13 Things We Can Do Today to Address Climate Change
This post has been updated as of December 9, 2024.
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Who Are The Biggest Polluters In the World?
The Guardian has written an exceptional series on the 20 biggest polluters on the planet, their impacts, and who owns them. Needless to say, the biggest polluters are primarily oil and gas companies. According to Guardian’s 2019 article, these 20 companies have knowingly produced about 35% of all greenhouse gas emissions from 1965 to 2017. The Guardian uses the year 1965 because that is when the oil companies became aware that burning fossil fuels was directly correlated to climate change. There is a paper trail indicating they knew the climate would start to destabilize around the year 2000.
Another Guardian article examines how just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all global emissions. Digging deeper, these same powerful companies have successfully diverted blame to the consumers (us) for the problem, without taking any responsibility for the part they play. It’s true that our individual choices matter. A 2009 study continued the carbon footprint myth and makes the claim that 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions comes from household decisions, such as personal vehicles, meat-based diets, housing, and heating and cooling.
REPEAT AFTER ME. YOUR PERSONAL CARBON FOOTPRINT IS A MYTH CREATED BY BP OIL AND GAS COMPANY.
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The personal carbon footprint also doesn’t take into account the overwhelming impact of the wealthy. The world’s wealthiest 1% produces the same amount of emissions as the world’s poorest 50% of the population. This doesn’t exonerate the biggest polluters in the world, many of which are investor-owned (some are owned by governments). These global conglomerates have known for decades the disaster that awaits us. Yet the oil executives continue to disseminate false information and promote climate change denialism, while they reap record profits, and the planet smothers and drowns. Our political systems have failed to stop it.
What Can We Do To Mitigate Climate Change?
In the face of these monumental forces, what can we do? WE ARE NOT POWERLESS. That’s what they want us to think. We cannot depend on our elected representatives to do anything. The political process has been completely corrupted through corporate money. We experienced a corporate coup of our government before many of us were born. If you haven’t heard of the Powell Memo, I highly recommend reading it. In 1971 Lewis Powell wrote a memo on how to destroy the middle class in America. Everything that Powell wrote has since come to pass. So we cannot address environmental destruction without addressing ORGANIZING.
We Have to Organize!
BIG SYSTEMIC CHANGES – Stop focusing on your personal carbon footprint. As noted above, the majority of greenhouse gas emissions does not come from individual household decisions. Check out my posts on 13 Real World Solutions We Can Implement Today and Zero Waste Changes I Made in 2023.
GET POLITICALLY INVOLVED – If you live in a state that allows public referendums then consider yourself lucky! For my Canadian friends, I’m not certain if your provinces allow for public referendums. If you live in a state that allows for public referendums then you have access to direct democracy! It’s not easy collecting signatures but it’s possible. I didn’t mention contacting your legislators because at this point I think contacting legislators is pointless. Yes, I may be jaded, but in my opinion the democratic political processes in western democracies have completely failed.
SUPPORT RANKED CHOICE VOTING – You can support Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) through Fair Vote. Sign up with Fair Vote and help your local community today. RCV is a transformative approach to elections that empowers voters, enhances democracy, and reduces barriers to systemic change. Instead of being restricted to selecting just one candidate, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the least popular candidate is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to remaining candidates based on voter preferences. This process continues until one candidate achieves a majority, eliminating the need for expensive runoff elections.
JOIN A POLITICAL PARTY, GO TO MONTHLY MEETINGS, AND BECOME A DELEGATE – The delegate process is specific to the American political system, but the idea of getting involved in the political process at the ground level is the same concept. Here are a few political parties: Green, Libertarian, Republican, and Democrat. I only posted national parties but there are several other state parties that you can find online.
Yes, I hate the political process but if you live an representative democracy then this part is absolutely necessary. Regular people (not multi-millionaires funded by billionaires) need to get involved in the political process, run for office from dog catcher to school boards, and become integral in their state parties.
I’m at the point where it doesn’t matter what political party you belong to. You don’t have to agree with everything in the party’s platform. FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT. Make connections, drop hints, show up for every meeting. Boomers are retiring. These political parties are in need of new reliable people. One of my favorite books on organizing for power is the late Jane McAlevey’s book No Shortcuts. I was blessed enough to do an online workshop with Jane before she passed away in 2021.
If you make yourself indispensable you can go far in the bureaucratic political process and who runs political parties? BUREAUCRATS.
JOIN A POLITICAL MOVEMENT – Depending on your interest (whether it’s environmentalism, healthcare, ending the endless wars, jobs, living wages— there is a political group for you! I’m in several. Joining a political movement is a SLOW PROCESS, but it’s necessary to maintain our morale. I’ve listed some of my favorite organizations below.
However, it doesn’t mean our consumption habits don’t matter. If you live in a consumer based economy I’ve listed 13 things we can do as individuals to immediately lower our individual greenhouse gas emissions. SEE BELOW.
Personal Does Matter
Western economies are typically consumer based. For example, 70% of the US economy is solely consumer based. So our individual and collective consumption habits of the 99% DO MATTER. I say 99%, as in most of us are NOT multi-millionaires! Our family of four produces about 1 trash bag per week. I know minimalism was so 2016, but I’m still a minimalist too! Minimalism will never go out of style for me!
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The number one thing we can do is VOTE. Did you know that environmentalists don’t typically vote? Given the crisis we face, it’s all hands on deck at this point. If you are an environmentalist and if you live in a democracy, please vote and donate to politicians who will fight climate change and pollution. See the other 12 things we can do to help stop the oncoming crisis.
I hope you’ve enjoyed some of tips to address climate change. What are some of your? I’d love to hear about them. Find me on Instagram.
#climatechange, #emissions, #environmentalists, #greenhousegas, #mitigate, #individual