If you don't believe in climate change this post isn't for you. This post is for logical people. The most recent report from the UN on climate change was the most startling yet - but is it enough to make you try to change your carbon footprint?
Welcome to the hilarious world of carbon footprints!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! They're so funny!!!! Sorry, yeah, carbon footprints aren't intrinsically funny but I figured if I started out with a BANG you'd stick with me. Said every high school girl ever.
I've done my best to make this information as digestible as a piece of dry toast - but the fun kind with an outline of the Virgin Mary burned into it to make it interesting and a bit alarming.
So let's get started then.
Table of Contents
What's a Carbon Footprint
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced and emitted into the atmosphere. This can refer to a business, individual or country. These greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and trap heat. BINGO. You have global warming and climate change because heat from the earth can't escape the atmosphere.
The good news is if we continue on like this we won't need to travel to tropical destinations for vacation because wherever you live will be a tropical destination. Also you'll possibly be dead. So there's that.
Your personal carbon footprint is a reflection of how good or shit you are in terms of controlling the greenhouse gases your life/lifestyle emits. A BIG carbon footprint means your particular life leads to a lot of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. A small carbon footprint means your life barfs fewer greenhouse gases into the air.
How big or small your carbon footprint is is based on the amount and how you travel, how much energy your home uses, how much shopping you do and what you eat. Among, ya know, other things.
So What are Greenhouse Gases?
Greenhouse gases are the bad things that block heat from escaping the atmosphere. They include Carbon Dioxide (from burning oil, coal or gas - think heating/cooling your home ), Methane (from the production and transport of oil, coal and gas and livestock - think cows/beef/sheep/goats ), Nitrous Oxide (agricultural fertilizers, and poop - again thinking livestock raised for you to eat ) and Fluorinated gases (from refrigerators, car air conditioning, foam production and aerosols ).
In very general terms the more you heat or cool your home, the more meat you eat, the more you shop & the more travel you do - the greater your carbon footprint.
non-expert but logical analysis by me
If you have your air conditioner set so cold you look like Jennifer Aniston in an episode of Friends, then you are creating more greenhouse gases than someone who keeps the temperature more moderate.
Both Canadians and Americans have the Bigfoot of carbon footprints. Only outdone by Australians. That's in terms of individual use. As far as countries go, China is the worst for emitting greenhouse gases, followed by the U.S.
Right now, average individuals in Australia, Canada and the US have HUGE carbon footprints, emitting 16-20 tonnes per person per year.
In order to stop the world from imploding - or exploding - we need to reduce that to 2 tonnes per person per year. Holy shit is right.
So how can you start to reduce your carbon footprint? Here's how based on the 4 biggest culprits in your life: travel, energy use, shopping and food consumption.
Travelling
Microchanges
- Drive Less Cars are major emitters so before you hop in it to go to the store don't. Either walk to the store if you can or just plan ahead so you're taking ONE trip for several things instead of several trips for one thing each time.
- Fly Less Even ONE trip in an airplane is monumentally bad. One flight from Toronto to Florida for example produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving for an entire year.
Can't stop flying because (insert what's probably a made up reason but justifiable in your head here)? Then you should try to do these things.
- Fly direct. Flying direct might cost more but it uses less energy because there are less take offs and landings (where major emissions occur)
- Fly during the day. I couldn't begin to explain it but there are sciencey reasons why flying during the day produces less emissions.
Macrochanges
- Make the next car you buy electric. Just remember to scream wildly out the window as you're driving because nobody can hear those cars coming.
- Don't fly.
- When you fly vow to offset your emissions.
Offsetting your emissions basically means giving money to organizations that put money into funding green energy or reducing emissions in other ways. A lot of airlines give you this option when you buy your ticket. Honestly. It's a thing.
Energy use
Microchanges
- Turn your water heater down to 120 F / 49 C. Unless you're using your bathtub to cook hard boiled eggs, you don't need it hotter than that.
- Turn your air conditioner up or your furnace down by 2 degrees.
