With all of the evidence for Climate Change that’s accumulating, with all of the extreme weather that’s adversely effecting people’s lives everyday a growing number of people are now hoping that something can still be done to avert the coming climate disaster. The problem is that we are all just individuals; it so often appears as if our opinions just don’t matter to the politicians and billionaires who seem to run the world. Many of us want to see change but have no idea what we as individuals can do to make a difference.
That’s the whole purpose of ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ by Doctor Heidi A. Roop of the University of Minnesota’s Climate Adaptation Partnership. In her book Dr. Roop details one hundred actions that each and every one of us can take that will a have a positive effect on our environment. The actions described in ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ are broadly divided into ten categories:
Starting and Sustaining your Climate Action Journey
Energy Production and Transportation
Travel and Work
Food and Farming
Shopping and Consumer Choices
Actions Around the Home
Nature Based and Natural Solutions
Health and Well-Being
Civic and Community Engagement
Education and Climate Information
Each of these categories is then sub-divided into specific actions that anyone can at least attempt and in which any degree of success is a definite contribution toward the goal of mitigating Climate Change. While it maybe true that governments and corporations have a far greater influence on the Climate than any individual, if each of us begins to take a few of the actions suggested in ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ we can make a difference and in the long run those individual actions will help to force governments and corporations to take action as well.
So what are the actions outlined in ‘The Climate Action Handbook’. Well, they vary from large scale efforts such as installing solar panels on the roof of your house to such simple things as combining several car trips into one in order to cut down on CO2 emissions. Whether large or small a little bit of up front thinking and effort can reduce your own carbon footprint, and often save you some money as well. Planting trees is another example of something simple anyone can do that will take carbon out of the air, while providing shade to help cool down our cities while just giving us all a little greenery to enjoy.
Many of the actions suggested in ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ are pretty obvious once you think about it. For example did you know that a 16 oz. plastic bottle of water requires more than one thousand times as much energy to produce, package and transport as 16 oz. of tap water does! That’s actually a lot of carbon going into the air just for a quick drink, and that plastic bottle your water came in will likely just become plastic pollution as well. Another easy one is fast shipping on the items we all buy online. It’s true, not only does same day shipping cost a lot more than 3-4 days shipping does, but it also has a much bigger carbon footprint, and do you really need to have that latest Taylor Swift CD right now, you can’t wait a couple of days?
And speaking of plastic pollution many of the actions recommended in ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ also deal with the incredible amount of plastic that we simple throw away causing harm to the environment and our own health. Food waste is another issue that produces greenhouse gasses while filling up our landfills; all while many people go hungry even here in the US.
I do have a few complaints about ‘The Climate Action Handbook’, for one thing, in her effort to get to exactly 100 actions Dr. Roop has several that really overlap to a great extent. For example, Action 4: Be privy to the Politics of Climate Change has a lot in common with Action 96: Look to Community Leaders. Also, the book is formatted in a style similar to a live seminar being projected onto a screen in front of an audience. That is, each action is discussed on one page while on the page opposite what was discussed is repeated in bullet-form. Because of this there are several actions that should really be discussed at greater length while the discussion of other actions hardly manage to fill up their single page!
Nevertheless ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ is a great resource for how ordinary people can help to save our planet, and what could be more important than that! One last point, throughout ‘The Climate Action Handbook’ other resources, websites, organizations, other books are highlighted to help the reader go further, to find out more about how they can help solve the climate crisis.