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Climate change - what actions have you taken?

102 replies

SoTiredNeedHoliday · 26/07/2019 09:32

HI, Can everyone tell me (and all of us) how your family is a tackling climate change and trying to help the environment.
My DD was crying this morning saying that people aren't doing enough and it is her and her children (if that happens) that will be extremely affected. It made me feel very sad to see her so upset about something we never thought of as children.
Over the last year we have implemented:

  • Stated eating vegetarian 4 nights a week
  • Only buy certified free range organic meat
  • We now ride to work whenever possible
  • We are changing to an electric car
  • We don't buy bottled water at all now & use our waterbottles when going out.
  • Using eco cleaning products where possible
  • Recycle everything we can properly

What else should I be doing?

OP posts:
Jaheira · 02/08/2019 12:14

I always use the tumble drier - don’t even have. A washing line as it would ruin the aesthetic of the garden

ppeatfruit · 02/08/2019 14:49

Well don't worry, the flooding'll ruin it anyway. Have you got plastic grass?

Jaheira · 02/08/2019 14:49

No, I’ve got a Japanese effect garden with a large koi pond

Jaheira · 02/08/2019 14:50

No grass - but lots of plastic plants as we go away a lot and real ones die

ppeatfruit · 02/08/2019 15:01

So not a wildlife pond then Grin What'll happen to the carp when it floods, no wait, doesn't the drought affect them? Global warming is creating more and more extreme weather.

BahHumbygge · 02/08/2019 16:32

I get raw milk delivered in glass bottles.

I eat meat, but grassfed and very local, which I buy in my own tupperware from the butchers in town. Industrial farming, both arable and factory farmed animals, is the problem, not meat per se. Ruminant pastures are thriving biodiverse ecosystems, sequester carbon, soil nutrients and water; whereas monocultural fields (wheat, soy, corn etc) displace/kill all other organisms that were living there, require vast inputs of fossil fuel fertiliser, water and agrochemicals and releases tons of carbon and soil fertility when tilled. Machinery and chemicals kill untold millions of creatures per acre. Then there’s the rodent control required for granaries. Plant-based isn’t so ahimsa. Read the Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith and Wilding by Isabella Tree and watch the Alan Savory TED talk. We need a food system which approximates what life on earth was like before the dawn of agriculture… the planet was teeming with large ruminants, which wasn’t an ecological problem because they sequester more carbon into the soil and deep grassland root systems than they emit via farts and burps. In medieval times, animals were raised in silviculture… semi woodland/meadowland, which is ideal in terms of carbon storage and biodiversity. Life and death is cyclical, but agriculture is a linear enterprise that depletes soil carbon, fertility, rivers and biodiversity. We’ve only got a few decades of crop harvests left now before all the top soil has been wiped out.

Eggs are from hens from the lady on the fruit & veg stall, vegetables are mostly from the same stall and grown at a local farm a mile away. I try to eat the majority of my food from within my own landscape.

I collect spring water while out on my dog walk for drinking, cooking and pets’ water.

I put a bucket in the shower to collect the water and water the garden. Ditto save the water drawn off while waiting for the hot tap to run and washing up bowl water.

Almost all of my clothes and shoes are second hand, bar knickers and socks. I use a darning mushroom and thread to mend holes in clothes. Also buy most of my books and household stuff like pans are 2nd hand.

Clothes horse or line dry my washing.

In winter months, set the heating to mid teens only and wear thermals, woollie jumper and fingerless mitts.

We have solar panels, so I try to bunch my electricity use to the middle of the day when sunny to minimise draw from the main grid… so dishwasher, washing machine, cooking, charging etc.

I reuse empty food packets as dog poo bags… just pick up with a small piece of newspaper. Large food bags eg dog biscuits get reused as cat litter disposal.

I watch youtube at only 360p resolution, so as to reduce data downloaded. I also minimise what I upload to social media etc, as all web traffic & storage requires large data centres, which are a huge energy drain on global electricity supplies. I delete old emails, empty my trash can and unsubscribe from mailing lists. I don’t use things like netflix or have Bitcoin.

Small stuff I do… bar soap, bamboo toothbrush, loose leaf tea etc, but it’s so insignificant I don’t sweat it. It’s far more important now to go for the large fruit, rather than the low-hanging.

