Everyday solutions

Climate change is awful. Our planet is in danger, and so are we. But if this is all about carbon emissions and government regulations, is this any of my business? What can I do about it? Should I just sit back and relax as the world is destroyed around me?

It turns out, there’s a lot that you can do at home to help prevent climate change, from buying products from more eco-friendly companies to remembering to turn off the lights when you leave a room. This might seem like a challenge, but many of these are easy to do if you get into the habit. So here’s a list of things you can do to help at home!

1. Plastic, Plastic Everywhere

Plastic is in many things in our everyday lives, including clothes, bags, utensils, pens, and packaging. Many restaurants or grocery stores will supply plastic forks, knives, spoons, and straws to eat with, but those will just get thrown out and go right into a landfill. Instead, bring utensils from home when you go out, and buy a set of metal or silicone straws!

To replace plastic bags, use a reusable bag or replace a trash bag by putting your trash in a bucket and using a bucket liner! You can also use compostable or recyclable bags, learn more with Earth 911 Trash Bag Alternatives. One more trick for fighting climate change by not using plastic: if you need water, try to use tap water instead of a plastic bottle of water - the plastic bottle will often go into a landfill or the ocean, whereas tap water will just go into you, and you can wash your cup instead of throwing it away!

2. The Natural Solutions

Planting things is excellent for the environment, and can help with climate change too! Many plants provide food for pollinators, and they can enrich the soil and make it healthy, as long as no harmful pesticides are used. (Learn more about healthy farming and pesticides here!) Sometimes, you can start or join a community garden in your neighborhood, or just plant some seeds and grow food to start a small garden in your backyard!

When you have extra food that you need to throw away, a lot of it can go into the compost! Composting is great for the earth, helps enrich the soil, and reduces waste. You can also make the soil in your garden even healthier by adding your compost!

Planting trees, our natural carbon dioxide filter, is also a great way to help with climate change, due to deforestation, which is the mass felling of trees (check out our pages on how deforestation can affect animals and how cows contribute to deforestation here), so planting just one tree is helpful - especially if you can find a foundation or group that’s all about planting trees. With some, you can even help fund more plantings! For starters, try becoming a member of the Arbor Day Foundation or become a Tree Ambassador at One Tree Planted.

If you can’t pay for the foundations and don’t have enough space for a garden, you can always just take hikes and walks in the wilderness in your town. Taking hikes will help you connect with nature, and if you can’t do anything else, you can always spread the word and invite others to come with you!

The more people connect, the more people care, and so the more people will feel motivated to help make change.

3. I See the Light

Many harmful carbon emissions are caused by wasted energy, whether it be from your electricity source, leaving your lights on, or turning your heat on for too long. Luckily, most of these problems can be solved by forming a solid habit or making a quick call to your electric company.

One of the most helpful things you can do to save energy is to use solar or wind energy to power your home. These use much less carbon than fossil fuels and are often cheaper! Using LED lights is a lot better for your environment, too, since your typical incandescent light wastes a lot of energy on outputting heat and only uses a little bit for light. In contrast, LED lights only have a tiny heat output, meaning they have much more energy to use on lighting up your home!

Often, lights in a building will get left on in a room no one is in. This wastes a lot of power because electricity and other fuels are being used to keep the light on and shining bright, even though no one is using that light. This one’s easy to fix - just make sure to turn out the light once everyone has left the room!

Sometimes, you can just use the natural light from a window to light up a room, instead of using electric lights where they aren’t needed. If you have to, you can light a candle - although candles release some carbon when burned, so they aren’t always the best replacement.

4. In Too Deep

It’s easy to save water at home, and your environment will thank you. One easy way to do that is to follow a childhood rhyme: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down.” It may sound gross, but only flushing your toilet once you’ve pooped will conserve water - although your toilet can get very yucky very fast, so be sure to clean it at least twice a week!

5. Places to Be and Things to Buy

Conserving energy is a big help in the fight against climate change - many of the simplest solutions are simple ways to save energy and lower carbon emissions! For example, instead of taking your car to get somewhere, walk or bike to save a lot of energy from your car - cars emit a lot of carbon. In fact, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average car emits around 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide in one year! An electric car will also help with these fuel emissions - electric cars only emit 0.0002 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and cheaper versions are coming onto the market every day.

When you are purchasing things, keep an eye on the ingredients. Shampoos and paints have a lot of chemicals in them that are very bad for the environment, as do many cleaning supplies. When you can, always try to buy from companies that help the environment and fight climate change - not just when buying cleaning supplies and paint but when buying anything!

If you do buy that paint, what are you going to do with it? Maybe use it on old furniture! 

Additionally, did you know that using a lot of paper isn’t great for the environment? The more paper you use, the more trees are felled to make it, and often printer paper is coated with chemicals. Instead, see if you can buy some paper made with something else- paper made out of bamboo or animal poop is a favorite.

One more easy tip: get a smaller fridge. The smaller your fridge is, the less energy it will use, and you won’t lose food in the back and just throw it out, wasting it. Check out our page on food waste here! 

Most of these tips aren't difficult to pull off if you get in the habit or make a quick call to some companies. And of course, the easiest way to help if you can’t do anything else is to spread the word! Tell your friends and family about climate change, and share some of these tricks with them. Make a video and post it online. Write a report or a story about climate change. Write a song. The more people know about climate change, the more we can do to stop it. Scientists estimate that carbon emissions will have to fall to about half their current size by 2030 to reverse climate change, or we might not be able to solve this problem threatening the whole planet - and threatening the whole planet means threatening everyone and everything on it.