Being an avid thrifter my entire life, I rarely buy anything new. I have infected my wife with the bug as well. Our home is entirely furnished second hand (we have some insanely good consignment stores in our area). Clothing is also thrift/consignment other than undergarments and shoes (and like others- buy ones that can be resoled other than runners).
The amount of consumer goods that are already out in the world is insane- no need to buy new- the ultimate recycling. And the hunt is part of the fun.
...The extinction of our species within the coming decades is inevitable, let us face reality....
The unfair is, that the poor people in countries with a small individual ecological footprint are always struck first by the consequences...
You’d hope but evidence is to the contrary.
This is the dilemma that may make the OP's question moot about changes in our personal lives that will revert the tide.
The ocean's, tundra, icecaps and glaciers suggest that we have passed the tipping point and there is no alternative to massive death. (Perhaps not extinction, but the disntinction is irrelevant.)
Any personal reductions tend to be insufficient to the scale of the problem and are offset by competing needs.
Therefore, assuming it's still possible to stop the source of additional carbon, methane emissions (a big assumption), it needs to be done quickly and to the scale of the problem, which is worldwide. Two large sources are cattle (as already mentioned) and energy emissions.
It seems we either need to reduce the need to consume or to find replacements. Replacing beef for other food seems doable. Alternatives exist.
Besides stopping cattle production (stop eating beef), I personally struggle with admiiting that we need to switch to small nuclear plants, as well as increasing solar and wind (not to say I struggle with increaing solar and wind but those aren'tenough.) The demand for energy is not going to decrease worldwide. Therefore, we need an alternative and it needs to be quick.
The only practical solution that I know of is nuclear. It's like chemotherapy for the Earth. It may kill the patient but the patient is going to die without it. Is there a realistic alternative?
It's a terrible situation where people accept that it is a better future for humanity to not have children than to have children live in the world we've created. Not having children has become an understandable position. I am not advocating for having children, but instead pointing out that it says volumes about the scale of the problem. If that's the solution for all of us then we're cooked, there's nothing to be done and we might as well stop, and if so, then what have we to lose to try the nuclear option (choice of words intended?)
These are my candid musings in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep.
I grew up in Los Angeles during one of the worst prolonged droughts in the city’s history- this was what I was raised with. There were signs in public bathrooms that read this (I also remember having to ask my mother for a dime to use the pay toilets)..
Voting is not a solution to this problem. Education is. Education is a requirement for informed voting. Unfortunately a lot of voting is done by the uninformed or those informed with false information/beliefs.
These extreme weather events are really sad. The fires in California and Australia and now the flooding. 🙁 However, I have enjoyed reading what others are doing to help. Here is some of what I try to do:
Food
- I eat a plant based diet
- try to grow a vegetable garden, but I am not very good at it. I plant native foods around my property and done a little restoration in the forest next to my house. I removed about 75 m^2 of a dense invasive plant and planted many native berries (red and evergreen huckleberry, native blackberry, salal, Oregon grape, Black-cap raspberries, thimble berries, salmon berry, Indian plum, a couple varieties of wild current and wild gooseberry). I also have planted blueberries, 2 cherry trees, two apple trees, a plum, and an pluot tree as well as Chilean guava.
- My goal is to buy locally grown food in season, but I also like to buy fair-trade food imported from developing countries.
- I try to make food from scratch to minimize packaging: dry beans, oats, rice, etc. A pressure cooker helps make the dry beans, and uses less energy.
Family
My wife and I chose to adopt older children from foster care, because we did not want to contribute to population growth and we also wanted to provide a good home to children who would likely not be adopted by others.
Goods
Like others we buy quality goods and make them last, do secondhand shopping and buy less. My wife is a minimalist and I aspire to be more that way. Also renting can be a good option. I often rent tools that I only occasionally use.
Transportation
I could certainly improve here. We have reasonably fuel efficient cars and keep them for a long time. My wife has a 2006 and I have a 2016. I sometimes carpool.
Not enough.
But a few...
And planted all these...
Plus Leds
Because this is a watch forum, also support brands like
Last, as others have said, vote.
