Q&R – what can we do to help the planet?

Such a good question, and one that I have received many times over in different ways; essentially, what can I/we do to help the planet?

The premise of the question is very important – that we can make a difference. It is tempting to leave action on climate change to governments and powers. But the truth is that we are the ones who make use of the systems that create vast amounts of carbon emissions and other forms of environmental destruction.

Moreover our own personal and household emissions are significant, and should not be forgotten in the midst of multilateral “solutions”. The average Australian’s carbon emissions are around 28.6 tonnes of CO2-e* a year. This amount, however, is taken by dividing Australia’s overall emissions by our population, including exports. Though Australia should be responsible for its exports, these do not directly come from the population, so a more accurate amount of emissions per person per year is 21.9 tonnes.**

I am not claiming to be an expert when I write this, nor can I do much more than summarise some significant ways I have found to make a difference in the lifestyle of the “average” person. These suggestions are in list form, and do not give adequate attention to the wider life-narrative and ideological considerations that should be confronted in dealing with climate change (though I have dealt with some of these previously – see my ‘ecology’ category).

Some of these suggestions are easier said than done, and none of us will be able to enact them all immediately (so please don’t feel guilty). What would be ideal though is if we could all begin to implement them one at a time, for such a progressive change would go a long way. I also believe that such changes would bring a greater simplicity to our lives that we would find rich and fulfilling.

DIRECT EMISSIONS

Direct emissions are those directly related to our own individual and/or family behaviour.

TRAVEL

One of the most carbon intensive aspects of peoples’ lifestyles is their travel. This aspect of our lives represents about 17% of all our emissions (higher if you are a frequent flyer). Our car use is highest at around 12%.

There are a number of ways we could reduce our travel emissions:

1. Use public transport wherever possible.

2. Try to car pool when we use our cars – those ‘empty seat miles’ aren’t helping the planet.

3. Try to drive cars with low fuel consumption, or get a diesel car (diesel produces more emissions [2.7kg per litre vs. 2.3kg with a litre of petrol], but is also more efficient, with about 12% more energy per litre than petrol.)

4. Better yet, get an LPG tank if it can be afforded.

5. Change our driving habits – accelerate slowly, don’t speed.

6. Avoid the car air-conditioner wherever possible, as it can use 10% of fuel – use the windows.

7. Avoid short car trips – in the UK 60% of all journeys were between 1.5 and 3km, and 20% were less than 1.5km. Most of us are able to walk the 1.5km each way if we need (about 15 minutes each end). Perhaps we could set a minimum driving limit (no less than 3km, say?)

8. Best option – walk or ride a bike where possible. It’s healthy too!

9. Try to live as close to our place of work as possible (this will have the effect of giving you more time with family and friends than stuck in a car in traffic jams!)

10. Reconsider any regular overseas holidays as flying is highly carbon intensive. Perhaps we could think about more local holidays.

11. Travel by rail or coach instead of by plane where possible, particularly since short flights are the most carbon intensive per kilometre – a flight of less than 800km can emit over 100kg of emissions per person, but the same trip by rail or coach may be just 30kg.

12. We may not need to travel for every meeting we attend for work – perhaps a teleconference or Skype meeting would suffice sometimes.

Carbon offsets for flying are a great way to massage our guilt, but remember that it is unrealistic for those offsets to actually reverse the damage that flying is doing to the planet by planting trees etc. The best thing these schemes do is to bring the issue to our attention.

HOME

Similar to travel in terms of emissions are those we create at home. Electricity, gas, water and waste all play a part, adding up to about 18% of the average Australian’s footprint. Some ways we could cut this include:

1. Switching appliances and goods off at the wall, rather than leaving them on standby (or just plain on).

2. Try to purchase appliances with high energy ratings (but don’t go replacing all our current appliances; they carry embodied energy which is the energy it took to make the product. This is not to mention the waste resulting from throwing out old appliances. Sometimes buying a new appliance when it is not necessary is worse for the environment.)

3. Only run washing appliances when they are full.

4. Use a clothesline if possible.

5. Buy energy-saving bulbs.

6. Install timers on powerpoints where appropriate.

7. Set our hot water tanks to 60 degrees Celsius (the minimum temperature for killing unwanted nasties) – this will save energy, and reduce the risk of our children burning themselves with hot water.

8. Limit showers to 4 minutes.

9. Monitor our air-conditioner usage – reducing the heat in winter by 1 degree Celsius, or upping the cool air in summer by the same can cut a third of a tonne off annual emissions, and can save 20% of your bill. The effect is greater for every degree added or subtracted.

