What is the single most important action we can take to address climate change?
Answers
Answer:
Start by figuring out the biggest piece of your personal carbon footprint. Hayhoe suggests using a detailed carbon calculator. “Each of us has a different lifestyle, so the biggest bang for our buck in reducing our own carbon emissions could be very different from someone else’s.” It might be your daily commute, your heating system, your food choices, or where you shop. Hayhoe also recommends checking out Project Drawdown which ranks 100 different solutions to climate change — from composting to eating a plant-rich diet to choosing LED lighting — based on how much carbon they would reduce. Once you find out what makes up your own footprint, then consider the solutions that might help you reduce it.
2. Second, Community Action
Many of our personal changes can then be implemented at the community level. Take the goal of reducing food waste — a huge factor, especially in this country. We throw out a third of the food we produce, according to Hayhoe. “If global food waste were a country,” she says, “it would be the third biggest emitter of heat-trapping gasses, after China and the U.S.”
You can start by addressing your household food waste, and at the same time, look into your local groceries to see what their policy is on misshapen apples and other “unsellable” produce. “There are many nonprofits that collect these items and distribute them to low-income households which may not be able to afford fresh produce.” Is your supermarket working with one? If not, perhaps start researching organizations yourself. Email your local officials and put it on their radar, too. You don’t have to be an expert or a full-time activist. Just get the ball rolling.
To find organizations in your area, you might start by searching for nonprofits in your region on Charity Navigator or GreatNonprofits. You can also look at your local government website to see what initiatives your community is working on, and how you might get involved. And check out the solutions detailed on Project Drawdown, which offers great (and doable!) ideas for both individuals and communities.
Doing the work in your own home and your neighborhood, no matter how big or small, does have a meaningful impact. “It’s a win-win,” says Hayhoe. “You’re reducing your carbon footprint and modeling that behavior to your larger community,” which then sets an example for the next town over, then the county, then the state. That’s how individual actions can become policy change.
3. Lastly, Policy
Individual and community action are necessary, but as Hayhoe points out, our personal choices can only control 30 to 40 percent of national emissions. We need major policy changes in order to address the large-scale damage done by corporations, industries, and government regulations (or lack thereof). “What we have to do is convince our elected leaders that this is really important.” And, frankly, a lot of us don’t realize it is. Current data indicates 70 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening. Only 61 percent are worried about it. Only 41 percent think it will have any impact on them.
And right now, research shows, most of us never discuss climate change at all! As long as the public — especially the voting public — remains divided and under-informed, we won’t be able to put that necessary pressure on our leaders. If we want this to be the kind of issue that politicians pay attention to, it’s up to us to make it one.
That’s why, Hayhoe affirms again, “the most important thing that any one individual can do,” says Hayhoe, “is talk about this. And I don’t mean talking about all the science-y details. I mean, talk about what we’ve done in our own lives, the way climate change affects us where we live, and how there are positive solutions.” Did you start composting? Tell your mom! Are you going meat-free during the week? Spread the word! These conversations, she says, should be had with everyone in our lives: friends, colleagues, neighbors, kids, parents. If we never talk about this issue, it will never be addressed. “And until we all understand and believe that there are solutions that can fix this, we’re not going to do them.”
Policy change has never happened spontaneously, out of the goodness of the government’s heart. Civil rights, marriage equality, women’s reproductive rights — all major social and political change has been fueled by vocal, unified individuals. Political change starts when we make it personal.
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