- Use an energy provider that has a green option (power provided by wind or solar) or use offsetting. In Ontario, where I'm from, a company called Bullfrog charges you a fee every month that they invest in green energy to offset the fossil fuel energy your home uses.
- Finally switch to LED lightbulbs. Seriously. Where are you even GETTING regular old lightbulbs?? You bought cases of them when you heard the switch was coming didn't you?
- Unplug instead of turn off. (the television, coffee maker, any other appliances)
- Use a laptop instead of a desktop computer (they use less energy.)
- Trees and shrubs. Plant 'em around your house. They can cool your home so much that your air conditioner won't need to come on nearly as often. And in the winter they protect your house from cold blowing winds.
- Dry your clothing on a clothesline.
If you ever see a farmhouse on the prairies or anywhere with open land surrounding it you'll notice the house is usually surrounded by trees. It's to protect the house from blowing winds and sun. So be smart like a farmer. Insulate your home with trees and bushes.
Macrochanges
- Go solar. Solar panels, solar roofing shingles, solar lighting.
- Make your home more energy efficient with insulation or new windows. Even just filling cracks with spray foam can make a big difference. But energy efficient windows, doors and skylights can make a bigger difference.
Shopping
Microchanges
- Choose natural fibres over synthetics for clothing.
- Shop Fair Trade. That means looking for the Fair Trade logo on food and clothing. It means it was ethically made and sustainably sourced. Don't worry. There's nice Fair Trade clothing. You won't have to dress like a drunk Sherpa.
- Calm the hell down with your midnight online anxiety induced shopping binges. The manufacturing, shipping and disposal of that $10 pair of pants that you only wear once is contributing to climate change.
You and the environment are better off if you buy ONE good thing that lasts and looks good for years than succumbing to all the Instagram ads for what is basically disposable clothing.
At Christmas nobody wants to see your family sitting on a bed wearing matching plaid pyjamas anyway. I know. You thought we liked it. We don't. We know you're just a regular family that normally wears old tee shirts to bed. It's O.K.
- Buy used and vintage. That goes for everything. Clothing, tables, chairs, make up. Just kidding. You can buy new make up. Nobody wants you to get a rash or pink eye.
- Fix stuff. K, you need to learn to fix your own shit or pay someone to fix it. Because throwing it out and getting a new one isn't a good option. Also complain to companies about their shit products. Everyone knows that things aren't made the way they used to be. The reason for that is so people throw shit out and buy new shit that will eventually break and the cycle continues with big companies making lots of money.
Macrochanges
- Stop shopping. Seriously. Just stop. Find another way to make yourself happy or reward yourself. Get a different hobby. Learn to make your own moonshine or make really awesome toilet paper covers or dog biscuits or something.
Food
83% of your personal carbon footprint
is created by FOOD.
THIS is the place you can make the biggest impact on your carbon footprint.
Microchanges
- Eat Less Meat That's right. Just less meat. You don't have to give up burgers or steaks entirely. If you eat meat 7 days a week just give yourself one meatless day in the week. If you already cut down on meat, do it some more. Or swap beef for chicken.
WHY IS BEEF BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?
It takes a lot of feed, land and water to raise cattle. And they BURP endless amounts of methane into the environment. Sometimes they fart too, but it's the burping that's destroying us.
I swear to god if you had told me that cow burps were more dangerous than rusty old carnival rides I never would have believed you.
The effect of raising cattle on the environment is multifaceted. They take a lot of feed, water and land to raise and once raised they burp a LOT producing one of those sneaky greenhouse gases - methane. To raise the beef, forested land is often clear cut. This takes away the one thing in this world that's silently working to reduce greenhouse gases: trees.
The creation of *one* pound of ground beef releases 14.8 pounds of CO2 in the the air.
One mature tree can absorb 48 pounds of CO2 per year.
The number one thing we want to do is reduce the amount of CO2 in the air. Trees do that naturally every second of every day. But don't be fooled. Just planting trees isn't going to fix this. We need to do other things too.
