022/oct/04/green-pension-help-environment-climate-crisis

2 adults and a child at my house, my combined energy bills are about £100 per month. We grow a lot of veg although nowhere near self sufficient. Don’t own a dryer, usually wear clothes multiple times, have no new furniture as all antique hand me downs from older relatives . I don’t have a car and use public transport, work from home, school is literally across the road. Never fly anywhere.
batch cooking and rarely put oven on. We do really well I think and don’t feel deprived in any way. We’re realistic that we’re making sod all difference in real terms though, we’d need to stop all fossil fuels, shut all airports , ban cars and most international trading and survive entirely on local food. It’s not going to happen. I do enjoy my simple, cheap lifestyle though. The way I see it, is if I don’t spend it I don’t have to earn it and that allows my lazy arse to work part time and faff about in the garden more.

Ignore pp who was unnecessarily rude about having children. Obviously children have an impact! But it's ridiculous to say that everyone in the world shouldn't bother trying to alleviate their contribution to climate change, just because they have done one of the things that contribute to it!
If all the people with children never flew, bought anything unnecessary, owned cars, wasted food, etc, the world would be in better nick. So it is definitely worthwhile doing what you can.
I do think campaigning is also worthwhile though. And also there are charities you can contribute to if you can afford it. There are amazing things being done with seagrass atm, which gobbles up far more carbon than trees do. Contribute to that research? https://www.wwf.org.uk/what-we-do/planting-hope-how-seagrass-can-tackle-climate-change

Move your money and pensions out of the high street banks. They all invest in fossil fuels.

Write to your local counsellors. Look at what could change in your community. Better recycling or more bus routes etc.

Write to your MP. Join extinction rebellion.

Climate change is a worldwide problem and we need world scale solutions which means getting the politicians to put their heads together and do things.

Campaign. Get informed. Talk to others about it. Pester your MP. Get involved with groups fighting climate change.

Global population numbers are falling

No they aren't. Even the most optimistic forecasts still have at least the peak at a billion more than today.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/world-population-bomb-may-never-go-off-as-feared-finds-study

The birth rate is declining very rapidly world wide actually. The reason the population is still increasing is that death rates (thankfully) are decreasing due to improved health care.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53409521

The most environmentally friendly thing anyone can do is not have children.
Anything else anyone in the U.K. tries to do is pretty futile.