Climate change - what can I do about it?

Grow your own, Alfalfa seeds sprouted on wet kitchen roll.

Did anyone else find the extreme heat this year alarming?

Floods, melting ice and extreme temperatures are all reminders that our planet is warming up and unless we actively do something about it millions of innocent people will die. 

Sometimes we feel helpless. What can we as individuals do?

Actually quite a lot.

We need to stop using fossil fuels like oil, gas and carbon. Planes can't fly without them. So we need to stop flying and instead use public transport to get around.

 We can think about giving up our car or using it less or if we need a car, exchanging it for an electric car or, better still, a bike.

We can switch to a 'green' energy provider that uses clean and renewable energy. Or we could create our own energy with solar panels on our house.

As consumers we can support companies that act green and shun others that don't. We can put pressure on governments and companies to act greener.

We can avoid food and clothing that has flown across the world. Avoid unnecessary air miles. Look at labels.

Eat with the seasons from food grown locally. Grow your own if you can and share what you grow and encourage others to grow their own too. If we can't be self sufficient individually imagine how self-sufficient we could be if we act as a community.

I read that cattle are one of the highest emitters of CO2 or methane . In fact according to a bbc article if all the cattle in the world formed a country it would be the third highest producer of greenhouse gases after China and the USA. So stop eating meat and dairy or decide to cut down.

We can lessen our personal carbon footprint dramatically by cutting our animal protein consumption.  Eating mostly vegetarian as many people are doing now is healthy and considerably cheaper.

My daughter has taught me to avoid any food whose ingredients list palm oil ie most biscuits. Trees are cleared to make way for palm oil production so we need to cut demand for it.

Cooking from scratch and baking our own food is creatively satisfying and healthier especially when cooking for children. They don't know how many vegetables we are hiding in a pasta sauce and they love it!

It also makes sense to shop locally for clothes from charity shops. I find that once I've washed and ironed something it's mine. I don't care how many people have previously worn it!

Doing some or all of these things to stop climate change can save us money, make us healthier and more creative while at the same time saving the planet. It's a win win.

 If you want to contact me do email on jennystacy6@gmail.com 

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 I also Instagram almost daily on @jenny_handmade_happiness