With COP 26 – also known as the latest Global North greenwash festival – drawing to a close, and governments once again
failing to be bold enough to take sufficient action to limit the drastic
effects of climate change, here are some things individuals can do to help to
reduce our carbon footprints.
1 Take Fewer Business Flights
Do you really need to fly across the Atlantic/globe/continent to attend that conference in person? It’s the 21st Century. Zoom exists. Use it. Your liver will thank you too.
2 Take Fewer (But Longer) Holidays
Lots of people like to fly to foreign countries, although anyone doing it during a global pandemic is a bit of a wally. Under normal circumstances, we need to re-think how we holiday. Several different trips a year is going to be a killer for the climate, so instead of taking multiple weekend breaks, take one or two longer breaks and explore each area more. Or use cleaner transport to connect multiple destinations. You could try interrailing around Europe or just pick a destination with loads of culture like Italy, Greece or the less touristy parts of Spain.
3 Insulate Your Home
This could save you on heating bills, although in a time when gas prices are sky-high, it might help you break even.
4 Turn the Heating Down a Notch or Two
Similar principle. Use a bit less gas, pay a bit less, make your grandchildren’s planet a bit more habitable. Alternatively/additionally, switch to a heat pump because they’re more efficient and produce fewer carbon emissions.
5 Wear Extra Layers or Thicker Jumpers
Why turn up the heating when you could don a sexy sweater or a pair of wonderfully warm long johns? No-brainer.
6 Get Solar Panels
OK, maybe not the best advice in a country like the UK that has rain every other day and only 8 hours of light each day during the winter, but overall you’ll still save money on your energy bills in the long-term while making sure polar bears still have ice caps to roam about on. In some places, solar energy can even be sold back to the grid, so you might even might a tidy profit (until everyone gets them).
7 Eat Less Meat
Confession time. I love meat. I eat meat nearly every day. I’m a bad person. I’m contributing to methane emissions on a grand scale. It’s hard to adjust to non-meat and non-dairy products when you’re so used to them (soy milk is grim), but I’m sure there must be some tasty alternatives out there. Right? Oh yeah, they’re everywhere now. No more excuses. The occasional greasy burger or succulent steak allowed as a treat as long as I cut down overall? Deal.
8 Eat More Local Produce
It’s trendy these days to eat stuff grown on your doorstep (or in your own garden, if you can afford one). Not only does it mean fewer carbon emissions in transporting the food from source to plate, but it can support someone in your local area with their business. It’s tricky to get things like bananas from the UK, what with our distinctly un-tropical climate, but switching from items imported from the other side of the world to European produce feels like a win. But then there was Brexit. Moving on…
9 Walk More
According to the Department for Transport, over half of car trips in England in 2014 were under 5 miles. Stop being lazy, leave your car at home and enjoy the great outdoors. If it’s raining, take an umbrella. You are not made of sugar.
10 Use Public Transport
OK, walking more than a few miles is rather time-consuming, so if you do need to travel a bit further, swap your car for public transport. Admittedly it’s easier in urban areas with good transport links, such as trains, trams, and buses. One advantage is that you can read great literature or scroll your social media feeds while on public transport. You might even make a new friend, although probably not on the London Underground where nobody makes so much as eye contact.
11 Switch to a Greener Car
Not everybody wants to be exposed to a stranger’s armpits or have to stand within inches of someone with garlic breath, and public transport can be time-consuming and expensive too (train prices are particularly extortionate in the UK). If you must travel by car, throw a few thousand quid at Elon Musk because he needs to go to space again. You’ll be helping the planet in one way at least, even if slightly damaging it in another.
12 Cycle More
Another alternative to burning petrol or consuming electricity is to pedal. Just don’t be one of those cyclists who jumps through red lights or doesn’t use the cycle lanes where provided. Also, it’s probably best to wear a helmet (unless you’ve got a really hard head) and hi viz gear in the dark.
13 Get Double or Triple Glazing
Most people have got double glazing these days and it does help keep the heat in. Some houses are still single glazed and probably still contain furniture from the 1960s. It might be vintage or hip, but the planet’s dying, so get the windows sorted and peace out.
14 Turn the Air Conditioning Down
If you happen to live somewhere that’s warm most of the time, I envy you, but you’ll likely not enjoy the forecast temperature rises in the not-so-distant future. For now, instead of blasting cold air into your house all day, turn it off while you’re out, and turn it down a few notches. It’s not healthy to go from desert to freezer to desert again anyway. Plus humans have this thing called sweat to keep us cool. Oh, but don’t use spray-on deodorant to counter the smell because the CFCs are also pretty yucky for the ozone layer.
15 Stop Buying So Much Stuff
Do you really need so much stuff in your life? Stuff requires resources to produce and to move across the globe, so one way to help the planet is to buy less of it. OK, the economy might take a slight hit, but it’s about time we moved to a sustainable economy rather than one obsessed with endless growth, which is basically the modus operandi of a cancer.
16 Plant Trees
It’s not a silver bullet, but there are some benefits to reforestation, when done properly. If you’re a bit lazy like me, you could use Ecosia instead of Google (with only marginally inferior search results), or donate to a charity that plants trees.
17 Use Less Water
Particularly important in areas prone to droughts, we could all use less water by flushing toilets less often (not after every pee, but definitely still after a poo) and not washing our cars/bodies/clothes as frequently, or for as long a time. Take 5 minutes in the shower instead of 10. Usage halved. Simple.
18 Recycle
It’s really straightforward these days to recycle. Most homes have separate bins for cardboard/paper, cans/tins/bottles, and garden waste. Some people haven’t grasped it, but you can even recycle stuff when you’re not at home, by holding onto it until you find the relevant receptacle, rather than dumping it on the ground or in a canal. Here’s Jack Johnson singing some more details:
19 Boycott the Biggest Climate Abusers and Choose
Greener Companies Instead
Yeah, it’s a bit of effort to find out who the worst abusers are (spoiler: mostly big oil), but next time you’re choosing an energy provider or making a major purchase like a vehicle or deciding which mode of transport to take for a big trip, it’s worth taking a few minutes to research who the cleaner and greener companies are and to go with them.
20 Erm… Overthrow the Capitalist System
OK this one is probably a longshot and not really that practical, but it would help the environment if we curtailed some of the worst excesses of capitalism. In the absence of a full-scale revolution, have a good hard think about who you vote for next time you’re at the ballot box. Instead of voting for the rabble-rousing right-wing populists and blah blah blah centrists, put a cross by the Green Party or the equivalent in your country because they will actually take the climate crisis seriously. Greta would approve.