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

[7393827gsjsbdh]

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?

no, sorry but it's a hard disagree from me for the same reasons as @DdraigGoch

@DdraigGoch I don't think the timing point holds up (at least, not in all examples). For example, a traditional cookstove generates 1.5 to 4 tonnes of CO2/year. If you replace that with a modern stove the carbon saving to the planet starts the moment you switch. It costs about 20kg of CO2 to make and distribute the replacement stove, so you make that back almost instantly.

It is of course a counterfactual saving, i.e. less than would have been emitted otherwise. But that's exactly what we are trying to do, reduce CO2 emissions.

I haven't read Berners-Lee's book, so I'm just going off your quote. I agree with him on additionality (it has to be something that wouldn't have happened anyway). And I agree that it's important to have robust (not fraudulent) schemes. But I utterly reject his idea that it's important that we reduce carbon in an autarkical, short-termist way, each looking for our own personal savings, that delivery instantly, and only once everyone has done all of that should we then ask 'what are the cheapest and most effective ways, collectively, of reducing carbon emissions?'. I don't understand that way of thinking at all, other than as a sort of virtue ethics where what matters is the purity of motive not the end result. If you want to cut carbon as far and as fast as possible, you look directly to 'what are the most polluting things that can be removed/improved cheapest?' and divert funds there. That's the principle of carbon offsetting.

Trading so that the work gets done by whoever is best-placed to do it is what unlocks massive progress in other areas, and if it's massive progress we are after it seems silly to deny ourselves that powerful tool.

("you can't go and work as a doctor, or a teacher, or a mathematician, even though that's what you would be most efficient at, until you have grown your own individual radishes, stitched your own clothes from hand, built your home from your own toil, composted your own waste. Looking for mutually-beneficial swaps is just cheating, allowing some people to enjoy homes, clothes, food without the effort of making any real sacrifice, other than paying money for it. ").

What an absolute cop out.

So you're not serious about this at all, just virtue signalling!

Oh do bore off. If you can't be constructive then this isn't the thread for you.

Bore off? How mature.

Going vegan is one of the most constructive things you can actually, practically do to combat climate change.

OP said they're passionate and willing to do anything.

Seems not.

Going vegan is easy easy. If OP is not prepared to do it, that is their choice but it indicates that they are not serious about doing everything they can, and they're just virtue signalling. Undeniable fact.

If you think you want to combat climate change, but you're triggered by my suggestion then I can only assume you're also experiencing cognitive dissonance.

I'm not perfect but at least I'm not a hypocrite.

Geez, people who allege virtue signalling because someone falls short of perfection are really tedious. It's the same nonsense we've seen in all the US boycott threads recently ("oh, you've cut out 99% of your spending on US products but you're still posting from an iPhone or Android - virtue signaler!!!")

And quite how "virtue signaling" can even work, when post anonymously, continues to escape me.

If you think its that the OP is falling short of doing "everything they can" then you're probably just being overly literal (after all, purposefully starving to death is even greener than going vegan).

You aren't being constructive, you are just abusing the OP for not meeting up to your expectation of perfection. Hectoring her will achieve nothing, except possibly make you feel big and important like all bullies want to.

How is eating locally produced chicken worse than eating fruit and nuts that have been flown in from the other side of the world?

Eating locally produced foods, with less airmiles has to be better than eating pumpkin seeds produced in China for example.

I used to think going vegan was the answer too, but it isn't. All that was doing was meaning I was buying in more imported foods.

Edit:wrong post quoted but can't change it

don't really get the vegan stuff
animals still die on farmer feilds
honestly it's plastic I care more about
we all have limited resources and the idea that a cow produces more 'pollution' than a car is laughable.

Certainly am copping out of the vegan thing. I'll never do it!

Well yes. you could argue that mass murderers are environmentally friendly because they have saved all of the resources from the people they have killed from being used.

It's ridiculous.
Nobody can do everything.

tried veganism, hated it. love cheese! ut really is as simple as that.
My husband eats meat I'll never make 2 dinners, we one pot it and freeze so it would never make sense.

thank you @HangryLilacGoose sentralar and @7393827gsjsbdh @DdraigGoch

Fully agree
me and my sister had a short trial and started buying avocados and pumpkin seeds, quinoa... oh the irony.
didn't take long to start looking at blackberries and apples on the trees and bushes at the park and think a bit harder.

for God's sake. People who care about the environment berating other people who care about the environment for not being perfect while my neighbours have just received their 15th amazon package this week.

Let's be friends and work together!

I was going to add a link here but I can't be arsed. But if you Google "BBC food footprint" or similar, you should find a handy little guide to the carbon footprints of various foodstuffs, which will show you that eating fruit and nuts from the other side of the world is indeed better for the planet than "locally produced chicken"!