- Grow Your Own The biggest contribution to greenhouse gases is in the production of food as opposed to the delivery of it. Eat food that's in season and grow what you can at home. Growing your own helps reduce greenhouse gases produced by large commercial grow operations plus you aren't hopping in your car to go to the grocery store as much. Also chances are what you're growing is a Black Krim tomato as opposed to a 2,000 lb Black Angus cow. However, having backyard chickens is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint.
I know these seem like stupid little changes that'll never amount to anything. Just because something seems insignificant doesn't mean it is.
- Don't waste food. Like I mentioned above, food is probably the main source of your entire carbon footprint. Wasting food is like directly shooting all of the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with a tee shirt canon for no reason at all.
Only buy what you need. 🥒 Make a menu for the week and buy the exact ingredients you need for that. 🍽 Rework leftovers into something new or suck it up and just eat leftovers.🍗 Scan your fridge every week to see what you need to use up before it goes bad. 🥜 Don't impulse buy bulk if you can't use it up.
If it comes in a container you could safely plummet over Niagara Falls in, you probably don't need that much of it.
Macrochanges
Become Vegan. Going vegan is the #1 way you can reduce the carbon footprint produced by your food consumption. By doing this you eliminate 2 of the biggest greenhouse gas culprits - meat & dairy.
Become Vegetarian*. That's O.K. You're not willing to give up cream in your coffee or scrambled eggs. Going vegetarian is still going to make a huge difference in your personal carbon footprint.
*Or you can be a pretend vegetarian like me. I eat meat, but only a couple of times a week.
Continue to eat meat but grow all of the other food you consume. Sounds hard and it is. But it can be done. I grow the majority of my own vegetables, fruit, dried beans and some of my grains on a 40' x 40' rented community garden plot. Throughout the summer I preserve everything for the winter. To be honest, by February I'm really sick of canned beans and root vegetables. #truth
6 Easy Things You Can Do TODAY
- Look through your fridge for food that's getting old and use it.
- Make roasted tomato sauce out of tomatoes that are getting past their prime.
2. Fill cracks in your house foundation and around windows with a can of that spray foam. The aerosol is bad and the foam component is bad. But it's offset by the benefits of insulating your house.
3. Walk to the store instead of driving.
4. Turn your heat down or your air conditioning up by 2 degrees.
5. That sour cream container you're about to throw out or recycle can be washed and used to store other stuff like your yogurt or roasted tomato sauce in the freezer. Which only needs to be set to 0 F / -18 C by the way. Stick a thermometer in your freezer and increase the temperature if it's needlessly low. That's a bonus tip for you.
6. Keeping your car windows rolled up so your toots don't escape isn't an efficient way to reduce methane. Turning the air conditioner in your car off and rolling down the windows instead is. If you do go for a drive today roll down the windows instead of blasting the air.
If you made it all the way to the end of this, thank you. It's easy to think this is someone else's responsibility. That someone, somewhere, won't let the planet burst into flames. But it's already happening. So clearly that approach isn't working. For any of us.
You don't have to change everything. But you have to change something. And you need to start doing it today. Don't make it a bigger deal than it is. Nobody's asking you to eat cow farts. Just eat a bit less meat, don't buy garbage you don't need and change your thermostat by a couple of degrees.
The action isn't a big deal but the impact is.
Suzanne K Hulme
thank you for this post.
George
Add me to the LONG list of people dropping you like a hot potato.
Logically the climate changes, and has been doing so since the Big Bang.
Anthropogenic climate change is the theory used to excuse government raising our taxes and limiting our freedom.
I'm sad to see you in that camp.
Amanda
George,
If I were Karen, I’d be glad to see you go.
It is so depressing to live in a world where there are people who are insufficiently educated to understand modern science. Or worse, people who choose willful ignorance.
I thank Karen for using her widely read blog to remind her readers that each one of us has a responsibility, however inconvenient it may be, to do our part, through our actions and our voting, to help slow the devastation to the climate and the planet that gives us life.
