I am feeling that a lot of acts which harm our ecosystem, cause global warming and cause damage to other beings too. What things can I do to minimize the harm from my side? I try not to throw rubbish on street but that is only thing I know. I don’t have recycling bins where I live.
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Not eating meat is probably the biggest impact you can have, followed by using public transportation whenever possible.
Grow indigenous pollinator-friendly plants. Minimize your trash output as much as you can. Vote against expanding the military budget if youre in the US.
Fr tho going vegetarian/vegan is huge on a personal scale, large-scale farming is tremendously harmful.
If for some reason the challenge of avoiding meat entirely threatens to get you abandoning your principles entirely, the other option is to just vastly reduce your meat consumption. We get used to giant portions with each meal; but there’s many ways just a little bit of meat can greatly enhance the flavor of a dish.
Still, worth looking at the many forms of meatless cooking too.
The old slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is in priority order. Buy less stuff, and try to fully make use of used things before you buy new. In this vein, I saw a great rhyme posted at a children’s play center to encourage the kids to make efficient use of the craft supplies: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
Try to reduce your day-to-day travel by living close to work/school/groceries/etc.
Eat less meat and dairy.
If you own your home, consider energy efficiency improvements like new windows or a more efficient HVAC system. If your home has a yard, don’t spray herbicides/pesticides, and plant things to support native insects and birds.
Advocate for dense zoning and walkable urban development in your city, and better public transit.
If you have the space and knack for gardening, try cultivating a native plant garden for pollinators. Maybe put out a bird feeder or two, keep it cleaned
If this idea appeals to you, but you don’t know where to start because you’ve never tried your hand at gardening before, it’s possible your local university will have information tailored specifically to your region and growing conditions. At least, my state’s university extension website has a whole section dedicated to tutorializing every stage of the process and suggested plants by type. Very helpful if you don’t know your zinnias from your azaleas.
The best part about native plants is you don’t need the knack for gardening since they’ve evolved to survive in your area without help! You just have to do a bit of research to make sure the plant is a good fit for the yard location with regards to sun, water, etc and then ignore it.
Picking up litter is never a bad idea.
Bomb a datacenter
Why stop at one?
Gotta start somewhere. Eventually I’ll ascend to a ceremonial rattle of DRAM chips and a teardrop tattoo of a hard drive for each one that has fallen to my hand
I buy local wild flower seeds and throw them around when I’m walking about.
I…… never considered doing this. I am gonna start
Its pretty fun! Just gotta figure out what places the council doesnt mow down with their silly little tractors and such. Luckily over here they have left parts of parks and other areas free from mowing and planted the same wild flowers as I have been doing. Bloody council, stealing my hobby activities.
interesting
VOTE for politicians that prioritize the environment and public health.
See if there’s a local Weed Warriors volunteer group near you, or some other organization that addresses invasive plants. Invasive plants have become a big problem impacting biodiversity, these plants were introduced by humans and need humans to help restore balance to local ecosystems. Ideally plant native seeds to replace the invasives.
If there’s anything in your life that burns fossil fuels (e.g. major home appliances or vehicles) look into electrified alternatives. At least in my area there are substantial local incentives to replace gas furnaces and appliances with electric heat pumps or appliances, often making those the cheapest option to install. And because they are more efficient than fossil fuels, they are price competitive to operate and often need less maintenance (particularly EV cars vs ICE cars). Public transit and bicycling when available are even better.
If you’re unable to have solar panels installed where you live, some states allow you to get your electricity from a third party company. Programs vary by state in terms of how effective this is, but some make the third party company prove their green energy is in your state’s borders and that your electric bill dollars go towards incentivizing new production. This often helps save you money because solar is cheaper than fossil fuels now.
Don’t buy shit you don’t need, reuse what you can, recycle, what’s left, stop eating so much meat and dairy (especially red meat) or stop entirely, switch to !micromobility@lemmy.world over a vehicle if you can, if you have a house get your insulation done, switch to solar, next time your HVAC dies, replace it with a heat pump, avoid non-local products where possible, buy sustainable, and consider volunteering in meaningful ways.
Once the solar punk instance comes back up, check them out: I think you will appreciate a lot of their communities: slrpnk.net
Eating less animal-based food and going for the less greenhouse-gases emitting vehicles (walk>bike>train> bus>e-cars>cars>planes) are the two biggest impact fields for the global warming problem, if i’m not mistaken.
For other problems such as plastic pollution, chemicals, etc., i think a good option is to minimize the waste you “generate” : avoiding plastic bags or containers, as well as aluminium/metal ones, glass is better especially if you reuse it, cardboard and paper are a bit better too though far from perfect.
Maybe some local farms or shops produce things with environment in mind (or at least more than others), like organic farming, ethic woodcutting, etc. It’s never perfect, some are mainly greenwashing, others really try their best, most are in-between, but most of the time it’s a better option than classic ones.
You try not to throw trash on the street? Why would you ever do this!
well where I live, it is quite common to throw trash, to spit on street. You will even see some people publicly peeing on the walls.
Then you should set an example for others and not do any of those things.
Mowing your grass less is actually a huge one. Like you can take such small steps that have huge impacts. Let your grass get 6-10 inches tall and then back to 5 inches. You will increase the bug count and increase the number of birds and predators almost immediately.
Of course there’s a lot more you can do, but that’s one that many people don’t even realize.
This is a really good one. Super simple and helpful. However, if you aren’t pigeon holed by an HOA, get rid of your grass entirely. Make a rain garden, indigenous wildflower meadow, an urban herb garden. Anything that supports biodiversity and helps build soil health instead of monocultured lawn is helpful.
Does a bear shit in the woods?
what does it mean?
Destroying a data center, eating the rich.
I am not in US
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The Epstein class is everywhere :)
If your local zoning laws allow it, beekeeping.
Eh beekeeping is often done with European honeybees, for people in North America non-native beekeeping may displace native bees. Bee houses for north American bees can be purchased commercially though, just make sure they use non-treated wood.
The thing is the personal responsibility to help the planet and climate was propaganda put out by oil companies to direct it away from them. Realistically as a single individual, the most impactful thing you can do is clean up litter. If you must use dangerous chemicals, after their use dispose of them properly. Not down a sink or storm drain. As an individual that’s the most impact you can really do. Everything else is really performative.
