Personal Responsibility: Four Personal Habits Which Reduce our Climate Impact
Climate change affects all of us and time is running out to reverse devastating worldwide damage.
When going about our everyday lives, we are not aware of the damage we cause to the planet. From the food we eat and throw away, to the few minutes you leave the water on whilst brushing your teeth – climate-negative habits compound and culminate, and the damage is ricocheting.
“All you need is less.” A powerful message from climate activists. Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash
There are four key habits with devastating impact which are necessary to enact climate-positive change:
1) Turning off the water whilst brushing your teeth
Savewatersavemoney.co.uk said: "If you turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, you could save up to 12 litres of water, every day. If each adult in England and Wales turned off the tap whilst brushing their teeth, we’d save enough water for nearly 500,000 homes.” The compounding impact of millions of people doing the same leads to a complete waste of water which could have otherwise gone to better use.
2) Reducing food wastage
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said: “Global food wastage causes more carbon emissions than the majority of countries in the world.” According to a 2011 study by the FAO: “Each year, one-third of all food produced in the world for human consumption never reached the consumer’s table.” This statistic means food wastage is high. People can impact further through poor food storage, buying too much and throwing out more than necessary. A simple step would be, buy only what you need and reduce, re-use and recycle. Poor habits lead to even more wastage, with impacts totally incalculable by any measure – except maybe the horrendous rising carbon emissions.
3) Dietary choice (plant-based)
The average diet rich in meat and fish – sorry, pescatarians – is bad for the environment. Fish production is not as bad as most meat production, which releases greenhouse gases in abundance. But fish production does still welcome by-products which are harmful. Evidence suggests plant-based diets are overall more climate-friendly. Nicolas Garcia, COP26 Project Advisor at City of Glasgow College said: “Stop eating meat and fish. Stop drinking milk, transition to a plant-based milk.” Furthered, a report from the Lancet in 2019 said: “Vegan and vegetarian diets were associated with the greatest reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions.” By transitioning to a vegan or vegetarian diet you could make a great positive impact. Vegan and vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular. There could be a reduction in greenhouse gases produced abundantly by meat and fish production. Greenhouse gases are rising our global temperature, which is counter-productive to life on earth.
4) Education: wanting to learn and change.
The only way we can enact change across the board is by getting on the same page and many people do not want to listen. NewScientist said: “The argument is not really about the science; it is about politics and values. The way to engage people is to find ways of making climate change resonate with their values.” People in denial of the serious threat posed by the climate emergency are not all eco-anxious or simply unbothered. Rather, they are clouded by the misused direction of information about the climate emergency. Pushy activism can and has made people brush off climate change as something that doesn’t affect them. The likes of Extinction Rebellion and other groups closing roads or increased negativity spread about meat-rich diets, the pushiness and tunnelled media focus might all be overwhelming, but time is running out. We need to listen to the politicians, we need to talk, we need to be open to change. The only way to get passed the education barrier is for everyone to spread a peaceful message – personal responsibility, starting with small changes.
Nicolas said: “The future is not just a place we get to go, we actually have a say on how things work out. Fulfil your needs without compromising the needs of future generations.”