JCC What are you doing to reduce your Carbon Footprint

This is a thread to share what you are doing to reduce your carbon footprint. Not only to share what you are doing but also pass your efforts on to others. Something I have heard a lot when it comes to climate change is if one of us does some things to do our part it doesn't do much good. But the more of us who work together the bigger impact we can make. So, come list your contributions, no contribution is too small and pass it on. Learn what you can do to help slow down the warming of our planet.

Here's some things I've been doing to reduce my carbon footprint:

• Eat vegetarian
• Bring my own reusable cup to Starbucks
• Use a shampoo bar instead of big plastic bottle of liquid shampoo, I also use an old fashioned bar of soap instead of body wash
• I use reusable containers for all my lunch sides instead of zip lock bags (I used to use so many zip lock bags)
• Recently bought a big thing of powder Gatorade to mix with water (again the old fashion way) so I won't be buying possibly dozens plastic bottles of Gatorade for my longer workout sessions

 

Pretty much nothing. I haven't given up meat yet and I don't like being cold.

 

Nothing. The idea of (largely proletariat) individuals taking actions like making sacrifices and reducing their standard of living to combat climate change is a fallacious concept meant to keep the focus on the individual and not on corporations or capitalism. The average person is not causing climate change. The rich, the corporations, and capitalism are. No amount of recycling is going to help.

 

I definitely understand your point of view. However, it's my choice not to sit back and wait for companies and governments to make these changes for me. If I and many others make choices to buy products that don't use as many emissions to make or use than companies might feel the need or want to make more of those products. They will make what sells.
I also don't feel I've reduced my standard of living. I think and I've heard many scientists and doctors say that eating a plant based diet is good for me, not just the planet. None of the things I listed has made me wake up in the morning and think, UGH I gotta do that today.

 

Honestly, nothing.

I worked in the restaurant service industry for several years. Seeing the amount of waste that gets produced on a daily basis just from one mid sized restaurant made me realize how totally pointless individual efforts are to try and conserve and save the environment. And I don't just mean food waste, but all the waste produced from every aspect of running the restaurant. Nothing recycled or separated. Everything just thrown into three dumpsters out back and hauled away each morning. More deliveries and supplies arrive, and the cycle just repeats itself. One restaurant will produce more waste in a single night than entire residential blocks will in a week. And then you realize this is every restaurant everywhere.

It's not like I go out of my way to consume more than I need to or anything like that. But seeing that first hand day in and day out made me completely apathetic to the idea of trying to save the environment.

 

I’ve tried to fart less. It’s been difficult and kind of painful, but every little bit helps, I guess.

 

I'm sorry to say that this is spot on.

I've been an environmental activist for more than 40 years - did an Environmental Science degree - did all kinds of stuff to 'reduce my carbon footprint' but in many ways I've come full circle, and not because I don't care.

I do some things I feel are right for me to do personally, but I no longer kid myself that we are going to fix climate change or other enviromental issues through individual action. The stats simply do not add up to a meaningful difference overall, no matter how you crunch the numbers. Plus I'm tired of some people practically demanding that I change this that or the other in my life to 'save the planet'. My environmental footprint is already minuscule. I was every bit as tedious as those activists for years, and just as passionately misguided. The 'solutions' presented to the individual are largely meaningless, and often have the potential to do more harm than good.

Caring about environmental issues is absolutely fine, and I absolutely do, but as @Lord Vivec says, this won't change the underlying cause, namely capitalism.