Would anyone be interested in trying to do one small thing each week to tackle climate change?

[riotlady]

I’ve seen a few threads on aibu recently with people panicking about climate change and I often find myself worrying about it too, especially in light of the report published today. Studies show that one of the best ways to combat anxiety is to feel like you’re doing something about the problem, so I’ve decided to challenge myself to do one small thing to reduce my impact on the planet each week. I’m wondering if anyone would like to join me? I’m thinking small actions like walking or cycling a journey when you would normally take the car, swapping shower gel for bar soap, switching to a greener energy supplier, etc. No judgement about what is and isn’t feasible for people- for example I have ME and am very fatigued, so often use my tumble drier instead of hanging things out as I just don’t have the energy. There’s no point guilting myself over that, so I might as well focus on the things that I CAN change.

I’ve just sent an email to my MP so that’s my start to this week :)

No.

Yes! Great thread, thank you!

Things we are doing so far:

Trying to stop any single use plastic entering our home (not as easy as it sounds)
DC have only natural toys, no plastic
Subscribe to toothpaste tablets - actually way better than toothpaste once you get used to the concept!
Washable nappies
Washable face wipes and cheeky wipes for baby
Vegan day once a week, veggie day twice a week

Next step:
No new clothes for DH and I for a year

Stop driving large four wheel drive cars?

Good idea for a thread.
I've been thinking about this a lot.

I stopped eating meat and cut down on most dairy. Switched to dairy free milk etc.
I have also stopped buying the plastic bottles of shower gel, and instead buy bars of soap which actually last a lot longer I think.

Yes. My daughter was head of her school's Eco committee in Year 6 and every week she wrote in the school's news letter a very small eco challenge for the pupils to do each week (they were very simple challenges like bring in own reusable water bottle - nothing major at all). It was very popular and she even got an award for her contribution to the school

@holidayfeverz

Yes! Great thread, thank you!

Things we are doing so far:

Trying to stop any single use plastic entering our home (not as easy as it sounds)
DC have only natural toys, no plastic
Subscribe to toothpaste tablets - actually way better than toothpaste once you get used to the concept!
Washable nappies
Washable face wipes and cheeky wipes for baby
Vegan day once a week, veggie day twice a week

Next step:
No new clothes for DH and I for a year

What are washable face wipes... A flannel?

@riotlady

How are you getting on with the shampoo bars *@GoldenOmber*? I tried a Lush one years ago when I went backpacking and it wasn’t great but assume things have improved since then!

They haven't actually arrived yet! Will let you know. I also got put off in the past by a rubbish one but this was back in about 1998, hoping they've improved since.

I love this idea! I have made a start - we've stopped eating meat, use bar soap and use SMOL for washing machine/dishwasher. We also compost our food waste. I will join you OP and write to my MP this week.

Stop using social media:

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06610-y

-Also trying to limit my screen time and mindless browsing, as using the internet uses a lot of electricity which is generated using fossil fuels.

-Keeping on top of my emails and files, as the storage uses a lot of energy/electricity. Avoiding sending unnecessary emails as processing emails uses electricity.

Possibly silly question about zero waste shops- we have one about 20 mins drive away but our local supermarkets are within walking distance. Is it worth driving to avoid plastics (assuming I’d only have to go once a month or so for cleaning stuff and dried foods) or do the two sort of cancel each other out?

@XelaM that’s amazing!

Just done my bit - Stephen Crabb MP now knows my thoughts!!

I've just got some Erase your face flannels (Argos). They're ok - not as good as my usual face wipes and I feel I have to scrub a bit harder to get rid of my eye make up, but great for light makeup on the face and for in the morning etc. Will persevere!
Also going to try to not buy products with palm oil in.

We have only had one foreign holiday in 17yrs so we are well into negative carbon footprint. We live rurally so organise shopping after work, since I work next to local supermarket. We have a wealth of local farm shops so are able to source most fresh food to within 10mils of where we live. Slightly bemused by the Riverford boxes which probably travel further than your local farm shop produce.
I buy beef that grows just down the road, in fact I drive past the cows every day. Even our ice cream is made by a farming friend who use milk from their own small milking herd.
Not everyone can do what we do but eating veg and fruit in season means that it hasn’t been grown under polytunnels or stored in cold storage which are both fuel heavy processes.
We are lucky to have a school bus service that reduces fuel use for several hundred families.
I agree we all need to start small but I wonder how much the pandemic has benefitted the climate short term with the massive decrease in air travel.

Great idea OP. Yes these are small things, but small changes add up and can lead to bigger changes.

We’ll be cutting down meat intake, aiming for 3 meat free days a week.

And doing more local shopping to limit car usage.

Its a great idea. Everything helps

Individuals can't really make these changes. You can stop having children stop having pets stop eating meat. If you are not going to do those things, don't bother composting or using bar soap. The only other thing that might be even vaguely useful is awareness raising with the powers that be as it is only national changes that can combat this.

Limit time on

Mobile phones
Tablets
Laptops
Computer games
Kindles
TV
Radio

@MrsPsmalls

Individuals can't really make these changes. You can stop having children stop having pets stop eating meat. If you are not going to do those things, don't bother composting or using bar soap. The only other thing that might be even vaguely useful is awareness raising with the powers that be as it is only national changes that can combat this.

You are right about the big corporations needing to make the change.

But we should go back to less consumerism. So people making the small changes adds up to people not being so greedy. Win bloody win

If you are not going to do those things, don't bother composting or using bar soap.

We need to shift away from this kind of thinking. Individuals can start small but end up bigger. Going from 0-100 won’t happen for most people, gradual change is more realistic.

Businesses don’t produce what people don’t buy. Individuals can make a difference.

To the pp who asked about the hierarchy, a quarter of most people’s carbon footprint is due to food. In order of effectiveness you can improve things by:

Reducing or eliminating meat and dairy
Eating everything you buy and Eliminating food waste
Not buying food which has been air freighted
Reducing packaging

The big corporations make money by selling to little individual unimportant people, and will change their practices to reflect consumer demand.

No of course Jane Bloggs switching to bar soap isn't going to reverse climate change all by itself, but 67 million people all going "oh well I'm not the CEO of Exxon so really it doesn't matter what I do, may as well change nothing" would add up.

Real change will occur when countries decrease their use of coal.

I stopped doing school runs. DC walk to and from school.

I think consumers can have a massive impact on things. Look at how many vegan options there are now! When I was vegan at uni 10 years ago, eating out or getting takeaway was an absolute nightmare. Vegan pizzas were literally pizzas with no cheese. Now you can get proper vegan pizzas at dominos!

I’m not dismissing the need for change from governments and corporations, that’s massively important, but I think it’s wrong to discount smaller actions altogether.

I’m severely stressed about the climate, have been for years. We have solar panels so I only use appliances during the day. I reuse all plastic that possible and recycle everything possible. I’m cutting back on meat. No point trying to stop buying meat, DH’s first wife decided that they were vegetarian so he ate meat at work, twice most days

I get groceries delivered and buy veg/fruit/salad from the local farm shop and bread from the local butcher. I will be switching to solid shampoo bars. Use cloths for cleaning rather than paper towels. None of the shops I can walk to have dispensers like the bigger supermarkets.

I need more ideas. Talking to a friend today and he said he doesn’t care if the climate passes the tipping points in 50 years as he’ll be dead by then I can’t be that blasé as we have DC at University.