I do believe the biggest impact would come from regulating large companies and billionaires, but it’s not one or the other.
Don’t fly.
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Eat vegan, the more local and the less processed the better.
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Opt for cycling, walking, or public transit rather than owning and driving a car.
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Shop secondhand (thrift stores, FB Marketplace, Kijiji, yard sales) whenever possible, especially clothing and electronics.
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Re-examine your consumption habits, we probably don’t need (nor really even want) like half the stuff we buy.
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Eat less or no meat probably. Enough people drive down meat demand would eventually lead to cattle reduction and less land for grazing.
Don’t forget about diary.
Edit: *dairy
You’ll take cheese and 2% cow milk from my cold dead hands.
You: “you’ll take cheese and 2% cow milk from my cold dead hands.”
Nature: “hold my beer.”
I mean, this is the problem. We all will be cold and dead soon if we don’t fix this.
Honestly, I believe a big negative social reaction to yachting and private flights for the wealthy would have the most impact. You can’t necessarily force people to not do things but you can create a negative backlash.
“Ethical consumption” is fine, but have a very low impact: Most of environmental damage is related to corporations, not by population.
Information is key: To solve any problem, we need to understand it the best we can. So how climate change works? How human action is driving it? Who is responsible? And what are our options? Look for science communicators that reflect the scientific consensus, not the opinion of a small group.
Be aware of/with any “solutions” that is proposed by or also benefits big corporations and the billionaires that owns it. There is a lot of green-washing shit around.
Vote for politicians that have a solid green agenda. Votes matter, but in capitalism, it is not enough. The capitalist system is built to maximize profit over everything else, that’s what will happen if there’s nothing stopping it to happen. So political education and engagement makes difference.
personal vehicles are the single largest source of co2 emissions in the US.
Please stop listening to corporate propaganda on this subject. You have absolutely no personal responsibility to solve this problem. The idea that you have to is an invention from business. A way to make it a personal responsibility and not something businesses have to solve.
If no person does anything nothing changes.
Of course your own choices in isolation don’t change much. But that’s like saying voting doesn’t do anything because a single vote doesn’t matter. We all can make choices that add up through all of society.
no raindrop feels responsible for the flood
Although you might feel like you don’t have an impact, you are not blameless, when you buy and rely on things that harm the environment you create demand for them, and you make the companies that pollute more successful
Nah sorry. We are past that. Every company that provides good, affordable products causes more damage to the environment than we ever will.
We depend on elected officials to prevent this problem for us. We have organizations who’s specific job is to do this for us. See But now they are all in the pocket of the polluters.
We lost. It’s over. It’s never going back. Just enjoy your life while you’re here. Humans are shit. Have a drink and go to bed.
While I agree that businesses have way more direct impact and responsibilities, “it’s about sending a message”. If we as consumers put more priority on goods / foods that have less of a bad impact on climate change, corporations will follow that trend as well as that’s where the money is.
We still have to hope that we’re not misled by marketing teams too much, but if the global trend is in a specific direction it has more of a chance to contain better options. Just be aware that possibly most of your climate enhancing actions might still be bad/misled/hypocritical in hindsight, but it’s better than if we don’t take any action at all.
The only thing we can do is raise our chances.
100 companies/corporations are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Unless the “simple changes” are “abolish capitalism and give these polluters the corporate death penalty” then there’s jack shit you can do to have any appreciable impact beyond not having kids and convincing everyone you know to do the same. Because if the human race goes extinct there will be nobody left to pollute.
Anytime you have a chance to vote, take it, and vote for whatever option will be most likely to reduce the overall emissions. In most cases, this will probably mean voting for programs/parties etc that oppose conservatism.
In the US, neither party is serious about stopping climate change. They are both controlled by big oil, big car, etc.
I agree the the democrats are not nearly serious enough about stopping climate change, but the republican party is actively hindering efforts and definitely worse for the plant in the long run.
Neither party being serious does not mean one isn’t way worse than the other
