Tell me, if you have the time, in your opinion which of these personal activities help to combat climate change by reducing your personal CO2 emissions.
You can chose as many as you think but please rank them according to what you think is the most effective:
- no more plastic packaging
- one flight less per year
- efficient heating and proper insulation of buildings against cold/heat
- regional and seasonal food
- no more meat consumption
- switching off stand-by modes
I don't think I could possibly list them in order. All of them are things I think about a lot. I rarely fly so that's not a huge concern. Plastic packaging probably makes me crazier than anything. I am sick of our inability to let go of it. I try my best to use as little as possible but it's simply not possible to make much difference there. I really do want to eat less meat. Eating venison that my husband brings home feels far less of a burden to the planet than buying factory farmed meat. And of course I try to grow some of our food. I could do better.
ReplyDeleteIn all regards.
of this list:
ReplyDelete-no more plastic packaging
-regional and seasonal food
-efficient heating , air conditioning, and insulation
-we are omnivores and get essential nutrients from meat so maybe not no more meat but less meat consumption
-since we rarely travel by air (the last five years he and I went different places so one trip by air each per year except I didn't go anywhere this year) this one is #5 but travel has benefits and it's really the only way to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time
-switching off stand by modes is last because because I don't know what this is
Stand by mode is when you don't fully switch off an electric gadget.
DeleteHmmmm -- OK, l'm guessing:
ReplyDelete1. No more meat
2. Regional/Seasonal food
3. One flight less (seems like it would depend greatly on distance)
4. Heating
5. Stand-by
And I don't think plastic is a CO2 issue.
I've been using reusable shopping bags and avoiding plastic for a long time now. It's not hard to do, I have some netting bags I carry with me to put produce in and some of my shopping bags are 5 years old. But I have to be quick, since we moved to Texas, the very first thing that every cashier does here is grab plastic. It's so unnecessary and yet has become such a acknowledged part of our culture.
ReplyDeleteOh gee, I don't know how to rank them all. But my first guess would be that no more plastic packaging would be number one.
ReplyDeleteI think meat eating is number one. I don't really know how to calculate and compare the rest.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how to put them in order. And I don't think they are black and white. Reducing meat consumption, for instance is better than no change. Ditto reducing plastic use. As for flying, I pretty much only fly when I'm going on vacation, so generally once (occasionally twice) a year. My husband doesn't get a lot of vacation time and I just don't get paid when I don't work, so the time savings makes a difference to us.
ReplyDeleteEating less factory farmed meat, particularly beef, as I hear the methane effect is tremendously bad for the atmosphere. It seems to me that large industrial plants do more harm to the environment world wide than all of individual consumer's efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. And burning down the rainforests, well, that's a big one that can only be managed by the countries who have control over those resources.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think we, unless one of your readers is a climate scientist, can answer this. All we can do is the best we can - and lobby the powerful who must to their bit, too, if we are to make real change.
ReplyDeleteHi JO, I have missed you. Do you no longer blog?
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