What can I do that isn't on an individual level regarding climate change?

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I've done all I can on an individual level, I've joined a litter picking group and have a veg patch and made my small garden 'wild'...
But I feel I need to do more.
I have so much passion on the subject, always have even when it was called 'global warming' and ' the ozone layer ' and 'being a hippy' 😅

What else is there to do?
I don't mind spending time and money, I only work 25 hours a week so I have time to put into a project but I don't know what would be best to try and do?

I'm thinking maybe I could try to start a really zero waste business?
I always daydream about winning the lottery and buying loads of land and building a waste free city but I'm not going to win and what's the point in waiting?

I know this is a little bit of a ramble but I just want to be able to look my children and my grandchildren in the eye and assure them that I did all I could.
so does any one have any ideas? what can I do today or plan to do next week or next month that would make a change?
or just a bit of solidarity?

Well the ability of popular press to misrepresent science in the aid of sales is well known- take the "ice age" thing which was more a look at historical climate patterns then sexed up for the papers

That doesn't mean that climate change isn't real, isn't human caused, isn't already costing us dearly in pounds and lives :

Even with climate change - the science has been steady but the presentation to the public has been manipulated- twenty years ago I recall people being told "oh you can't say that it's to scary - ignore that effect before releasing "

OP, given that the whole of the UK is responsible for (less than) 1% of total annual global greenhouse gas emissions, I'm not sure anything you do on an individial level is going to make very much difference at all.

OP, you could campaign for more ‘soft plastic’ recycling options, or if you’re really committed, for banning single use plastic.
A lady in my local are set up a community project to save supermarket food waste, organised picking up products that otherwise would have been binned but are perfectly fine and distributed it to the local community (not a food bank, anybody can go).

The UK imported £64bn in goods from China in 2021. The ‘big players’ provide us with electrical appliances, phones, laptops, machinery, plastics, clothing, vehicles, toys, furniture, medical equipment, steel, iron and so on.

Think.

Indeed not to mention all those beach front billionaire owned properties on places like Martha’s Vineyard, again areas that were projected to be under water within twenty years, maybe in another 20?

Also remember when the ozone layer was past the point of no return and we would be shrivelled up within a few decades no matter what we did? Expected to recover in full by 2066 according to the WEF…. Phew! What a relief 🤨

How many people stressing aboutusing too many resources wore the masks and took the tests during covid?
That was ridiculously wasteful so i did my bit there by not wearing one and not testing 😁

Why do our politicians allow that do you think? 🤔

You just lost all credibility because it is now blatantly obvious what social media algorithms are currently churning through your devices.

Money. Capitalism. I am not a socialist but this unfettered worship at the alter of capitalism is massively problematic to society on so many levels.

Expected to recover because we made changes en masse. Right?

oh right,
so you agreed with my points before but now don't because I didn't join in with covid?
Righty ho

@BigFatPumpkin
The point is there was the scaremongering that the ozone layer would NEVER recover; we had done too much damage.
Very much like
"Now that we have passed the 1.5C rise, the climate is unstable and won't go back"

Both apparently irrefutable scientific fact

I'm afraid so. It's really bad news. I think it explains all the storms and other extreme weather. I agree about media bans. I strictly limit the amount of time I spend listening to the detail of it, but I do want to be involved in helping in some way.

Indeed. Worrying though, when the world is supposedly teetering on the precipice of climate related destruction. You’d think they’d prioritise that and not just keep ensuring the importation of fake Pandora charms and the like and ranting on about further trade deals. I mean they sure talk about it a lot and tell the people the changes they need to be making but there never seems to be any real impact on those giving the orders. Climate change and what the little people can do about it is Busy Work for us and will have no real impact, we’ve reduced as much as we can, to go further will mean a huge reduction in day to day living standards, but only for the little people obviously.

I will never comprehend why people are SO willing to believe and keep doing what these corrupt politicians tell them to when we can clearly see that they’re not changing ANYTHING themselves. It’s so utterly disgusting. Why aren’t people furious about this instead of starting threads on MN asking how they can do even more to kiss the boots of the political elite?

Book mark this post. In 20-30 years, the world will hardly look any different, most of us will still be here - not me I am pretty old - and there’ll be some other mass fear inflicted on us to keep us in line.

Right, but we were told it never could. We were done, nothing could change it, but now we’ve done just enough to make it recover, just at the time when we’d be seeing the predicted, end of days outcomes, how fortunate. Almost like one of those Hollywood blockbusters, where it all works out in the end 🙄

If you can afford it, there are probably more things you can do individually. For example, do you have a heat pump instead of heating with fossil fuels? Do you take public transport whenever possible? What kind of vehicle do you drive? Have you reduced your consumption of goods and turned to used goods where possible?
Municipal recycling is next to useless. Most of the waste does not get recycled, it gets shipped off to the third world. Infuriating, but true. So don't be counting on that to make a difference.

I've been reading a lot that heat pumps aren't the amazingly efficient things that were touted.
If you live in a colder area of England you may well need a secondary heating system .
I also disagree that removing a functioning heating system for a different one is environmentally friendly.
Same with smart meters. How is replacing a perfectly working meter with a different one any better for the environment? Most people with basic intelligence know that the more appliances you have on the more electric you use. Why do you need a new meter to tell you this?

No, there was not the level of scaremongering at the time which you say there was. Scientists knew it could recover if we took the appropriate steps and it did.
Even if there had been, that's fallacious reasoning. Claim A allegedly being false does not mean Claim B is also false, just because the claims seem to be similar in nature.

sorry, but I DO remember and there absolutely was the scaremongering that we had gone past the point of no return

Nope. Not me. I think we have a very very different understanding of the world.

yep, we all have our own views and opinions

We vote them in. We have the power. Sign petitions. Write to your MP. Stop buying stuff.

Name your sources. You are in an algorithmic loop that will send you certain things. So branch out. Research more. Look at alternative sources. Fact check.

Educate others.
Write a blog, make YouTube videos, join discussions online like this one, hold a local community event, tell family and friends, join peaceful protests, write to your MP.

It depends on the product. I got the top of the line cold climate one and believe you me, it is nothing short of miraculous. I live in an extremely cold climate and do not need a secondary heating system. It was extremely expensive. Thankfully there was a rebate that made it doable.
But yes, in a mild climate heat pumps are obviously less advantageous.

I never saw much point in smart meters either, or programmable thermostats. I'm home most of the time, so I don't need to program the thing. I just reset it manually when needed.