Can we avoid climate change? Sadly not. The uncomfortable truth is that some consequences of climate change have already arrived and they have come to stay. In fact, even if greenhouse gases were to be emitted into the atmosphere right now, we would still suffer for a time the effects of the gases that have already been emitted, since the climate system responds to changes with a certain inertia, that is, the consequences come with some delay. However, we can still contribute to making climate change less intense and, therefore, having fewer negative consequences for all life on our planet. Therefore, according to the Paris Agreement, it was determined that, so that the consequences of climate change are not worse than what is already known to be, global warming must be stopped by 1, 5 ºC rise. To achieve this, the carbon footprint has to be lowered. Butwhat is the carbon footprint ? This represents the amount of greenhouse gases that humans emit throughout the year. By 2017, it was almost 50 billion tons of CO2 equivalent, a figure that increases every year. Well, that amount will have to be 0 around the years 2045-2050 if we want to meet the objective of the Paris Agreement and it will have had to be reduced by 45% by 2030.
From AgroCorrn, we answer the question about how to avoid climate change or, rather, how to avoid its worsening and reduce it. Here we tell you how to reduce climate change from home by reducing our carbon footprint. We give you a series of tips so that, together, we change course and lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
Index
Use public transport or share private transport
The measures to reduce climate change that can be taken with respect to the use of transport are extremely important for reducing the carbon footprint that can be obtained with them. It is about avoiding the use of combustion engines as much as possible, therefore, using public transport or sharing private transport will avoid the massive use of cars and, therefore, emit more CO2 into the atmosphere.
We recommend you read this other post about vehicular pollution, its causes and consequences .
Replace your car with a combustion engine with another hybrid or electric
Along the same lines, another of the things we can do to combat climate change is to replace our car with a combustion engine with another. We can choose one that is hybrid or we can also opt for an electric one . The energy that is going to be supplied will have to have a renewable origin, otherwise, we will not have solved anything. Here you can know the Advantages of plug-in hybrid cars .
Choose not to have a car
We continue with transport, and the use of this is crucial in this effort that we must make together to fight against climate change . Thus, if it is not essential to have a car, it is better to choose not to have a car . Let’s not forget that the car manufacturing process also requires energy and raw materials that are often not recycled once we get rid of them.
Try not to travel by plane
Traveling from one point of the globe to another at a very high speed has a very high energy cost. If you reduce the number of flights made per year and choose to travel, for example, by train or bus, you will avoid burning many tons of fossil kerosene . Opting for other means of transport means investing more time and money, but it is much cheaper ecologically speaking.
Telework
If you are lucky enough to be able to telework, it is another very good choice to be able to mitigate the effects of climate change , since in this way you avoid having to use any means of transport, in addition, the excessive use of buildings intended for work would also be avoided and, therefore, costs associated with its construction and maintenance would be avoided.
Eat a healthy diet
Producing food has a great impact on the carbon footprint , not only because of the energy that is put into cultivating, but also because we are occupying land where CO2 could be stored in the form of forests. For this reason, eating healthily by reducing the amount of meat you consume is another good idea to alleviate the effects of climate change, since animals mostly eat feed, which in turn needs large areas of land and water to be able to occur.
Go vegetarian
Going vegetarian can be an unpopular measure in some places, but it is much more expensive in terms of CO2 emissions to produce the same amount of calories to produce meat than to produce vegetables, especially in the case of veal, which it becomes an environmental luxury .
Consume seasonal products and local products
The seasonal products do not require the use of heaters or coolers for production, so they have a lower carbon footprint . Likewise, if we consume local products, we are avoiding energy wasted in their transport, although the impact is not too high because it is transported in very large quantities by boat.
Here we tell you what are organic foods .
Don’t waste food
Not wasting food is as important or more than eating a healthy diet. We have to buy adjusting only to what we are going to need, not only to take care of our planet , but also for ethical reasons (in some places food is wasted while in others there are severe famines and people die from it).
Go ahead and read more about this topic in this link to Food waste: causes, consequences and how to avoid it .
