There’s a lot of hopelessness surrounding the climate crisis. I’ve heard it all too many times, something along the lines of  “we’re not big enough to beat this,” or “not enough change can happen soon enough”. I’ve even heard people argue that individual choices don’t matter. Well if you haven’t already heard me say it, I’m here to tell you that I disagree.

Sure, it’s possible that individual choices aren’t enough to stave off 3-5 degrees of warming before the end of the century. However, individual choices do influence the market, which is a great place to start to see a shift. If we want large scale changes, we need to work our way up to it. I truly believe that if you do good, you’ll feel good. And while that may not be an actual solution to the climate problem, it’s a step in the right direction.

“It has become commonplace among climate activists to say that we have, today, all the tools we need to avoid catastrophic climate change—even major climate change. It is also true.” – David Wallace Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

Act the way you wish other people acted: your choices do matter

• Cut back on consumption (plastic, dairy, and other high polluting products)

(via chicksforclimate)

• Refuse to support or buy from businesses that support big fossil fuels (you may want to think about saying buh-bye to your bank)
• Get active in politics, local or federal. Your voice can be heard.
• Educate others by talking about it (here’s my personal effort to do so). You never know when you can influence someone to make a change.

The most important thing you can do is to lead by example, act the way you wish other people acted (by the way, this should apply to all areas of life!) We may not be able to save the world on our own, but we can live our best climate forward lives. At the end of the day, that’s really all you can do.