Taking Definitive Action on Your Sustainability Goals

Please welcome for the first time here at 21st Century Tech Blog, Katie Brenneman. Katie’s focus in writing is on lifestyle issues, mental health, and sustainability. When she isn’t writing, find her with her nose buried in a book, at her local coffee shop, or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To learn more about Katie, follow her on Twitter.

In this article, Katie talks about how individuals can practice sustainability. This is a subject near and dear to my heart and reflected in citizens’ movements like Take the JUMP and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

Each of us can make a contribution to greenhouse gas emission reductions through lifestyle, and consumption choices. Katie lists some of the actions you can do, so please enjoy her article and send your comments and questions this way.

Climate change is the biggest threat to life on earth in the 21st century. What’s worse: we are not headed in the right direction. 

Even after COP26, experts predict that global warming may reach 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. This would take us far beyond pre-industrial atmospheric temperatures and would increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and climate disasters around the world. 

We need to take definitive, collective action to combat climate change and ensure that the Earth remains in a healthy balance for all living things. So what can you do? Here are a few of the changes you can make to prioritize your sustainability goals.

Reducing Your Footprint

We hear a lot about reducing our carbon footprint, but it can be hard to know how to get started. Recycling a few jam jars might feel good, but it’s certainly not the biggest change you can make to reduce your footprint. 

A recent report shows that to get the most bang for your buck, you should opt for green transportation options, switch to renewable energy, and reconsider consumption habits. These steps sound simple but require major lifestyle changes, particularly if you are used to driving everywhere or eating foods that are unsustainably sourced. 

Transportation

Transportation accounts for 29% of all carbon emissions. To take a significant chunk out of your total carbon footprint you can choose a bicycle over a car, or reduce the number of long-haul flights you take every year. To achieve this, you should host more work-related activities over remote software like Zoom and start taking vacations nearer to home rather than jetting out of the country. 

Sourcing Renewables

Renewable energy used to be reserved for only hardcore climate activists. In 2020 alone, however, renewable energy capacity grew by 45%, and global trends continue to show that renewables will be the cheapest energy on offer before the end of this decade. To start the process of switching energy sources to renewables, if you own your own house, get in touch with solar panel companies that will give you a quote. Or if that is not feasible, look at finding energy providers who only source from renewables. 

Reduce Waste

According to The World Bank, humanity produces 3.4 billion tons of waste every year. What’s worse: that number is set to rise by 70% by 2050 unless we take urgent action. As an individual, you can play your part by looking at what you consume and what you throw out.  

Fortunately, reducing your waste is fairly straightforward and is something to do immediately. Begin by keeping better track of food purchases. Aim to source more of your food locally when possible. Additionally, consider shopping second-hand. For clothes and other products, thrift stores can provide lots of useful items still in great condition. 

Beyond Individual Responsibility

Individual responsibility is necessary if we are to reverse climate change, but it is nowhere near as important as collective action. That’s because individual action alone cannot “solve” global warming. Instead, the fossil fuel firms that emit 70% of all greenhouse gasses must be held responsible by our governments and be held to account by citizens.

It’s hard to face up to this reality, but it needn’t turn you away from the cause of combating climate change. Instead, you should strive to turn your resolve into collective action. This may sound a little bit like a workers’ revolt, but it is much more than that and necessary for the public to engage with polluters and counteract the millions of dollars that they spend to lobby against climate action. 

This doesn’t mean you need to don an ushanka and start marching. You can start taking collective action by focusing on community groups and connecting with climate leaders. This will likely help you solve other issues, too, like waste disposal, recycling, and community clean-up projects in your locale.  

Conclusion

Combating climate change requires all of us to reconsider our individual and collective climate responsibility. As an individual, you can do your part and let others know what you are doing. It has never been easier to connect with the world and share than it is today. You can join others in writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper, or your local and national government representatives. You can join groups like Citizens’ Climate Lobby and learn how to engage policy decision-makers. And in your daily routines, you can lead by example.