• Question: @all what is the best thing we can do about climate change

    Asked by anon-290756 on 28 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Mark Hamilton

      Mark Hamilton answered on 19 Mar 2021:

      I would say the best thing we can do is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) we release. This can include things like taking public transport or walking, instead of taking the car if it’s only a short journey. Also saving electricity wherever we can, like switching off lights when we don’t need them, only downloading things we need to, taking the stairs instead of the elevator…etc. etc.! Another good thing to do is to buy food (or other things) that come from places nearer to us – for example, in the supermarket, if there are oranges from Spain and oranges from South Africa, the ones from Spain are obviously a lot closer, so less aeroplane fuel is needed to transport them to us. Recycling and re-using, and eating less meat can also help a lot to reduce CO2 emissions.

      So I live really far away from the tropical coral reefs I study, but I can still do things to help them by trying to minimise my carbon footprint here in the UK.

    • Photo: Claire Price

      Claire Price answered on 22 Mar 2021:

      One of the easiest is to recycle where possible and don’t throw out things that can be used by other people, like electronics and clothes. There are lots of charities that will happily take these off your hands.

    • Photo: Jess Buddle

      Jess Buddle answered on 22 Mar 2021:

      Hey! Reduce, reuse, recycle is often thrown around a lot but if we all sit and think about how we can do these in our everyday lives it would make a huge difference!

    • Photo: Katie Endersby

      Katie Endersby answered on 23 Mar 2021:

      Hi Sophie, this is a really great question! I think the thing that most ordinary every day people can do to really help the planet is to be more mindful of the things that we might be wasting! Things like food waste (meaning that the food is grown, harvested, transported… using lots of emissions, all to be wasted), clothing waste (donating old clothes to charity, organisations, or friends is a great way to stop them becoming waste, and therefore preventing all the emissions that would come from making a brand new version of whatever it is you are tossing out!), right the way down to things like trying to walk or cycle somewhere instead of using a car to save on fuel!

    • Photo: Chris Waller

      Chris Waller answered on 23 Mar 2021:

      The main thing that people need to do to help reduce the effects of climate change is to collectively lower our carbon dioxide emissions and ultimately transition to carbon-neutral or carbon-negative technologies. You might think that “But I’m only 1 person, what difference will I make?” but if everyone thinks that way then nothing will happen. A few easy things right off the top of my head: using less electricity, driving a car less, using less plastics – all these things can help. Of course recycle where you can, but recycling can be inefficient. The better idea is to consider what things you actually need to use – if you don’t use it in the first place then it doesn’t need recycling.

    • Photo: Alba Park de la Torriente

      Alba Park de la Torriente answered on 23 Mar 2021:

      This is a really good question! I am not an expert in the subject but I had the same question because I wanted to do something for the environment. By searching in different sources I found that some of the things we can do is: eat less meat and dairy (as many of the green house gas emissions come from agriculture and husbandry), travel in plane as seldom as possible (train and car are more sustainable options when available), use your bike and public transport rather than a car. It is also important to be a conscious citizen: when you are old enough to vote, vote for people who care about the environment and people, and not just about money.

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