High-Impact Actions to Fight Climate Change

The Palisadian-Post has partnered with local environmental nonprofit Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to our readers.

While our global community is in the midst of a healthcare emergency, we also face a climate emergency that requires nothing less than an all-hands-on-deck approach in order to avoid the direst outcomes for current and future generations.

Since Americans emit some of the highest CO₂ emissions per capita, we need to step it up if we want a fighting chance against the steady curve of rising planet temperatures (2020 and 2016 tied for the hottest years on record, according to an analysis by NASA, ending the hottest decade on record).

Here are a few actions that experts have identified with the greatest potential to fight climate change:

• Contact your politicians. Your opinions help shape policies, and only governments can create the new global infrastructures and economies that factor in climate change. Call, write and email local, state and national leaders—they work for you and their decisions should reflect your hopes for a healthy planet that can support the next generation.
• Myriad scientists and climate experts have evaluated common human behaviors that have the highest output of global warming emissions. It turns out it’s difficult to identify a single change everyone should make.
• We do know that what we eat and how we travel are two areas in which we can substantially reduce our ecological footprints while making feasible changes in our lifestyles. Eating more plants and fewer animal products, and reorganizing our travel to reduce air and car miles, can all have big impacts. But as everyone has different behavior patterns to start with, it makes sense for each of us to evaluate our own behaviors and consider making the changes that make the most sense for each of us.
• Depending on where you live and what lifestyle choices make more sense to you, the best approach is to find an online carbon footprint calculator (online search for one whose interface you like) and evaluate your lifestyle choices from there.

Our planet is fragile, and humans are part of an interconnected web whose lives are connected to the health of our planet. There’s nothing to stop each and every one of us from stepping up our game. The important thing to remember is that each of us is responsible, and each of us is called upon to do something.

For more information about Resilient Palisades, visit resilientpalisades.org.