Modern issues Environment

Emissions and climate

The climate is changing faster than our habits.

Understand

The climate does not respond to what we emit this year, but to everything accumulated over a century and a half, which is why nothing stops the day we stop. That inertia cuts both ways: it makes the effects slow to arrive, and slow to recede. It is also what makes the subject discouraging, when in fact every tonne avoided counts exactly as much as the last one.

Take action

  1. Turn the heat down one degree and put on a sweater. It is the cheapest win in the house, and it costs nothing.
  2. Bundle your errands into one trip instead of several back-and-forths.
  3. Swap one meat meal a week. One, not all of them, that is what actually lasts.
  4. Keep your devices longer. Most of a phone's footprint is already spent before you first switch it on.
  5. Talk about it around you without lecturing. The subject moves mostly through ordinary conversations.

Guides

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Organizations

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Tools

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Did you know?

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Myth and reality

"My habits weigh nothing next to heavy industry."

The two are not in opposition: industry makes what gets bought. A single habit on its own weighs little, true, but it shifts demand, it makes a practice normal to those around you, and it makes arguing the opposite in public much harder.