Produce your own food
If you are lucky enough to have some space to grow your own vegetables and fruit trees , you will be helping to emit less CO2 , since the energy that can be used in the entire chain of intermediaries is eliminated. This will help reduce human-caused or anthropogenic climate change and will provide you with healthy food and greater well-being.
Here we tell you How to make an urban garden at home and How to grow fruit trees in pots .
Reinforce the insulation of your home
Properly insulate windows and doors to prevent heat or cold from entering your home. You can also ventilate to cool the house and use more clothing and textiles to warm up. Avoid excessive use of heating and air conditioning as much as possible.
Use a heat pump
Many Europeans use fossil gas to heat water that then heats the whole house, which is not particularly efficient. Using a heat pump instead is more environmentally efficient. Its operation consists of taking the heat that is in a cold environment and transferring it to another that was already warmer. It works practically the same as a refrigeration machine, except for the change in the goal: to provide heat.
Use efficient appliances
It is advisable to have efficient appliances at home. You can also save energy by using it to its maximum capacity, especially in the case of household appliances such as the dishwasher or washing machine. One of the places where more energy is spent in a house is the kitchen, where we recommend not having gas, but an induction or electric hob.
Here we discover which are the electrical appliances that consume the most energy .
Buy an efficient house (passive houses)
Another option is to build efficient houses , whose construction materials are close by and take advantage of natural light in their architecture , as well as build very intelligent channeling systems that allow the house to be tempered without using practically energy. They are similar to old houses with wide walls, only the materials and available space are used more efficiently.
Use electricity from renewable sources
When choosing an electricity supplier , make sure it comes from 100% renewable. Be careful with this, as some sell electricity with somewhat misleading or misleading advertising. In this way we can reduce our carbon footprint by a good percentage.
Heat your home with renewable energy
Do not use fossil gases (natural gas) to heat your house, use better electricity that comes from renewable energy . It is a bit more expensive, but if you can make that effort, you will be doing a bit more in the fight against climate change.
Generate your own renewable energy
Although not everyone can afford it, another very good option is to install solar panels in our homes. The efficiency of these will depend on the orientation of the house and the place where we live, since there are not the same number of hours of sunshine nor the solar radiation is so intense in all places.
In this other post we tell you how to install solar panels .
Reduce, reuse and recycle
Reducing, reusing and recycling helps the environment in a lot of ways. Above all, reduce the waste you throw away and reuse the materials you already used, since recycling entails the emission of CO2 from the transport and processing of materials.
Here we tell you all about the 3Rs of ecology and here we discover the 7Rs of ecology .
Participate in reforestation
Repopulating those spaces where there were trees and that have been eliminated for various reasons is the objective of reforestation . It is a good way to reduce climate change , since, as we have already mentioned, they are carbon deposits on our planet.
Go ahead and learn more in this other article about What is reforestation and its importance .
Inform and educate others
Sharing all these tips with your closest circle can help mark a change. However, it is not necessary that we all take each and every one of the measures, it is about choosing the ones that best suit each one. Thus, little by little, we will all be in the same boat and we will be influencing companies, governments and legislators to take all the necessary measures.
Here you can learn more about Environmental education activities for young people .
Why stopping climate change is important
That the temperature of the planet increases globally is not only synonymous with passing more heat. Here are some of the main consequences of climate change .
- The thaw and the consequent rise in sea level will cause flooding and also erosion in the coastal and low-lying regions.
- Extreme weather conditions cause flooding and also reduce water quality. Meanwhile, in other places there is a gradual decrease in the amount of water resources.
- Mediterranean areas are becoming places with more heat waves and lower humidity, making these areas even more vulnerable to fires and severe droughts.
- People in developing countries tend to be more closely linked to their natural environment and therefore do not have as many resources to cope with changes in the climate.
- Human health is also at risk with more deaths from heat and water-transferred diseases (among others).
- Climate change is happening very fast and many species of animals and plants are having a difficult time adapting, leaving them in serious danger of extinction.
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