Flying, I’ve pledged to only have one or two more flights. I’d love to go back to Iceland, but the sea route there emits more carbon than flying, so flying is actually lower impact than sailing. The ferry stopped calling in Scotland a few years ago. Likewise there’s no other ferries between Britain and Scandinavia any more due to pressure from cheap airline seats. I haven’t flown longhaul for over 30 years (LHR - E Canada). I lived in N Ireland and got the train & ferry when I could over the Irish sea, but did fly once or twice a year, and have also flown to Iceland, Denmark & Spain 5 times in the past decade.

I’ve taken direct action by joining my local XR and going to the big protests in April and July.

Sadik · 02/08/2019 20:21

I agree with all the comments above - working for collective political change is realistically much, much more important than individual actions.

And while it is deeply unjust that poorer nations are having to make changes while we were able to have our fossil fuelled industrial revolution, it is also true that they are on the whole hit much more severely by extreme climate events, and therefore need global collective action as much as anyone.

Personally - my political efforts these days are mainly around working for sustainable farming & food production as it feels like that's where I can have most impact. (I'm strongly in the 'it's not what you eat, it's how it's produced' camp.)

I'm lucky to be in a place where I can not fly (15 yrs + now), make the larger part of my journeys by bike / public transport, eat mainly food I produce myself, and heat /cook with coppiced local wood and mostly make choices that I can feel reasonably good with.

Having said that I think it's important to recognise that we all have to live within a system that makes genuinely environmentally friendly choices (eg around transport) difficult if not impossible for many.

PennyPitStop19 · 02/08/2019 20:30

I won’t fly anywhere unless it’s a family emergency.

dementedma · 02/08/2019 20:46

Eat less meat
Pro actively wildlife garden
Reusable coffee cups etc
Soda stream
Bars of shampoo, soap, conditioner
No cling film
No plastic bottles of water
Rarely fly
Buy local.produce where possible
Recycle clothes and buy from charity shops
Refill washing up.liquid etc
No tumble drier.
No wet wipes
Buy glass containers of ketchup, mayonnaise, oil, honey etc
Washable cloths used many times over
Limit food waste where possible

ppeatfruit · 03/08/2019 19:11

Yes exactly Bahumbyyge I wish everyone was as well informed as you. There are not enough people who are aware of the fact that monocultural agriculture is creating a time bomb .

ppeatfruit · 09/08/2019 14:15

Why is organic food better for the environment I don't care what any daft scientist says about organics (he's probably being paid by Monsanto anyway). Good husbandry involves caring about what is put on our fields, using the waste from a farm on the fields as fertiliser (after it is composted properly of course). This means that the food produced has many more vitamins and minerals in it. There is evidence for this from the Soil Association.
NOT using petrol based fertiliser or herbicides.fungicides etc. etc. which don't add anything good to the land , the opposite in fact. There are 50 harvests left on the mainstream farms , think about it.
My cousin's BIL uses fungicides on his fields of olive trees EVERY time it rains, but does not spray the trees round his house ,Why? because he and his family use those for themselves !! That says it all IMO.

Vast monocultured fields affect the weather and the wildlife which are dying out at an alarming rate. They also encourage pests, which need more and more pesticides to kill them. Yum yum enjoy your sliced white bread (grin) . And the HUGE machines they use to cultiivate them use crazy amounts of diesel (not to mention how much pollution is caused by their manufacture ).

yellowallpaper · 08/11/2019 22:10

Small car. Solar panels. Cavity wall insulation. Never use supermarket plastic bags. Try to get loose veg where possible, organic milk and veg normally.

Ccliff1 · 12/12/2019 13:43

I literally lose sleep over what planet will be left for my girls. I have recently signed up to a website enviropledge.co.uk as it tells me the impact of the changes I make. Trying to make sure I implement them now but some of them are tougher than others..

Deckthehallswithlotsofcake · 03/02/2020 11:14

One of the reasons why all the little things help is the principle of "many small streams do a large river make". Another reason why it helps is, that we can more easily get the politicians to listen to us, if we show them, that we take this issue seriously.

Another tip: switch over to using pearl barley instead of white rice. It is grown in Britain instead of Asia, doesn't produce methane, has fewer carbs and is cheaper that rice.

