Sept 2021: Climate Change is Real!
Reduce Consumption in Your Life by Conserving Resources and Energy
It’s early September and the headlines read: Climate Change Is Real.
Hurricane Ida finally persuades the media to print those words, after what, ten, twenty years of stormy weather. For a few days the headline itself becomes news: the mere fact that the statement is true. Everyone is nodding.
So great. Now what? What are we doing about it? What do I do? Who’s in charge? There’s no mandate. There’s no agreement. Everyone is doom scrolling on their devices to see what has happened today. So I have a suggestion...
There are things you can do right now while you’re waiting for the huge windmill to be built in your neighborhood. You don’t have to wait for mandates or newspapers or Twitter to tell you what to do with all this climate change news because frankly it’s rather obvious. Reduce your consumption. Reduce your carbon footprint by conserving resources and power.
The headline should have read: Reduce Your Consumption, Climate Change is Real. That’s because housing, transportation, and agriculture/food production are not only huge polluters but they are things that you can easily control. Turn the dial down on your consumption and your life and you use less energy.
The news headline reminded me of habits my wife and I are trying to change. Here’s a list of things we’ve been working on in the vineyard house and gardens.
Start your own today!
The House
Put the utility bill on the fridge. Circled the totals. Cut the amount of energy you use in half. Make it a contest with kids. Do this ASAP.
Turn things off. It’s a very simple premise and it applies to everything. Turn things off when not in use.
The Internet uses a lot of energy. Can you cut your screen time in half?
Invest in solar (your roof is losing money). We did this 10 years ago. The vineyard is powered by solar. Three quarters of our energy comes from renewable solar energy.
Turn the heating down and cooling up. Turn the whole thing off and open windows as much as you can. Get a house energy audit and insulate.
Count the LED lights you can see at night and unplug them. Better, automate them with digital switches or mechanical outlet timers.
Replaced gas stoves and furnaces with electric ones. I just replaced furnace with an electric heat/cool pump.
Water conservation: remove lawns, use grey water; try rain catchment (working on that); native plantings;
The Vehicle
Go electric or at least hybrid. Do it now. Support the industry.
Even better, Drive less. Walk more. Bicycle.
Work remotely.
Travel locally.
Slow your driving down.
Sell one of your cars.
Food Consumption
Measure consumption by how much trash you have. Reduce trash and you are consuming less.
Stop eating processed foods (processing involves lots of energy and transportation) — shop at farmer’s markets and avoid packaging: tend a garden.
Please stop using plastic. Cut plastic use in half (judging from your recycling bin) and then work on eliminating it.
Remember: If people can change the climate one way, they can change it back the other way, too.