With Climate Change, Everyone - EVERY ONE - Matters (Part 4 of 4)

In Parts 1 thru 3 of my series I talked about how I experienced the effects of the climate crisis in every one of my treks in the wilderness. So many people I talk to have “climate anxiety,” they know climate change is real, they see how it’s affecting them and others around the world, but they feel powerless to stop it from getting worse. I’ll start out with a few sobering statements… nothing you or I do is going to stop the glaciers from melting tomorrow, and nothing you or I do is going to lessen the frequency or severity of storms next week, and nothing you or I do is going to restore the lost biodiversity in our forests next year. That’s the frustrating part, but … and this is a big BUT … if we all do the things I discuss below we WILL start to pull back from the precipice. It took 140 years of environmental neglect to get us here and it's going to take decades to pull back, but it can start today. That’s right today because the things I’m going to talk about are items every one of us can do NOW.

I believe that every individual has the power to make a significant impact on our planet’s health and I believe in all of you reading this and re-sharing this, and those who read what you re-share, yada, yada, yada. While national and global governmental policies and systemic changes in our society are crucial, our individual actions collectively can drive substantial progress.

Here are my top practical steps you can take to contribute to the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Think of this list as a buffet, you'll likely explode if you try to digest them all at once, so start with a few here and there and work your way through them:

1)?Support Environmental Policies - Advocate for policies that promote sustainability and environmental protection. In some way we all care about preserving the environment around us in terms of clean drinking water; clean lakes & rivers with abundant aquatic life to fish, boat and paddle; vibrant forests where we can hike, bike, camp, & hunt; lakes that freeze over again in the winter for skating, ice fishing and hockey; snowy mountains in the winder where we can ski, snowshoe and snowmobile; and so many more things that we all already miss or may lose in the future. We must find that common thread that unites us and weaves us into the fabric of society and work to address that together:

• Vote: Vote, Vote, VOTE! Support candidates whose policies and platforms prioritize climate action, we can’t do this with just individual efforts, we need legislation & governments to make big changes like converting to a 100% renewal energy grid.
• Engage Locally: Participate in local environmental initiatives and tell your legislators what action you demand. My state legislators know me by name because I’m regularly communicating with them about environmental issues. I haven’t won the conservative one over yet, but we keep having productive conversations and that’s all I can ask of him to not shut me out.

2) Educate Yourself and Others - Stay informed about environmental issues globally, nationally and locally – here in CT coastal residents are hit hard every year by intense storms and storm surges and we now have destructive tornadoes every few years, neither of those things used to happen in this region in the past. Educate others about the importance of environmental conservation and encourage them to act too. The more people understand the impact of their actions, the more likely they are to make sustainable choices.

3)?Go Green in Your Own Yard – Lush green lawns are bad for so many reasons… they waste lots of water to keep green, the chemicals used to keep them green and insect free kill valuable insects, birds that eat them, contaminate ground water & harm aquatic life, and yes, contaminate us resulting overall in biodiversity loss. So take some of it back!

• Plant trees in your yard - Trees absorb carbon dioxide, filter toxins out of the soil, absorb excess ground water after storms, and provide food & shelter for wildlife. Participate in tree-planting events or support organizations dedicated to reforestation efforts. If you do this, make sure and select trees that are NATIVE to your region, don’t bring in ornamental trees that harm and outcompete local species!
• “Rewild” Your Lawn - Replace sections of your lawn with pollinator gardens filled with native species of grasses, shrubs and flowers. They look messy to start, but when you see bugs, birds and animals come to feast on the seeds and berries your heart will grow 10x! One area of my lawn I replaced was an area that was struggling with erosion from the more intense rainstorms. My pollinator garden also turned into a rain garden, it soaks up the water running across my front yard during storms and I no longer have erosion issues! Replace other sections of your lawn with a vegetable garden and grow your own veggies. I love the tomatoes, eggplant, peas, beans, peppers and cucumbers I get from our garden all summer long, and we stew many of the tomatoes for use in the winter months for sauces too!

4) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - The 3 R’s are overused but fundamental to minimizing waste and conserving resources and are the cornerstone of a circular economy. We’ve become a “disposable society” that prioritizes individual convenience over conservation.