How so? Well for a start, have you given a thought to what these local chickens are fed on? The vast majority of Brazilian Amazonian soya production goes into animal feed- specifically for pigs and poultry. That's not even mentioning the impact that some of these mega chicken farms have had on the local environment- their effluent has absolutely fucked the River Wye, for example.

Then...most stuff like fruit and nuts comes by ship, so it's not relatively that bad by volume. Very few fruits and vegetables are air freighted. Transport emissions from food are usually dwarfed by other emissions in the agricultural sector.

There’s a useful chart here showing the emissions of different food types:

https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

What you eat is much more important than buying local, because most food carbon is production not transport (and even buying the same item, local production is often much less efficient than industrial large scale).

This all or nothing approach really doesn't work anyway.
We had a zero waste shop open near us and they planned to include a deli and milk vending machine. There was so much backlash about the shop not being vegan that they didn't go through with the deli and milk and now there is no way environmentally conscious people can get zero waste (or close to it) ham cheese and milk.

Shop lost customers. plastic is still being used. not great is it? it's not all or nothing

Yay, I couldn't be bothered but someone else could 👏

Berners-Lee's book is called "How bad are bananas?" for a reason, bananas aren't too bad for the planet. They are put on the ship while still unripe so will last for the voyage - obviously do due diligence on the supplier to check that they treat their workforce well etc. Oranges and kiwifruit likewise last long enough to be shipped.

Produce and flowers from Africa should generally be avoided though, those sugarsnap peas from Morocco have probably arrived on an aeroplane. Growing one's own peas is quite easy, by the way!

It's also worth being careful with produce from Almeria in Spain, the place is an environmental and humanitarian disaster: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_farming_in_Almer%C3%ADa

I haven't got the book to hand, but one thing I remember was that hot-housed tomatoes were worse than meat. Buy local, buy seasonal is the message here. I've got strawberry plants growing all over my garden, I just eat them when they're in season rather than importing or buying fruit which has come from a heated polytunnel.

Californian almonds should be avoided too. The irrigation is draining aquifers in a drought-prone area, while pesticides and disease wipe out the bees specifically brought in to pollinate the trees. Come to think of it, Central Valley farmers voted for Trump ("drill baby, drill") so that's reason enough to boycott them.

Chicken and eggs from a backyard breeder will always be better than an intensive farm. If any of you have watched Clarkson's Farm, you'll see them discuss the protein value of the wheat - good wheat makes bread and pasta, inferior wheat becomes chicken feed (so it's making use of an otherwise wasted product) but free range chickens will also feed on bugs. The manure will probably end up in the owner's veg patch rather than being spread as slurry and washing into the River Usk.

It might be worth looking out for venison if you can get it. It's generally from culled herds (deer are overpopulated as no natural predators since wolves went extinct) so you're helping to reduce the number of ruminants rather than supporting their breeding.

So many uneducated people here who choose ignorance over uncomfortable change.

OP said they wanted to do whatever they can. I'm just pointing out the obvious hypocrisy.

Seems people don't like that.

You still believe this???omg enough evidence that it's a scam, scientists have come forward to say so

Exactly this and all the other lying💩 they been feeding people since. There are facts everywhere that it's lies to control and creates money..
There are photos through decades of same areas in around sea, there is no rising sea, like they claim. The weather is the same every year in southern England.. as well as faked temperate readings that don't even exist. Also England has the longest recorded temperate readings anywhere, the temperature now is the exact same as in the 50"s. Also the temperature readers were put out in the countryside , but mass forced population has caused towns, cities to spread out into the countryside giving false reading.. This and countless other evidence is out there, groups of scientists have come together to put end to the lies, and many admit why it was started. Try do your homework instead believing what they want to you believe.

Right, haven't you ever questioned anything? Why is it just normal people? Huge companies never have to change anything. Electric cars how is that saving the planet? Electric buses use diesel generators.. wind turbines are dangerous to wildlife and humans and do not work. It's all lies wake up.

David Bellamy told you it's fake no such thing look what happened to him. Green leader even says it is lies no man made climate

They have been saying that same lies as far back as the 70s. Nothing has come true it's lies. They make normal people suffer, yet drive around in huge cars, fly everywhere, have huge boats, helicopters.Mother nature is far superior& humans do not impact it. Not talking about rubbish plastic pollution in sea etc, but actual climate scam.

"Uneducated"? You have no idea who is posting on this anonymous forum and what qualifications or experience they have. [edit: the climate denier PP is a different matter]

The OP is asking for help, not a lecture.

Here's the thing. If we are wrong, no big deal, the world just gets a bit nicer and less polluted. If you are wrong, hundreds of millions of people die in climate catastrophes.