Your Personal War on Climate Change

While the bureaucrats haggle, what can you do on your own to defeat climate change? The most important techniques are near the top:

  1. The most important sacrifice is having fewer children. Every extra child introduces another person into the world consuming roughly the same as you. Adopted children do not have this problem. You need not worry about humanity going extinct. We are in the midst of a population explosion. Humanity is in far more danger from the effects of over than under population.
  2. Reduce your transportation footprint. Walk or bike more. Use public transit more. Trade in your old gas guzzler for a high mileage car, e.g. a small, hybrid or electric. Join a car-sharing service and select the smallest vehicle that will do for your current purpose.
  3. Cattle belch methane out of their mouths and fart it out of their anuses. Methane CH₄ is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO₂. Cattle contribute almost as much to global warming as automobiles. Just reduce your beef eating. Other animals such as pigs, goats, sheep and poultry are not nearly so bad. You don’t have to give up beef, just eat smaller portions and enjoy some beef-free meals each-week. You can also ask your federal and provincial governments to reduce the astronomical subsidies they pay on beef to encourage others to reduce their beef consumption.
  4. There are now houses in Canada that use net zero energy. They cost nothing to heat. The electric bill is zero. They use things like solar panels, double glazed glass, heavy insulation and large windows. You can retrofit these techniques onto your own home. The payback can be remarkably quick. You will be richly rewarded for your contribution to ending climate change.
  5. Eat food grown locally. With globalisation, the average piece of food travels 4 megameters (2,485.48 miles) before landing on your plate. The engines that transport it exude greenhouse gases. The worst are planes and trucks. Trains are good. Boats are very good.
  6. Eat field-grown produce in preference to greenhouse produce. Even considering the extra cost of transportation, field-grown produce has a much smaller energy footprint.

Every little bit helps.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)