• Reduce: Be mindful of your consumption. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this, or do I just want this?” Corporate marketing is designed to make us want things we really don’t need. Does everyone really “need a Thneed?” Seek out products with minimal packaging, many products actually advertise this or have an option to buy it with all of the crap left out. Avoid single-use plastics whenever possible (see the next item for details).
• Reuse: Find new uses for items instead of discarding them. Repair broken items rather than buying a new one. Even better, buy used/refurbished products instead of new and resell or donate your used items you don’t want anymore. If you saw my pictures from summiting of Mt Rainier in Part 1, I bought my gold-colored puffy coat used, I repaired my harness before the trip when one of the buckles broke, my telescoping trekking poles in Part 2 & 3 have been repaired many times when sections got bent and I bought replacement sections for the ones damaged, I bought my GPS watch refurbished many years ago (I buy a lot of refurbished technology, I actually seek out refurbished first in many cases). I also sell what I no longer use on eBay, I just sold a number of items for almost nothing, the income was immaterial… I wanted to make sure that while it had a useable life, someone else would get use out of it!
• Recycle: This is a tough one because single-stream recycling has ruined the reuse of most of what we recycle. We all feel good about how much goes into our recycling bins, but because cities and towns opted for cost over effectiveness, most doesn’t get reused.

The Bad – The reality is likely different state-by-state, but consider this… in general 66% of what you recycle in your single stream bin either ends up in the landfill or gets shipped to a foreign country where it’s likely dumped in the ocean. Worse yet, 92% of plastic is burned, dumped in a landfill, or shipped abroad where it's dumped in the ocean or landfills. ARGH!!! Why is that? Here are a few reasons - People throw plastic food containers away with food still in them and it contaminates everything else in the stream, many plastic items thrown into the bin are not recyclable, glass breaks and the chards contaminate the paper & plastic, people throw unrecyclable glass types into the bin and it mixes with the good glass to contaminate it. Because of this, the market for buying plastics and glass from single stream recycling by companies looking to reuse raw materials is very low. This material builds up at recycling facilities and it gets burned, shipped overseas, or sent to the landfill. Check out this report: Recycling in the U.S. Is Broken. How Do We Fix It? – State of the Planet ( columbia.edu )

How to fix – Check your city or town’s recycling site to see what plastics they actually accept, so you aren’t contaminating the stream and making it unusable. Don’t give up on recycling, but make sure you’re only putting in reasonably clean items that are accepted by your recycler.

The Good – Some items are very recyclable like metals and cardboard so definitely make sure and recycle these items! The most marketable plastics are types 1 & 2, so look for those in food packaging instead of 3/4/5/7 because they get bought from recyclers for reuse (how they sort it is a mystery to me). The best market for plastic and glass comes from the bottle redemption programs because the quality is high so when you can, use the bottle redemption centers for your returnable bottles. Don’t just throw them into your recycling bin! Did you know most grocery & retail stores take back many types of plastic bags for recycling? They are usually not accepted in recycling bins, so read up on which ones stores accept, save them, and bring to the store when you’re going shopping! They often accept shrink wrap, shopping bags, ziplock bags, bread bags and other food coverings & bags, etc.

• Support the Circular Economy – Buy from companies that are helping to build the circular economy to eliminate waste. I often look for which companies will buy my end-of-life product back from me when it’s time to upgrade. A good example is Apple and Dell Technologies , they offer trade-ins when you buy your next phone, watch, tablet, laptop, printer, etc. and those products either get refurbished and resold or both have a very sophisticated process that extracts raw materials from those devices for use in manufacturing new products. I also look for which companies use post-consumer recycled materials in their products. Patagonia , REI , and 耐克 use recycled materials in their fabrics; and Dell uses ocean plastics and other post-consumer plastics in its products and packaging.

5) STOP using PLASTICS - Especially single use plastics! I’ve attended numerous plastics seminars lately and was horrified by the reality of plastics. Did you know that the energy required to make plastic from petroleum products (yep, plastic comes from super-heating natural gas) has overtaken the greenhouse gas emissions we are saving by shutting down sooty coal-fired energy plants? OMG!

• I know its nearly impossible to stop using plastic altogether, but here are a few thoughts we can all get in the habit of quickly…
• Buy products made of metal or wood instead of plastic – they likely last longer before breaking! One is extremely recyclable; the other is renewable and biodegradable. For example - Bamboo cooking utensils don’t scratch nonstick pans, don’t leach micro-plastics into your food, and is a renewable resource.
• Stop using single-use plastic bags – Reusable and plant-based bags are available and not that expensive to break a household budget. I'm continuously fighting with store clerks who want to put my single deodorant stick in a big plastic bag! Some now know me and say, “No bag right?” ?? success
• Stop using single-use plastic cutlery, plates & cups – Use your own at home, dishwashers are highly water & energy efficient nowadays. Take-out food is a huge issue with this. I’m always finding ways to tell them ahead of time to leave out the cutlery, it’s such a huge waste. I’m taking the food home, I don’t need plastic spoons, forks and knives. It’ll save restaurants money too!
• Stop buying bottled water & drinks – It’s rare that I ever buy them anymore and usually only when I was stupid and forgot to bring my bottle from home. Get a nice stainless steel insulated bottle or tumbler and use it over and over … and over again. Even my plastic squeeze bottle I use for hiking and cycling is probably 10 years old now and I use it every day. When I bring tea to work in the morning, I make it at home in my good ol’ Dell YETI stainless steel tumbler I got many years ago! The big water cooler bottles at home are fine because the bottles are returned and reused. If you like flavoring, there are many concentrates & home mixers you can buy and add on your own without buying single serve water or carbonated beverages.
• If you want to learn more about how micro- & nano-plastics are literally contaminating everything on the planet because of our careless use & disposal of plastics, check out this YouTube video or visit the web site for Beyond Plastics HERE .