10. Even better – use a fan or take off some clothes when its hot, or put on more clothes when it’s cold.

11. If we are building a home, we could think about getting some help to build a ‘Green Home’ (a house designed in such a way to reduce the need for energy through natural lighting, heating, cooling etc.). This would seriously payoff in terms of reducing both emissions and energy bills.

12. Insulate our homes. There are a bunch of different materials etc. each with pros and cons. Do some research to figure out which is best for you. In any case, insulation is a good investment.

13. Get a rainwater tank if possible, and/or research ways to recycle greywater for your garden etc.

14. Get solar panels. This is not applicable for everyone though; not only are solar panels expensive, but we must also take into account the embodied energy involved in manufacturing the panels themselves. If a house is not ideal for solar panels then the solar energy may not outweigh the carbon emissions related to the panels’ manufacture. There are, however, many options to look into for solar panels nowadays, and the more people using this technology, the more resources will be invested into it.

15. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Waste is a significant issue, not merely because of the amount of material that goes to landfill, but also because of the methane that is released into the atmosphere from landfill, and also because of the emissions related to transporting waste and treating sewage. Here are some figures around recycling materials:***

a. with some plastics, recycling one tonne means saving 1.4 tonnes of emissions (due to the emissions inherent in producing ‘virgin’ plastic)

b. every tonnes of glass recycled saves 1.2 tonnes in raw materials and 0.3 tonnes in greenhouse emissions

c. recycling one tonne of steel saves the tonne-and-a-half of iron ore and half tonne of coal it takes to produce it

d. recycling one tonne of aluminium can save up to 14 tonnes of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere

Reducing is perhaps the most important factor – try to buy less stuff, especially stuff that hurts the planet.

16. We can compost. The average Western household throws out about 3.5kg of food a day, and most of this can go on a compost heap or in a worm farm. What is produced can be used as fertiliser for plants, which saves us buying inorganic fertilisers that require high levels of energy during production and have much higher levels of nitrogen. Just be sure to research composting so as avoid disease-causing organisms.

17. Perhaps most simply we can turn off the light when we are not in the room.

There are of course more measures that could be taken, and it is simply a matter of researching the countless websites for further info. One particularly helpful site is the Australian Conservation Foundation’s GreenHome site. It goes without saying that reducing our emissions in the home is not only good for the planet, but also our pocket.

WORK

Many of the emissions we create through our work life are similar to those at home (e.g. lighting). Also, since there are so many kinds jobs I will only include points that are common to popular workplaces. For those who are the boss in their workplace, the ability to cut emissions increases, though here I am assuming people are not the boss and cannot make organisational shifts at will.

1. Use double-sided printing and recycled paper.

2. Use email over printing wherever possible.

3. Try to use the phone or Skype for meetings wherever possible, rather than travelling. Sometimes face-to-face meetings are necessary, but not always.

4. Turn off computers rather than leaving them on screen saver or standby.

5. Turn off other equipment such as photocopiers, printers, faxes etc. These can eat up surprisingly high levels of energy.

6. Carpool if we cannot walk or take public transport.

7. Try to be an example, without coming across as judgemental. If we are in a position to do so speak with superiors about the cost-benefits of reducing energy usage (and thus emissions).

INDIRECT EMISSIONS

Though not directly related to the individual’s behaviour, indirect emissions are inherent in the embodied energy of the things we buy and use. This group makes up two-thirds of the average Australian’s emissions.

FOOD

This often neglected aspect of our carbon footprint makes up a significant portion of it. Dave Reay (author of Climate Change Begins at Home) claims that the average person in the developed world emits a tonne of greenhouse gases indirectly through the food they eat, and that this can be as high as four tonnes for some who choose a globe-trotting set of produce. This figure, however, can be reduced by up to 90% simply through a “climate-aware diet”.

1. Eat less meat. The average Australian eats too much anyway, and reducing our intake would ease pressures on the environment related to growing, feeding and watering livestock. A typical cow emits 200 litres of methane into the atmosphere every day, and in Australia the climate impact of livestock-burped methane is in danger of overtaking that of carbon dioxide, with around 3 million tonnes a year being emitted all up.^ Moreover the production of a kilo of beef requires 15 cubic metres of water, while a kilo of cereals only requires 3 cubic metres, and meat production uses up to seven times more land than crops of the same “food-value”. Reducing your meat intake will also save you money, and all sorts of health problems; all up the argument for reducing meat intake is strong.

