u3a

Climate Change & Environment

Small Actions

We can simply choose to buy less.
- Patrick Grantinterviewed in The Guardian
Although small actions might not solve the climate crisis, they remind us that we are intrinsic parts of the world and its ecosystems.
- Kimberley Miner, in I’m a climate scientist. Here’s how I’m handling climate grief (paywall)
One nanokelvin at a time.
- John Baxter
If everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little.
- David MacKay, in Without the Hot Air

I've long been wary of getting into the hints-and-tips business because I don't want to push the idea that all we need to do is recycle a bit more and the climate will be sorted. However on reading Michael Mosley's book Just One Thing, a set of often small things that we can all do to improve our health and wellbeing, replacing bad habits with better ones, I thought that here is a format that I can steal.

Jack Marley, a psychologist quoted in The Conversation says that our choices can change what others consider normal: in a survey, half of the respondents who knew someone who has given up flying because of climate change said they fly less because of this example. They explained that the bold and unusual position to give up flying had: conveyed the seriousness of climate change and flying’s contribution to it; crystallised the link between values and actions; and even reduced feelings of isolation that flying less was a valid and sensible response to climate change.

Click here for the list of small actions that we can all take to reduce our impact on the environment, replacing bad habits with better ones.