cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/15354536

Here is a list I have formed:

-Regulate Polluting Industries

-Switch to Esim

-Install geothermal heat pump systems

-Build more apartments

-Use shampoo/conditioner bars

-Put carbon labels on products

-Buy stuff at the local store

-Eat plant based

-Prioritize transit over cars

-Switch to Ecosia

-Recycle

-Give homemade gifts

-Compost

-Be organized

-Avoid synthetic cloths

-Switch to green burials

-Buy reputable carbon credits

-Mandate microfibre filters for washing machines

-Install Linux on new/old computers

-Switch to Electric car (second to public transit)

-Shut down all oil operations

-Pickup litter

-Ride your bicycle instead of the car

-Adopt kids and companions instead

-Build more green spaces

-Convert animal agriculture land to wild lands

-Support repairability

-Ban private jets

-Start your own garden

-Use older cars for more than 12 years

-Keep phone for longer than 5.5 years (easy to do with fairphone,iphone, pixel, samsung or android phone with unlockable bootloader)

-Switch to renewable and nuclear techologies

-Halt all new road developments and just maintain them until transit is good enough

-Do everything to prevent and end wars

-Tax the rich and use the money for climate initiatives

-Ban all fossil fuel ads

-More widespread use of contactless payments

-Switch to bidets

-Mandate all stoves to be electric

-Build robust high sped rail network and ban flights under 4 hours.

-Require much longer warranties on consumer goods

-Require all software to become open source after the company stops developing the code

-Patents expire after 4 years

-Ban cryptominning

-Reduce concrete in constructions projects and opt for bamboo/wood construction

-Require all office work to be done from home for as much as possible

-Ban discrimination and promote affirmative action so that there isn’t lost potential or innovation from disadvantaged groups

-Improve insulation in older buildings

-Shop at refillable container stores

-Buy Fairphones as they’re the most repairable and have to 8-10 years of software support

-Buy Framework laptops as they’re user repairable upgrade-able

-Use reusable diapers for your infant/toddler

-Buy goods within your continent to avoid cargo ship bunker fuel

-Use refillable for everywhere you go

-Increase energy efficient standards with new houses with solar panels mandatory

-Increase grid interconnections

-Support political parties with green policies

-Boycott fossil fuel banks and switch to green credit unions

-Demand that your investment/retirement program switches to green projects

-Force companies to mine minerals from e-waste instead

-Give up half of the planet to nature

I will add more to list as more ideas are thought of.

  • activistPnk@slrpnk.netM
    3·
    8 months ago

    It would be more useful to separate individual actions from collective actions. If I want to know what /I can do now/ to ensure I’m doing all I can, the collective stuff is just clutter.

    Switch to Ecosia

    Ecosia looks like a greenwash to me:

    • Microsoft syndicate
      • MS partnered with the absolute worst of the worst oil companies to help them find places to drill for oil (#Chevron and #ExxonMobil) which also feeds the republican party and climate denial lobbyists
    • Patronizes Amazon for hosting (it’s hard to be more evil than Amazon)
    • Reverse proxies through Cloudflare who then pushes countless graphical CAPTCHAs (see ¶9)… not to mention being responsible for compromising the privacy of everyone in the world while enshitifying 30% of the web.
    • Forces use of Paypal so they can sell swag, yet Paypal was caught under estimating their CO₂ footprint by something like 4000%.
    • Ties to Google, who helps Total Oil find places to dig for oil.

    The list just goes on and on… And Ecosia hopes planting some trees will somehow offset the damage of their own existence. Not even close. Mojeek does less environmental harm by far.

    Prioritize transit over cars

    W.r.t. individual actions public transport doesn’t improve much because public transport systems are also quite harmful. Bicycles are the answer here. I had to take the car → tram step because it’s psychologically harder to make the big change to bicycle. But then eventually realized I could skip the wait at stops by going to bicycle. I wish I had been faster to upgrade from tram to bicycle.

    Ride your bicycle instead of the car

    Ah, so you had that already… that’s the problem with this list. I guess the public transport prioritization was a collective action.

    -More widespread use of contactless payments

    Cash is better for the environment. The #WarOnCash is giving far too much power to banks, who also have a huge CO₂ footprint that shadows what the armored trucks do. Those banks are dumping huge amounts of money into oil companies – see the Banking on Climate Chaos report. And see the environmental abuses column on this page. The best move is to use cash for everything.

    -Require all office work to be done from home for as much as possible

    Suppose it’s the middle of winter or middle of summer and 1000 employees work in an insulated energy efficient commercial building. Sending 1000 people home to heat or cool 1000 uninsulated homes is not favorable, even if those homes have heat pumps. Teleworking likely only makes sense during moderate climate times of the year.

    -Improve insulation in older buildings

    Perhaps a rule that employees who live in a passive home or heavily insulated home can telework all year long would inspire that.

    Increase energy efficient standards with new houses with solar panels mandatory

    I heard Belgium has mandated that all new builds must be a passive, meaning the not just insulated but designed with big south facing windows and everything necessary to not even need a heating or cooling system. They go as far as not even allowing a windowsill to act as a thermal bridge. Whereas in much of the US people haven’t even heard the term passive house. I spoke to a real estate agent who never heard of a passive house but he was confident that no such house existed in his state.

    Someone living in a significantly sized city in the US could not find a single roofer who could install a vegetated roof. So what do you do there? Ideally roofers would get asked for a vegetated roof often enough that they come to realize they should adapt.