6) Embrace a more sustainable diet – I know it’s hard, so I’m not saying everyone must become vegetarian, but everything helps. Not only how much meat, but also what type of meat you eat matters too:

High-impact meats: We often eat vegetarian meals, and when we do eat meat it’s almost always fish, chicken/turkey, or pork

1. Beef: 27 kg CO2e/kg
2. Lamb: 24 kg CO2e/kg
3. Pork: 12 kg CO2e/kg

Moderate-impact meats:

1. Chicken: 6 kg CO2e/kg
2. Turkey: 5 kg CO2e/kg

Low-impact meats:

1. Fish: 2 kg CO2e/kg
2. Shrimp: 1 kg CO2e/kg

7)?Conserve Energy - Energy conservation reduces the demand for fossil fuels, which are a major source of carbon emissions:

• Switch to LED Bulbs: They use less energy and last longer than traditional and even fluorescent bulbs.
• Unplug Devices: Turn off and unplug electronics when not in use to prevent “phantom” energy consumption. I know this one is hard, we all love to be instantly connected, but computers and tablets boot so fast nowadays. Heck my Microsoft Surface even boots in less than 15 seconds!
• Use Renewable Energy: If possible, switch to a renewable energy provider or install solar panels on your home. I have too many trees for solar and I’m not about to start cutting them down, but we do have options in CT for which energy provider we get our electricity from and we’re always looking for the one using the most renewables… surprisingly we often save money switching too!

8)?Reduce Water Usage – Remember climate change isn’t just global warming, it’s humanity’s collective impact on the environment… so water conservation helps protect our dwindling freshwater resources and reduces the energy required for delivery and treatment:

• Collect Rainwater: Use rain barrels to collect water for gardening… it’s better for the plants too
• Fix Leaks: Repair dripping faucets and running toilets
• Install Low-Flow Fixtures: Use low-flow showerheads and toilets to reduce water usage

9)?Choose Sustainable Transportation - Transportation is a major source of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions:

• Walk or Bike: Choose walking or biking for short trips. We walk to the park rather than driving to the park and then walking there, and if we’re visiting neighbors we always walk.
• Use Public Transit: Take buses, trains, or carpool to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. If you don’t have this near you, well then you don’t. We try to pile into one car whenever possible and we always take the train into NYC when going in for a show rather than driving.
• Drive Efficiently: When you must drive, maintain your vehicle and drive efficiently to reduce emissions. In hybrid vehicles nowadays it can be a game you play trying to grow new leaves on your efficiency screen or stay in the most efficient mode. I often try to see how far I can get on battery-only mode in my Toyota Prius Prime before it switches to gas, or how many miles I can get on a single tank of gas. Make efficiency fun!
• Reduce Air Travel & Cruises - Air travel & cruise ships are a significant source of carbon emissions. When possible, choose alternatives or purchase carbon offsets. Some cruise ships now offer carbon-neutral excursions by reducing waste, being more efficient, composting, and purchasing carbon offsets.
• EVs: I’m not going to spend much time on this topic because in the US, the majority of our electric grid is powered by natural gas and coal, so the nifty plug-in hybrids or EVs we buy are still powered mostly by fossil fuels until our state & federal governments prioritize converting our energy grid to renewable energy sources. In CT, less than 40% of our grid energy comes from renewable sources and most of that is Nuclear Fission which has environmental issues of its own. I’m not trashing EVs though, at least 40% of its fuel is carbon-free compared to 0% of gas-guzzlers.

While individual actions alone can’t solve the climate crisis, they’re an essential part of the solution. By making conscious choices & encouraging others to do the same, we can collectively drive the change needed to protect our planet. Every one of us, and every one of our actions either helps or hurts. Together, we can make a significant impact.

I’d love to hear from you all… What steps are you already taking? Which are you planning to take? Let’s share and inspire each other! We could all use some encouraging stories!