71–80 of 105 posts
Yeah you're still helping data centers consume electricity but it's a lot cleaner than working in coal.
> Is there anything I, a normal person, can do to actually help? Absolutely. I work in cleantech, and you should, too! Solar and wind are economical, so now the biggest issue is scaling them up. That means tons and tons of problem solving, which means great engineering jobs! If you think about it, the switch to renewables means we need to deal with situations where the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, ye…
I follow most, if not every, advise about lifestyle, but I also belive that is not enough.
My current work consist in helping a company get more money, and while there's nothing wrong with that I would certainly preffer to work on something that along making profit helps fight climate change.
Will read both links given, thank you.
Although it has become fashionable to decry making personal changes as "irrelevant" and "ineffective" with the lie that since everyone isn't doing it, there's not point in anyone doing it, making changes to how you and your family live is still very important. Things you can do: 1. Find an energy provider who sells green energy - here in Germany, it's possible (and common) to buy 100% green energy, but I don't know w…
I mean, maybe if you not only change your habits but become vocal about it - encouraging your friends to follow suit, you can make some difference. It needs to become fashionable to be green, and people need to be ostracized for emitting C02.
But this problem is very hard to solve. There is a problem in economics called Tragedy of the commons, and there was one famous woman economist Eleonor Ostrom that proved that people can overcome most of these problems that arise locally with cooperation without government. But for global warming, I think the only way to solve it is governments forcing citizens to change their behaviors.
Reduce your meat consumption or go vegetarian or vegan. A major cause of deforestation is to grow corn / soybeans to feed to livestock. The forests, natural carbon sinks, are lost, and the livestock increase the amount of methane in the atmosphere. It takes 9 times the amount of land to make beef vs. growing plants. It uses a lot more freshwater to grow the food, and much more to give to the animals.
What about environmentally conscious farming? I mean pastured, free-range, etc. Also, what would you say is the difference between massive industrial plantations intended to feed livestock vs those intended to feed humans with a less than ideal diet?
As for the plantations: if we all cut out livestock from our diets, there'd be 9x less of them.
And what does "ideal" mean?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for your advice. We're already doing that. Not gonna lie, we love meat, but understand it isn't the best choice for the planet, so far we've reduced our meat consumption about 50%.
We love meat too. What I do is trying to not go to McDonalds or fast food so often where meat are mostly sh*t, but rather go to a local farmer and buy fresh meat. Maybe twice a week.
Going vegan is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the environment: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding... The next step would probably be engaging other people in veganism and in spreading the word about it.
Not having children will have a bigger impact. A plant based diet is moderately low down this list (again from the Guardian, they could try to be a bit more consistent). https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/want-to-...
The only thing that you can do that will matter is convincing other people to do something. A collective problem requires collective action. Anything you do alone will not make a difference.
Sometimes the best convincing is done by giving people a good personal example, not merely by talking.
In the mean time, vegetarian friends of mine who are just generally good people seem to have convinced a lot of people around them, without doing almost any talking at all.
It can really add up.
> Is there anything I, a normal person, can do to actually help? Absolutely. I work in cleantech, and you should, too! Solar and wind are economical, so now the biggest issue is scaling them up. That means tons and tons of problem solving, which means great engineering jobs! If you think about it, the switch to renewables means we need to deal with situations where the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, ye…
This is more like what I meant. I follow most, if not every, advise about lifestyle, but I also belive that is not enough. My current work consist in helping a company get more money, and while there's nothing wrong with that I would certainly preffer to work on something that along making profit helps fight climate change. Will read both links given, thank you.