2. Very similar to 1. is reducing our dairy intake. “[I]f you reduce your dairy intake by just 2 cups of milk per week, you will save 13,000 litres of water and 250kg of greenhouse pollution in a year.”^^

3. Buy local – less transport costs means less emissions. Some of our food travels up to 240,000km in total before it reaches us!

4. Buy organic if possible – it might be more expensive, but “organic farming practices avoid using synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, and often use less fossil fuels in the process. And as more people buy organic, the prices will come down.”^^^ It also also healthier for us and our families. Certainly, buying fresh over processed is healthier and comes with a lighter climate tag.

5. Stay away from bottled water where possible – bottled in plastic, often travelling thousands of kilometres, bottled water is simply an expensive version of what comes out of our taps in Australia.

6. Shop in bulk. Avoid short trips to the shops for individual items; instead we can write required items on a list and purchase them when we buy our other groceries. Dave Reay claims an average 25km car trip equals around 5kg of emissions. Consider this for every trip we take to the shops and it adds up. If we just try to hold off for a few days from buying the new flavour of chocolate we will do the planet a small favour.

7. Grow what food is possible at home.

8. Have our food delivered by shopping on the internet. If this trend took off then the reduction in car trips would be significant.

9. Overall, consider the “food miles” of our purchases. Buying organic and ethical products is good, and important, but they’re not all that organic or ethical if they have a whopping emissions tag attached. This is of course a learning curve, and we will not get it right in a day. The important thing is that we are willing to learn and change, and that we begin to do both!

SHOPPING

This section includes those points which do not fit strictly under the home or food sections.

1. Avoid plastic bags. These babies not only require unspeakable amounts of oil to produce (considering how many billion are used each year…), they also endanger the health of the humans and animals (not least in the waters of Australia).

2. Wherever possible avoid products with unnecessary packaging.

3. Forego buying those things that we do not really need, and pay attention to energy ratings (mentioned above).

4. Swap things wherever possible. Try Freecycle for one way to do it.

5. Buy second hand from op shops etc.

6. Look for eco-brands. Check out the Ethical Consumer Guide for food and Ethical Clothing Australia for clothes.

The bottom line is this – less stuff = less embodied energy and less emissions = happy planet.

ADVOCACY

Perhaps one of the most important things we can do is use our vote in a way that supports political Parties who will act on climate change. We can also speak and write to our local MPs about our concerns around climate change and ask them to push for action in their Parties. Some will not take action, but some will, and this will largely be the result of people in their electorates speaking up – politicians after all generally want to keep the majority happy so they can keep their job at the next election! Politicians are, in the end, just people, and like all people they too share a world that is threatened by climate change.

In addition we can also lobby corporations to clean up their act. If enough people complained about a certain product that was unfriendly to the climate, or about the lack of climate-friendly options, then it is within a companies interests to change that product or expand the available options.

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One helpful and easy-to-understand book I have read is Dave Reay’s Climate Change Begins at Home, and I highly recommend it as a very practical guide to cutting our emissions and comprehending the effects we have on the earth.

In finishing, while this post may not be a completely comprehensive guide to helping the planet, it is far more than the 5-10 point plan I was asked for, and for that I apologise.

Moreover I have not really done what was asked in terms of rounding down the list to a few points of greatest significance for reducing emissions. I suppose less driving and flying would be among the most significant, as would using less electricity and reducing our waste. It is hard to say in some ways, but overall we are best to start making efforts to put all measures into practice.

I hope this post does not come across as judgemental or condescending, but rather as the fruit of my humble journey in trying to learn how to care for the planet as best I can; I still have a long way to go.

If anyone has anything to add that would be helpful to others please, by all means, post it in the comments section. If people are willing I can add their suggestions to the main post (with credit, of course!)

Remember, if you have any questions for which you would like to see a response on this blog, please feel free to contact me with them.

MCA

P.S. I am obviously assuming here the reality of anthropogenic climate change. I see good reason to believe the vast, vast majority of voices in the scientific community. In saying this, most of the things that I have mentioned here are good for the environment, even if climate change were to be proven to be a non-issue. As such, I will not be allowing comments on this particular post that wish to argue the legitimacy of climate change – such a discussion would be to get off topic. If your desire is to discuss that particular issue I am happy to dialogue, so feel free to comment, but perhaps do so on my other posts on ecology.