I have been thinking on this a lot, lately. When I tell people how bad the situation is and how imperative it is to act now, and fast, they clearly feel overwhelmed when they realise the enormous scope of this issue:
You may feel like walking away from it ("let someone else figure it out, this is too big for me"). This is entirely understandable. Climate change IS too big for people, as individuals. And yet, the only way of fixing this is by starting on the individual level and building out from there.
So:
- It's important on a personal level to watch what you eat: where is it from, how many miles did it travel to get here, how was it produced.
- It's important to isolate your home well so you need less cooling/warming.
- It's important to reduce your use of electricity by buying equipment that are not energy hogs, and yes, also by changing your lightbulbs.
- It's important to think about your use of fossil fuels and try to find ways of reducing use of this energy source. Examples: drive a more economical car, change your driving style, think about combining trips, work from home whenever possible, etc.
- It's important to recycle whenever you can and choose durable products.
- It's important to consume less, to contract your world.
...and so on.
All the above is not only sensible for the climate but will pad your wallet too!
I think it's vitally important to know what actually is going on in the world of science, especially in the meeting place between science and government. That means you have to broadly understand the science and more importantly, recognise the disinformation on climate change that's being spread thick and wide.
I recommend subscribing to this youtube channel: not only is he really good at explaining and debunking, he's funny as hell too.
Whatever you personally do, won't make a dent in the problem. This is true. In fact, even if your entire town/village/city starts being as green as broccoli tomorrow, it won't change global CO2 levels in any way you'd notice.
BUT
It is so very important that you look past that and get involved in your local community anyhow. If enough people do this (believe me, it's contagious), you can help create a movement countrywide, that will have the clout to change things.
ASK the candidates at the local elections what their stand is on global warming, and what measures they will be taking to ensure lower carbon emissions in your community. Ask visibly, publicly, often.
Get involved in various local activities, groups, and bring up carbon emissions, climate change whenever appropriate.
Make sure people understand the issue, and also understand the urgency and importance.
Help this spread, from one group to the next, one community to the next. Who knows, public service and politics may even become cool again!
I would suggest you also take this attitude right up the political food chain. Yes: the more local, the more you will have direct influence. Going higher up, the influence of an individual is lessened considerably but is not gone!! Emails, phone calls, letters, these all help influence opinion of politicians that represent you. If you don't bother, almost the only voices they will hear are from industry leaders and lobbyists whose interests are not your own. You can get other constituents to act too, to call, write letters, speak out (especially if you already are active, locally). Write to your president, ask him to act. All this costs you very little in time or money - so why not just do it?
(Oh, and by the way, whatever you can do to get rid of fools such as this man and his ilk, would be good too. The tea party caucus has 52 members: that's insane!! These should be outer fringes people, they seem to be becoming mainstream!)
Join an organisation that works to get CO2 down, such as 350.org.
Make a BIG voice, together. It's not even necessary to do anything other than add your weight to the numbers already joined up. Simply give them the clout to lean on countries and their leaders, to tackle this issue effectively. Stop the lip service and demand action.
Oh yes. And every chance you get, plant a tree!
(I've written this for the USA situation but it really translates perfectly well everywhere else)