Jenny B
George, aside from your inability to look out the window and see the world on fire/flooding/drought, the big takeaway from your comment for me was when you started talking about government "limiting our freedom". It made me realize that no rational argument ever came after or before those words. If you don't believe in science and data, you need to rethink your news sources.
Theresa G Chickering
Good riddance to you, George.
Leslie
George,
If Karen had written the exact same post without Climate Change in the header, would you seriously have objected? Do you think actively working to waste less food is a bad thing? I bet your ancestor who lived through the Depression wouldn’t agree with you. Do you think it’s a good thing to buy those fast-fashion $10 pair of pants that you can only wear once and then have to throw away because they fell apart? I’m thinking that whoever is in charge of the landfill in your jurisdiction would want to take you on a little tour to try to convince you otherwise. What about moderating on your heating/cooling? My husband, the Thermostat Dictator, will zoom with you to show you the difference it makes to your monthly bill.
So George, how about you join the rest of us in making as many of these changes as you can justify for whatever reasons make sense to you. I don’t really care why you do it. Just do it, even one.
Karen Nash
Absolutely! Well said! Common sense should be renamed, because it certainly isn’t common!
Roberta
Agreed Leslie and Karen. And George, don't let the door hit ya... Just keep on driving your giant pickup to the convenience store for cigarettes and cheap beer (and throwing your cans in the trash). You probably just come here in hopes Karen is running that picture of her in a swimsuit with a fish. You won't be missed.
Lauren
Yay! George is leaving! 🎉🎈🎉👏🏻👏🏻
Ignorant a-hole.
Linda in Illinois
Bye bye George
Carol
Love your post.
We need to be kinder to our planet.
Never underestimate the power of many people doing many environmentally friendly things.
Next vehicle will be electric, and my gardens are both pretty and practical.
Learn to make your own clothes. They will last longer, fit better and build your self confidence.
Recycle your fabric. Remember the beautiful cotton prints on the sugar and flour bags? Those turned into the cutest dresses.
It is amazing what we can do when we pull up our socks and just get at it…
Susan
Your web age keeps having problems loading, then re-loads, so my and other’s comments and praise keep getting deleted once it re-loads. Is this fixable on your end?
Andrea
As a “logical” person I am exceptionally disappointed. Although, there are several points I can support as a rule of thumb in this post, most are absolutely not what actual environmental science supports. I think this is a very reckless and uninformed post. There are significant corrections or additional considerations to most of your points. Yes, there are micro and macro changes many of us can do daily, but some of them are like pushing air through a ballon… it just moves the problem somewhere else. As an example, you encourage solar power, without adding the science of the negative environmental effect of solar panel production. Which is great. Just one example.
I love reading your blog and have supported many of your linked affiliates but if I’m being honest this post has completely made me reconsider you and this blog. It is an uninformed and non-holistic look at environmental impact factors. It is not science based or accurate. Saddened you chose to use your platform in this way.
Cricket
Buy less stuff, and WAY less shiny new stuff; fix what you have; and for crying out loud don't waste food. These are 3 clear accessible, scientifically-based recommendations for those of us who live in consume-consume-consume cultures that were in this article. None of those guidelines pushes the problem elsewhere. There were more.
"Just one example" is a spurious way of focusing people's attention from the bulk of the recommendations to the single area of "it's not all rosy, there are some trade-offs and gray areas" issues around alternative energy production, and pretending like the environmental costs of solar (or other non-emitting renewable) production are game enders. You know what? coal-fired boilers and LNG pipes and transport all include bad-for-the-environment stuff at the build-the-equipment phase, too. You know what's different? the costs to *run* the stuff (and I include financial costs, immediate-environmental costs, and atmospheric/climatic costs). ALL of those cost measurments are tragic for fossil fuels, and excellent for true renewables.
Want to know something else totally banana-pants? we still SUBSIDIZE the fossil fuels! In the US, those subsidies fall into several categories and include direct, indirect, and externalized costs (we pay, shareholders and CEOs make bank) Here is an excellent review of those costs: https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs.
