Do you believe climate change is caused by humans?

It doesn’t really matter if you don’t, you know.

If you think it’s caused by higher solar activity, volcanic activity or other processes humans can’t control, that’s fine.

In fact, you can think it’s caused by aliens targeting us with huge lasers, by kids not eating their veggies or by bunnies with silly things on their heads for all I care.

And I say this, even if my personal conviction is that human activities are indeed playing a significant part in bringing about climate change. Here’s why:

You know all those treehugger things that a lot of scientists are saying we need to do to slow down or stop climate change? Switch to renewable energy and things like that?

Even if you think the atmosphere is like one giant garbage can – a garbage can that can hold all the greenhouse gases humanity decides to dump, without any negative effects whatsoever – even then, doing some of those treehugger things just makes sense anyway.

Regardless of what the actual causes of climate change are.

Moving away from oil will be cheaper

One prime example is the issue of renewable energy sources and whether to invest in improving and spreading the related technology for that or not.

Going from the current oil driven economy to one based on renewable energy and sustainable solutions will cost a lot of money. Of course. Any big restructuring demands considerable resources and effort.

But here’s the kicker: Even if it will cost a lot of money, it’s not the most expensive option. The most expensive option is going on doing what we’re doing at the moment – burning through the world’s oil reserves at a ridiculous pace.

Oil reserves aren’t increasing. For all practical intents and purposes, they’re declining.

As they continue their decline and demand stays the same – or rises – oil prices will increase to intolerable levels. At some point – not too far into the future – the ongoing costs of maintaining an oil dependance will far exceed the initial investment and upkeep of renewable energy sources that we won’t run out of.

And, with oil being a finite resource, we will run out of it. It’s not a question of if, it’s an inevitable question of when. When we do run out of oil, anything or anyone still depending on it is out of luck. In a big way.

Let’s not walk into that trap. Let’s invest in energy sources that will last and phase out those that won’t. Let’s spend a little more now to save big later.

Even if it means doing something that scientists think we should do.

This post is my contribution to Blog Action Day 2009 and to the current Change The World Wednesdays challenge over at Reduce Footprints.

No related posts.

Picture this: Some people walk by your house. They’re not very nice.

In fact, they’re so extremely uncool that they leave a large turd on your doormat. A real turd. Foul smell and all.

I know, I’m being tasteless. Please bear with me, though, there’s a point to it. A good one, at that.

What to do?

Through no fault of your own, you now have a stinking mess outside your house.

So. What do you do about it?

Do you…

1. Find the people responsible for the mess and make them clean it up?
2. Clean it up yourself and sulk for the rest of the day, hoping it doesn’t happen again?
3. Leave it on the doormat and pee in your hallway?

Huh? Wait…that third option is just ridiculous, isn’t it?

Of course it is.

Even so: Metaphorically, peeing in the hallway is precisely what many people choose to do.

Bad solutions, good solutions

Let’s work our way up from the bottom of that list:

3. Peeing in your hallway

In the context of my turd-on-doormat metaphor, it’s bleeding obvious that this is a terrible “solution”. Sadly, when the mess made is in a less obvious context, it’s an all too easy way to go.

When those large factories outside town keep belching out toxins by the ton, when air travel emits vast amounts of climate gases every day – whenever you’re told about someone else polluting massively.

That’s when it’s tempting to go “Oh heck, those guys are so much worse than me; what little old me does won’t make a difference” and toss that broken cellphone in the regular trash or jump in the car for a comfy ride to the shop just down the street.

But it really does make a difference, you know.

You might not be able to measure it in millions of tons, but a difference is being made. And that little difference is metaphorically akin to peeing in the hallway when someone makes a mess on your doormat.

Dealing with other people’s mess by adding to it just isn’t a good choice.

Keep your hallway pee-free.

2. Cleaning up the mess yourself

In my humble opinion, this option is vastly superior to number 3.

Not only are you keeping your home clean, you’re also making the world a better place by cleaning up other people’s mess.

In my book, that’s enough to make it rank as an actual solution.

Not a good one, though.

Granted, you get rid of the current mess by cleaning it up yourself. But how do you know those same uncool people won’t come by again tomorrow and make a new mess?

The answer, of course, is that you don’t know.

If you never let them know in clear terms that their behavior is unacceptable, they might not even realize how uncool they are.

They might even think your doormat is a suitable place to leave their mess. After all, someone keeps cleaning it up for them when they do.

1. Make the polluters clean up after themselves

This is the best solution. It’s at least as good for your karma as number 2. And it’s also a lot more useful in the long term.

Apart from the immediate satisfaction of not having to clean up other people’s mess, chances are they’ll take notice and perhaps deal with their mess more responsibly the next time.

If you find them unwilling to clean up after themselves, run your mouth off about it – preferrably to the media. A mention or two in the news might do the trick.

Not holier-than-thou

I’m not going to pretend I always succeed in going for option 1.

I have my fair share of cleaning up the mess myself and sulking about it.