Ccliff1 · 03/02/2020 12:11

If you are looking for ways to be greener you should check out the website enviropledge.co.uk. It gives information on lifestyle changes that you can make and the impact it has on your footprint. Some of them are really simple - like changing your search engine, whilst others take more work.
I would love to know what nappies you recommend? All of the compostable ones I have seen require special handling or they are no better than the standard ones....

Daftasabroom · 03/02/2020 20:19

We measure our carbon and environmental footprint.

HasaDigaEebowai · 14/02/2020 09:33

It's very difficult. We do lots of the things mentioned here:

(very little meat (1 x week max and even then no red meat),
have our own chickens,
no food waste (see chickens above who eat everything edible and things they can't eat are composted)
grow lots of our fruit and veg,
lots of water butts for watering the vegetable garden
no fast fashion,
will switch to a hybrid/electric car when this one finally dies,
have our own woodland so plant lots of trees,
fuel the house entirely on wood from our own woodland (or friendly local tree surgeon) using junk mail as kindling
as much insulation as we have been able to pack in
massively reduced plastic (although I agree with the comment upthread that this is really a wildlife issue more than a climate issue),
reduced flights (1 x year only now),
use ecosia search engine,

reuse as much as possible and then send to charity shops
very limited buying of "stuff"
bee friendly garden and about to get bees
no bleach used
eco friendly products in general used
bidet toilet so very little toilet paper used
buy furniture etc from ebay and upcycle it rather than buying new
washing gets dried on the line or on the pulley maid
DC share bath water
Dog about to go onto insect based protein food

But then there will be things that feel like they cancel out a lot of this. For example I'm having to have a new bathroom since the old one (last done in the early 90s) was leaking and causing problems. Its really tricky to get the balance right.

ppeatfruit · 22/02/2020 15:30

Hasadig Yes nothing's going to be perfect but you're DOING stuff rather than putting your head in the sand which seems to sadly be the viewpoint of a lot of my family and friends.

It's casing marital strife, I keep turning down the C.H and dh turns it up. he doesn't exercise properly to make body warmth, sometimes he puts a blanket round his shoulders rather than wear a "constricting' sweater or jacket.
Also I have a wildlife garden and of course it's not tidy, which offends our neighbours' perfectionism.

I could go on... but I won't

SarahHackey91 · 27/02/2020 18:17

The main thing is to recycle and freecycle before considering buying anything new. Only buy something new if you can't find what you want from the different freecycle sites or on local community networks. Recycle anything you don't want unless it's completely unsalvageable.

For kids stuff www.youngplanet.com/
For local stuff nextdoor.co.uk/
A new I found that has product filtering www.gively.co/

The problem with these sites is that the items can be quite far away so I tend use more than one.

ppeatfruit · 28/02/2020 08:55

Thanks Sarah

climatepragmatist · 20/10/2020 13:41

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Amum89 · 25/10/2020 10:52

This has been a slow process for me - changes have happened over the last 3 years (DS is three and made me reevaluate EVERYTHING!)

  1. We grow our own fruit and veg on an allotment - we use organic methods, manure for the soil and we try to grow heritage breeds that like this climate. Also plant bee friendly patches in that allotment.
  1. The only meat we eat is organic and small scale production from the farmers market
  1. We do not buy new goods from shops - excluding shoes, bedding, socks, towels, nightwear, underwear. Books, toys, clothing, home wares are sourced second hand.
  1. I use a zero waste shop taking my own refill containers for the other grocery/ household needs
  1. Anything you'd normally buy in plastic we buy a wooden alternative ( can also be composted on allotment) ie toothbrushes, interdental brushes.
  1. Reusables always when we go out - wooden spork, bottles, bags etc
  1. We only use a hybrid electric car maybe x3 a week for travel walk everywhere else ( we are quite central to a city so not for everyone!)
  1. We do not eat air freighted food or buy air freighted goods - hard to tell but usually a good rule of thumb is if it's not in season in Europe then it's possibly flown in.
  1. Bar shampoo and soaps
  1. Read all magazines and newspapers digitally

  2. We do not update our tech very often - still using an iPhone SE!

  3. We holiday quite locally at a seaside town - taking a 3 hour train ride there. Go on an aeroplane once every 3 to 4 years long haul ( DH family live a long haul flight away - feel we can't not visit - have funds to go every year but don't)

  4. We try REALLY REALLY hard only to buy natural fibres that will bio degrade for clothing, bedding, curtains, cushions etc (DH is very sporty and this then becomes difficult as does Nursery uniform. Also difficult with DS - for example he has two pure wool winter jumpers - there is not a lot of room for rotation, when one is dirty!)