The truth is: individual changes can't fix what's in front of us, but they *can* help us pay attention and notice, and they *can* help us use our own actions to demand better of corporations, and ask our policymakers to get bold, creative, and effective.
Monica H
Amen! Subsidizing fossil fuels is the absolute worst thing that we can do, and the reason it's so hard to break this cycle of petroleum and petroleum products. AND I loved her suggestions of buying less stuff.
Personally, I think the frustration of trying to reduce my own footprint, especially with plastics, has driven me to become more active in demanding change from my leaders. This is a crisis, and we have to do everything in our power to stop it (while still taking time to enjoy life and nature while it lasts )
Monica H
this cyclist-scientist Monica H. heartily agrees you and with the other Monica H. and wants to add that we need to gently but loudly be non-consumers to normalize it. Rock on!
Joyce
Preach, sister! My son’s family and ours raise a bunch of fruit, veg and poultry and we are still cool people!
Folks need to realize that we are all in this together, we can all do a bit. I get plenty pissed at the waste in society!
I am going to look into those black kale, thanks for the idea. Can you eat in your morning oatmeal? It just looks like a lot!
Peace
Paula
I am so amazed that anyone finds this controversial. As I look outside on trash day I am amazed at how much trash some of my neighbors have every week. I am happy to do everything I can to help. The landfill looks like a mountain here. Last I checked Kansas doesn't have mountains. Use less shit people! Keep spreading the good word Karen!
Liz
Thanks Karen. Even if individually, we are not the 1% of people doing 99% of the damage, we still have to own up and vote with our actions.
Regardless of whatever these climate denier wackjobs say, we need to be kinder to our earth and wild things. Yesterday.
This is important that you posted this. I’m a mom of two and teacher of Green Industries. Climate change is my one biggest concern for my children.
Thank you.
Jenny W
Karen, I read your post at 7:45am and there were many, many comments - including mine.
When I posted my comment - all but 2 of the comments were deleted. Whats up?
Jenny W
Please disregard - must have been a glitch on my side.
Karen
Haaa! ~ karen
Karen
Hi Jenny. Might have just been a glitch. I'm just reading the comments now (and I haven't deleted anything.) ~ karen!
Jenny W
I have learned a few things about myself during this pandemic.
#1 I never needed half of the stuff I thought I needed.
End of list.
Less shopping, ordering on line, driving
More cooking, crafting, gardening, walking and engaging with like minded people.
Every little thing we do counts. Why? Because there are a lot of us.
Be Better, Do Better!
Ann Roberts
I can't believe the number of people saying they will unsubscribe over a common sense, well written article, suggesting you make small changes that will help our planet. And guess what? Most will help your pocketbook as well.
Even if you don't believe in climate change, per se...environmental pollution is a huge thing and it is obvious in our cities, how dirty the air is, how many more children have life threatening asthma, and more cancer. So if you just don't like the term climate change, perhaps think about reducing pollution. If you don't like to make changes because you don't believe in climate change, then do it for your wallet, your bottom line.
Me, I believe in climate change. Some of it is due to man and needs to be reversed. We have too many people crowded onto this planet and we are seeing the results of it more and more each day. Our home did many of these things long ago. We have a very productive solar PV array system that provides almost all of our homes electrical needs. We grow a large garden and much of our meat comes from rabbit, which is one of the most efficient meat sources possible. We do not over cool our house. We make one trip a week into town for all our needs for that week. We don't mow our 3 acres down to the bare soil religiously like home and garden magazine is coming for a photoshoot.
Louann Chalcraft
Thank you for this. And bye to all the climate experts who are leaving. You will be missed I'm sure.
Grammy
Oh, my. Karen is losing some subscribers because they don't want to hear about how just making a few minor changes in their lives can actually help save the planet. How special these people must be.
No, altering the amount of my little carbon footprint isn't so significant that it will prevent polar icecaps from melting, stop all droughts, bring back extinct species, or eradicate all the disease in the world. But I can at least reduce the amount that I add to all the planet's ills, and every person who does so can add their bleeding heart to mine on the scoreboard to make some difference.
