Frustrated with the U.S. withdrawal from the climate change treaty? Worried about what it will mean for your children and grandchildren? Don’t just worry about it. Do something. Here are six practical ways to get active on the issue.
Change over to green power for your home
- Calculate your own environmental carbon footprint at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
- For a small extra cost, you can match your home electricity use with green power. For example, for my home, $10 a month can reduce our greenhouse emissions from over 12,000 pounds to under 3 pounds per year. Check with your electricity provider.
- Read the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Guide for more information on purchasing green power. It’s currently at https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/guide-purchasing-green-power
Take a Faith-Based Approach to Climate Change
- The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has published a paper on faith-based investing in relation to climate change issues. http://www.iccr.org/invested-change-faith-consistent-investing-climate-challenged-world
Invest and buy with climate change in mind
- When deciding who you will do business with or invest, consider companies that have signed on to the Statement of Fiduciary Duty and Climate Change (http://www2.cdsb.net/fiduciarystatement/statement). The Statement is a commitment by companies and investors to produce and use climate information in mainstream reporting even if it’s not required by regulations. Participating companies include Astra Zeneca, Autodesk, Club Mediterranee, Daimler, H&M, Honda, KPMG, Lenovo, L’Oreal, Nestle, Pick N Pay, Puma, Siemens, Virgin, Verizon, and Walmart, among others.
- Support companies that took a public stance against withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. They include Tesla, Disney, General Electric, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Uber, IBM, Shell Oil, and Cargill.
- If your employer or a company in which you hold stock is not active on the issue, encourage it to become active. For help making the case, read the Business Case for Responsible Corporate Adaptation (http://427mt.com/resources/responsible-corporate-adaptation/)
- If the company actively supported withdrawal from the Paris treaty, find a more climate-responsible company to do business with.
Eat well; eat climate-smart
- Choose organic, locally-produced foods, which require less transportation and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions—and are probably fresher anyway
- Balance your diet toward less climate-damaging foods. They are probably healthier anyway. Check out the list at https://www.nrdc.org/resources/eat-green-our-everyday-food-choices-affect-global-warming-and-environment
Travel climate-smart
- Read the climate change statements and the carbon offset programs of your preferred airlines. Consider purchasing the offsets or switching to another carrier if offsets are not offered.
- Be a climate-smart travel with help from organizations like Sustainable Travel International, https://sustainabletravel.org/ (third-party verified carbon offsets); the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, http://www.gstcouncil.org/en/ (Sustainable hotels, tour operators and destinations); and EarthCheck, https://earthcheck.org (scientific benchmarking for travel and tourism).
Be an Advocate for Climate-Change Initiatives
Here are some of the responsible nonprofit organizations have a consistent history of action on environmental issues, including climate change:
- The Environmental Defense Fund, https://www.edf.org/
- The Nature Conservancy, https://www.nature.org/?redirect=https-301
- Natural Resources Defense Council, www.nrdc.org
- American Rivers, https://www.americanrivers.org/
- The Sierra Club, www.sierraclub.org