What You Can Do to Help Solve the Climate Crisis

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SAVE MONEY, BUY LESS
Energy is consumed in the manufacturing and transport of everything you buy. A good way to reduce the amount of energy you use is simply to buy less. Before making a purchase ask yourself if you really need it. Can you borrow or rent? Can you find the item secondhand? For ideas on how to pare down, visit www.newdream.org.

BUY THINGS THAT LAST
 “Reduce, reuse and recycle” has become the motto of a growing movement dedicated to producing less waste and reducing emissions by buying less, choosing durable items over disposable ones, repairing rather than discarding and passing items that are no longer needed on to someone who can make use of them. To find a new home for things you no longer need, visit www.freecycle.org.

PRE-CYCLE: REDUCE WASTE BEFORE YOU BUY
Vast amounts of natural resources and fossil fuels are consumed each year to produce the paper, plastic, aluminum, glass and Styrofoam that hold and wrap our purchases. Give preference to products that use less or recycled packaging.

RECYCLE
It has been suggested that if 100,000 people who currently don’t recycle began to do so, they would collectively reduce CO₂ emissions by 42,000 tons a year. As an added benefit, recycling reduces pollution and saves natural resources, including precious trees that absorb CO₂. To learn how to recycle just about anything in your area, visit www.earth911.org.

COMPOST
When organic materials are disposed of in the general trash, they end up compacted deep in landfills. Without oxygen to assist in their natural decomposition, the organic matter ferments and gives off methane, which is the most potent of the greenhouse gases — 23 times more potent than CO₂ in global warming terms. By contrast, when organic waste is properly composted in gardens, it produces rich nutrients that add energy and food to the soil.

EAT LESS MEAT
It takes far more fossil-fuel energy to produce and transport meat than to deliver equivalent amounts of protein from plant sources. In addition, much of the world’s deforestation is a result of clearing and burning more grazing land for livestock. For more information, visit www.earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm.

BUY LOCAL
It is estimated that the average meal travels well over 1,200 miles by truck, ship, and/or plane before it reaches your dining room table. One way to address this is to eat foods that are grown or produced close to where you live. As much as possible, buy from local farmers markets or from community supported cooperatives.

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