Thank you, Karen, for tossing out so many suggestions -- because anyone interested can find something on the list that they might not have thought about that won't make them suffer substantially. We still have to tolerate those who find any little change in their charmed lives to be an unreasonable sacrifice, but it'll actually be better if they find a community that better suits their sense of privilege. The rest of us can hang out here finding ways to do things that make us feel good, if not superior.
Lia
Well said!
Reasoning with climate change deniers is like talking to anti vaxxers or discussing religion with the well-dressed people who come to your house with pamphlets they want you to read - it's a waste of time. They're the frogs in that pot of water on the stove. It's unfortunate that there is just the one pot and we can't jump out either.
Great list Karen - we've already implemented several of your tips. Here's my pet peeve: people who idle their car in the driveway for 20 minutes to warm it up in the winter (or leaving it running with windows rolled up and the a/c running in the summertime while they wait for someone to come back from wherever).
RJ Hirsch
Really reallly reallly smart people don't seem to get the cost----to the planet---- of delivery trucks.
We live in a wonderful neighborhood. Folks rail about plastic.
And on our local Science Forum Radio show [and in follow up correspondence] I heard and had to digest that one gallon of gas, it takes one gallon of gas to produce 400+ plastic bags. So yes, you are spot on re: travel.
And the AMAZON delivery truck that brought one item.................. The truck that idles and puts out fumes.....
PLEASE everyone there are so many reasons to avoid doing that.
It is a beautiful planet.
janzhouse
Ya, time to unsubscribe
Ada Berry
Bye
LG
Good riddance! I'm sure you can find a group of ill educated people on Facebook to hang out with
Susan Wendt-Bogear
I can give up meat, but do you have an ideas for coffee and chocolate? Or are you growing them, too?
George
I never before realized that Miss Karen was a leftist. But in keeping with the leftist view of the perfect America, don't you worry your pretty little head over coffee and chocolate because there will be none. I'm sure Karen can explain how to make Chicory coffee though. In her vision of the future though, you'll have to stand on a long line to get it, if you're lucky enough.
Lauren
What on this earth would ever make you think that Karen is on the Right??? I have no idea what her politics are, but since she appears to be an intelligent, kind, inclusive type of person she would be the antithesis of a person on the Right of the political spectrum.
I know it will be very hard for you to grasp, but science is real.
Caroline
Hi Susan, not wanting to sound holier-than-thou or anything . . . . but I've recently given up tea and coffee after reading about the adverse effects of caffeine and also the terrible effects on the environments and people who grow them. The positive effect on some long-standing health issues has been remarkable. I now drink lemon balm and peppermint, mainly, that I grow myself. Much cheaper and healthier! Not giving up chocolate anytime soon, though!
Guess Again
Karen,
Hmm🤔 You are starting to worry me. I can understand your concern about reducing our carbon footprint, but at the same time, while listening to all the propaganda about the overly abundant supply of carbon and other greenhouse gases being released into our atmosphere by our government leaders and other NGO's, why is it that all the people that are affiliated with organizations like the Bilderberg group fly on private jets to meet up and find ways to make us peasants pay for most of the carbon that we don't even produce?
The world has been going through climate change since it's creation. There have been energy saving inventions where the patents are bought up by big oil companies just to keep them off the market.
There are also volcanoes constantly erupting around the world, spewing God knows how many tonnes of chemicals into out atmosphere. Let alone the tens of thousands commerical aircraft flying around the globe on a daily basis.
I don't believe eating one less burger a week will make a difference.
The real sad part is, that in most US cities, it is illegal to burn wood for heat, which is 100% carbon neutral. Go figure, it must be the Fossil fuel industry lobbying the crooked government officials to make burning firewood illegal.
Did you know that they have discovered past ancient equators at different parallels around the world? It only tells me that our world is in a constant state of change, and there isn't a thing we can do about it but enjoy the creation that God has made for us, however that may be.
