The first thing I always see people say is plant a garden/trees or recycle, but I don’t have land, and I live in a red state that seems to hate recycling. The closest place to take plastic last I checked was over an hour away by car.
I know anything I do would have a negligible effect, but I’m sick of not doing anything.
Also is there anything I can do about the heat without running the AC? I try to leave the windows open, but they’re all on one side and don’t seem to allow for much airflow that way.
Do political organizing.
One private jet ride for a CEO will negate anything you do on your own.
Can’t say this enough!
The personal carbon footprint idea was created by the fossil fuel industry to shift the burden off the producers, onto the consumers. It’s a scam.
Your individual climate actions are practically meaningless. Your political activism to demand industrial action is where people need to focus their climate concerns.
Buy fewer things. Try to avoid plastic. Walk instead of drive. Stop eating meat. That’s about it.
nothing really. so chill out about it. get some nice indoor plants or a window box?
nothing you can do, individually, can change the climate. trying to do so is an exercise in futility, and the cost of your own well-being and comfort, by not running AC isn’t going to make the world better. you aren’t going to derive value out of your life by making yourself suffer ‘for the climate’ anymore than you would be for god.
what you can do is just support and vote for local candidates in your city that have climate-friendly policies for your city. who want to plant trees, reduce traffic, promote housing density/development, and offer more green energy solutions. maybe volunteer for these things or like community garden/tree stuff. a lot of environmental orgs need help.
Maybe some gorilla gardening?
As vegetarians, I really like the idea of letting gorillas plan out gardens for a change.
Walk when you can or ride a bike
Destroy the nearest oil refinery or industrial animal farm.
Eating less meat, especially red meat, is the most impactful thing you can do as an individual.
Yes! There is a lot you could do.
Start with considering, “what kind of vehicle defines me as an environmentalist?” Research which vehicles are the most energy efficient; and the LARGER the vehicle, the more impressive it is that it is labelled green, so get the biggest one you can afford. And since technology updates frequently, I recommend leasing a new one every two years.
I know you are currently living in apartment, but if you really love nature, you want to be surrounded by of much it as possible. Start saving money to find a big house you can drive to, maybe near a highway, so you can drive to work, and also drive to shopping. If you want a bigger house with even more land, you’ll have to drive even further, but it’ll be worth that extra commute because you love the environment, and therefore, you love nature. When all your friends drive out to visit you, they will be really impressed about your passion for conservation.
You also want to look at what you are putting into your body. There are a lot of really amazing advances in farming around the world–hydroponics, organic, crop rotation… so do your research and have that food shipped to your house from around the globe.
Lmao.
Avoid red meat and using AI.
A window fan or two (one blowing in, the other blowing out) might help with the heat. Wouldn’t do anything for humidity.
Also getting fewer children. If I were a demographic planner I’d say 3 is the max (the ideal population pyramid is a triangle at the top, rectangle at middle and bottom; that necessitates a median birth rate of about 2.1 kids per household).
- Stand upright
- Lean way over
- Bend far at waist
- Kiss ass goodbye
As long as 80% of emissions are created by 1,000 or so giant companies, all with their respective governments captured, there’s really not much you can (legally) do.
To maximize cooling, close your windows in the morning as soon as it starts warming up after sun rise and block any windows letting in light. It makes a huge difference during heat waves compared to leaving your windows open and letting the air inside heat up at the same rate as outside. If you find yourself overheating, a wet towel on the neck with a fan pointed at you can be an effective way to cool down quickly.
You could do some dialing in of your HVAC settings so it’s heating and cooling as little as needed to keep you comfortable, like pre-cooling at night when it’s colder outside, setting the temperature higher when you’re gone, and sealing up any gaps that let air in or out. You could see if your utility has a community choice aggregator or voluntary green pricing or some other way to allocate your power usage towards renewables.
I’m an energy manager as my day job, so this is like my favorite subject! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask away 😊
Unfortunately it’s an older model that doesn’t allow you to program different temps throughout the day. I do try to put it up to about 80 during work hours.
Is there a way to detect spots where you lose cold air during the summer short of buying a thermal scope?
See if your utility or a nonprofit offers energy assessments. Sometimes they have someone that can come to your house and use one of those. Or they give free LED bulbs. Or free switches so you can turn off outlets when not in use.
Yep! A lot of utilities offer low/no cost assessments, and I know mine give out smart power strips, LEDs, and lowflow faucets and shower heads if you get an assessment done
It’s not going to be nearly as comprehensive as a paid audit, but still worth looking into!
Ah, darn. If it’s an older model, you would probably save a lot of energy just by upgrading. But if it’s owned by the landlord… split incentives suck.
And yes! You can get a stick of incense (they also make dedicated tools that do it with glycol) and waft it by your doors and windows to see where the air is flowing through
Disinvest from Fortune 500 and start investing in less shitty companies
Plugin solar is starting to role out and may be worth looking into depending on if it’s legal in your area.
As an individual anything short of some kind of eco-terrorism (not recommended) won’t really have an effect. It’s the collective action of lots of people not eating meat and stuff.
Assuming you’re in the U.S., which state? If it’s in the south I’d highly recommend trying to save up and find a way north. In 25 years some of those states will be literal hell. Better to move on your own terms than be forcibly relocated imo(worst case scenario).
Something i don’t see posted much is to enjoy the present as much as you can. Go on walks. Admire trees/nature. Visit people who live further away. You know, things we wont really get to do in the future. Our futures have been taken, don’t let them take our present too.
The idiom is “reduce, reuse, recycle” in that order for a reason. Even if plastic recycling is difficult in the US, reducing and reusing are doable by just about anyone. This can be using less one-time plastics, eating less meat (make sure nutritionally balanced), drive less, reuse those shipping boxes for other stuff such as for paper waste, buying from local farmers (if you can afford it)… something along those lines
For home, living in an apartment is actually one of the best things one can do for the climate, since living in an apartment in a city is much, much more energy efficient than living in a suburb… not to mention cutting down on car-related costs. For ppl living in a home, methinks AC is more of a boogeyman… having good home insulation is a much better solution (as a well-insulated home uses less energy!), and the best part is that it is bipartisan so red states would happily do it too. If renovation is not possible, stuff like blackout curtains, window blinds, … are cheap insulation options
IMO these are still negligible effects on an individual level, but these are not nothing, and if everyone does these the world would be a much better place. For more meaningful actions, probably organizing