  5. We will repair where we can - even if it means the repair is almost as much as new

  6. Chocolate, cheese and coffee have a high carbon footprint so we buy small amounts from good quality producers that we believe are doing the right things

  7. We live in a small 2 bed flat - this has a much lower carbon footprint than running a house - don't miss a garden as we have the allotment and live next door to the biggest park in the city.

  8. We try and buy the highest possible quality when purchasing new goods - as they last longer and therefore create less waste.

  9. We do not have kitchen gadgets ie microwave, slow cooker etc - we do have a second hand bread machine so we can get bread minus the plastic

  10. We freeze a lot to eliminate food waste - always run our freezer full to stop energy wastage

  11. After DS is bathed - I will use the water for hand washing clothes

  12. Try to send as little to landfill as possible - only when I can't reuse/ repurpose, recycle or compost it.

  13. Christmas and special events - decorations are either second hand or natural - pumpkins and squash at Halloween and pine cones, evergreen trees, oranges at Christmas. We also make Christmas gifts using allotment produce - damson gin, apple spice jelly.

I'll stop there, I'm sure there are more!

Just want to say this has been a long process - and it's not without is difficulties at the beginning - there is a lot to learn and a lot of information out there.

No one should feel bad about doing things that are 'bad' for the environment or have a heavy carbon footprint - I don't think we can fix this mess through making people feel bad or guilty

WE NEED EVERYONE DOING THIS IMPERFECTLY, NOT A FEW PEOPLE DOING IT PERFECTLY!!!

TallGiraffe20 · 28/10/2020 18:53

We do a few things:

  • Switched to Bulb electricity and gas (something like 10% of the gas we use is recaptured from landfill)
  • Mainly buy second-hand clothes from charity shops
  • Cycle to work
  • Composting

We've recently started using Tend and buying our food direct from farmers. After watching Kiss the Ground on Netflix we wanted to buy from organic, regenerative farmers

namechangealerttt · 14/01/2021 12:39

I just started a new career in property and construction this year, I returned to uni after my kids started school. Property and construction is a bigger polluter than even transport is, use of concrete, ongoing environmental cost of heating/cooling poorly designed buildings etc.

I have tried to do many of the smaller things people have mentioned, it all adds up, but my biggest contribution to climate change has been keeping the conversation on the table, because in our industry we can have a huge impact. I have been on a graduate program working on a reasonable size apartment building, I have been talking all year about making the basement parking EV ready to retrofit as many charging points as possible when there is the uptake and demand (not in the UK, no government policy to phase outpetrol here). At the start of the year I was laughed at, and now it looks very real we will install cabling so in the future 50% of car parks will be able to install an ev charging point. That will be my biggest contribution this year...and hopefully the influence on my colleages will amplify the impact in future.

We can talk about lobbying government, but big businesses are unfortunately ruling the world, so we need ethical leaders in the corporate world.

If your daughter wants to make a significant difference, get her to research what industries are the biggest polluters, and get her to think about her career options and see if she could see herself being an industry leader. Property and construction from my experience gives you the opportunity to make an impact, but agriculture and food production, and many other industries would too.

BerllanBrych · 19/01/2021 23:34

Hi OP,
Things the kids do to contribute to looking after the environment (some links to climate change):
Litter picking in our locality
Help with planting flowers
Help me sorting crisp and sweet wrappers for Terracycle (otherwise I'd feel too guilty to buy them!)
Not hassle me to buy bottled or canned drinks when we have brought our own (this one doesn't always stick).

Another, less obvious one (they can't help so much with this..yet), is to communicate with expectant parents about considering planting a tree with baby's placenta (once it's served its primary purpose!). This diverts the placenta from incineration, and results in a living, growing, carbon-capturing thing of beauty. The more awareness we can raise on this, the more trees will be planted and the fewer CO2 emissions from needless burning of placentas. Can you tell that I am really fired up about this? (pun not intended). Interested in what people think, and how we could make this a (more)common practice.