FYI, did you know that the life of the blades on wind turbines are only 25 years? Then they can't recycle them and end up burying them in the ground. Plus think of all the birds they kill, millions. Well maybe not anymore because there aren't that many left. I haven't seen one Robin yet this year, nor woodpeckers. Just a few sparrows and pigeons. I just think God is mad at us, and we're all about to pay!
janzhouse
could not have said it better myself.
Sally
Well, you’re starting to worry me - invoking 'God' when we’re talking about science! 🤔
Using the fine art of Whataboutery to justify not taking any remedial steps at a personal level can only be described as highly selfish at best.
Guess Again
Science has brought us a long way. All the plastic bottles that are produced because of the science in the petroleum industry has devastated our ecosystem.
Remember the days of returning your glass bottles for a deposit, or aren't you old enough?
Now plastic bottles aren't even being recycled anymore. Where do you think all that toxic waste is going?
Science is a guessing game for the most part. Just like this mRNA vaccine that is designed to change your God given DNA!!!
Karen
Oh fuck. ~ karen!
Kat - the other 1
God is the one Who created science.
So they actually do go together.
Just not the untrue stuff like saying we all evolved from apes and teaching it like gospel when it is called the "THEORY of Evolution", NOT the Truth as we all know it to have been proven or something.
I do not understand why theories are allowed to be taught as absolute truth. Makes no sense.
Anyway, I'm sure what we (individuals, corporations, etc) do does / has changed the environment, However, the environment Naturally goes through changes too. Why do we HAVE to believe in either or?
I think it's BOTH. ;)
Kara Lee
Eesh. Bye Felicia 👋.
Monica H
The IPCC report last week left me feeling dazed (or maybe it was the heat and smoke on the burning west coast). It was devastating to learn that entire countries like the Marshall Islands will be underwater in a couple of decades because of my country's overconsumption.
Once the daze wore off, I was propelled into action - I got a quote to replace my ancient gas furnace with efficient Mitsubishi heat pumps, I made plans to convert my boat's gas engine to electric, and I am going to sell my car next month and only use my bike :D
Oh, and I sent money to #stopline3 to stop Enbridge from building their new pipeline in South Dakota that violates treaty rights.
Thanks for a making a great list of a few more things that we can do. It's so encouraging to see other people taking action!
M. Schmidt
I live in South Dakota and I say Thank you! Our governor is all about the pipeline and doesn’t seem to care if it contaminates our land and drinking water. After all she is running for President and won’t have to worry about it once she moves to the White House... 🙄
Erika Collins
Thank you Karen. I enjoyed the humor but really appreciated the ideas and reminders. If the people who care make the changes we can and encourage others to join in we have done all we can. It’s better than doing nothing.🥰🥰
DP
Unsubscribing. From a “logical” person who looks at the real science and does not take talking points from the UN.
Kristin Conley
How sad...
Teresa Schwab
Bye-bye!
Kara Lee
Eesh. Bye Felicia 👋.
Andrea
I’m in agreement with DP. This is extremely disappointing and sad to see this post. These are indeed talking points and very much not real science. Although I agree with you in several points as a general “rule of thumb” there are so many fallacies and holes and non science based statements in this post I am, quite frankly shocked and dismayed you would post. I have enjoyed reading you and even supporting many of your sponsored links, but in all sincerity, you have in one post changed my mind about you and your blog. Disappointed.
Becky
You can't just accuse someone with a phrase like "very much not real science" then not bother to back it up. If you know better, please share your superior knowledge (though I suspect you don't). Karen is sharing tips for reducing *personal* carbon output. The majority of her suggestions are no-brainers, with abundant evidence readily available to back them up, if you just look a little. If you don't want to see it, that's your problem, but it's there. Whether big corporations, governments, the super-rich should be doing more to reduce their harm is a whole other question (to which the answer is clearly yes, and begs the even more pressing question "who's gonna tell 'em?) But as far as a timely reminder of everything we can *personally* do, said in as fun and un-preachy way as possible - Karen nailed it ✊