I do strive for option 1, though. And I work really hard to avoid those occasional hallway accidents ;-)

A good way to reduce the likeliness of those accidents happening is to participate in Reduce Footprints’ excellent initiative: Change The World Wednesday challenges.

Every week a new challenge is posted, giving you a concrete way to steer one aspect of your lifestyle in a greener direction.

Related posts:

1. Green Music Special: No littering, please

One week ago, I argued that every little green bit helps.

I also boldly claimed that by steering your life in a greener direction, you will inevitably influence others to do the same.

I still stand by that. I firmly believe you can – and will – change other people’s habits by changing your own. Over time.

And that’s just the thing – it will take time.

That’s fine if you’re patient.

If, however, you like things to happen a little faster, you can super boost your own positive influence simply by talking. About yourself.

Tell the world

I’m not encouraging you to become a self-absorbed party lemon that ruins any conversation by constantly yapping about me, me, me and my kids and my job and did you know that I did something last week that was the same as what you just said but better?

No.

I’m encouraging you to tell people what you’re doing to green your lifestyle, whenever it seems natural.

If your neighbour is complaining about his electricity bill, tell him how you cut yours by making your refrigerator more energy efficient and replacing your incandescent light bulbs for LED bulbs.

If the woman in the parking lot is complaining about how her crappy plastic shopping bags inconveniently keep breaking when she’s carrying them, tell her where you bought the sturdy, reusable cloth bags you’re carrying your groceries in.

If your friend is sweltering in his hot apartment, show him how he can keep his home cooler without shelling out for an air conditioner.

Don’t be preachy

Don’t overdo it, though. Make sure you don’t sound like you’re bragging or trying to give them a guilty conscience. That sort of thing will just make people defensive and unwilling to listen.

Keep it on a positive note.

Focus on what you are doing, not on what they are failing to do.

Practice on Wednesdays

If you’re uncomfortable talking about yourself and your green efforts, I recommend practicing at Reduce Footprints’ Change The World Wednesdays.

At these weekly challenges, you’ll not only find a good idea for greening your life every week, but a whole crowd of people that really want to hear you talk about yourself and what you’re doing.

Last week’s challenge is a good place to start – but to get that practice talking about yourself that I mentioned, you should stop by Reduce Footprints this Wednesday and participate in the next challenge together with the others.

Related posts:

1. World’s first salt power plant opens tomorrow
2. Green Music Special: No littering, please

I’ll bet you’ve heard someone say it, more than once.

In fact, there’s a decent chance you’ve said it to yourself on occasion. I certainly have.

I’m just one little person. My part of world pollution is so tiny that it won’t matter whether I go green or not.

Quite depressing, really. But wait! Maybe those two sentences aren’t as clearcut as they may seem?

One halftruth and one falsehood, neatly wrapped up in a package

That quote up there isn’t just one statement, it’s actually made up of two:

1. In the big picture, your personal impact on the environment is tiny.
2. Tiny contributions don’t matter.

Comparing sizes

Comparing whatever you and your household are doing to whatever the entire rest of the world is doing will inevitably leave you feeling dwarfed.

Even just comparing it to whatever your fellow countrymen and -women do, will leave you with a zero point diddly-squat percentage of direct influence on the total outcome.

So sure, going by raw numbers and nothing else, whatever you do won’t make a huge direct difference.

You may, however, have noticed that I’ve been emphasizing the word direct a lot lately (that makes three times in three paragraphs). That’s not a coincidence.

‘Tiny’ is not the same as ‘insignificant’

Time to emphasize a new word: Indirect.

While I’m certainly of the opinion that even the tiniest, direct (there I go again) influence is worthwhile in its own right, the potential of indirect influence is infinitely bigger.

Whenever you save energy, kick your plastic bags habit, support biodiversity by helping pollinators or green your lifestyle in other ways, it shows.

People notice your actions, consciously or subconsciously. Your contribution shows up in statistics. You help reinforce positive trends.

Humans are group beings. Even the most stubborn individualist will be influenced by other humans to some extent.

Sooner or later, your influence will be the final nudge needed for someone else to change their habits.

At that point, you’ve doubled your positive impact on the environment.

When it happens again, you’ve tripled it.

Here comes the best part: Once your influence has swayed other people in a positive direction, they might influence other people positively again – and you get partial credit!

And remember: this is without any extra effort at all. You’re just changing your own habits, the rest is happening by itself.

So, my own answer to the title of this post is yes, every little bit really does help. By greening your own lifestyle, you will end up making a genuinely useful contribution to improving the world.

Good inspiration

If you’re a bit unsure of where to start, I heartily recommend Reduce Footprints’ Wednesday challenges. They’re great for getting concrete actions you might do, and there’s a fine community of other people doing the same challenges.

If you want to go through the whole series of challenges that have been posted so far, take a look at the first challenge. Or you could head straight for the latest challenge.

Related posts:

1. How to green the world by running your mouth
2. Don’t pee in the hallway