Actions you can take right now to reconnect with our planet
What's the point of reducing your ecological footprint?
We are now fully aware that the over-consumption of fossil fuels and pollution is responsible for the deterioration of the environment and global warming. And I think we can all agree that preserving our planet's resources is an issue that touches everyone.
Reducing your carbon footprint will allow you to minimize the damage inflicted on the environment and save money and energy.
It is not enough to change your light bulbs or to sort your waste to reduce your ecological impact. These are already necessary actions, but their effect is relatively minimal.
The most effective solutions to adopt are more radical but not impossible.
How to reduce your carbon footprint?
Once you start to consume as locally and responsibly as possible, avoid food waste, adopt zero waste habits, use sustainable energies, and plant trees through an association... Here is what you can do that will have a substantial impact on reducing your environmental footprint.
Even if these actions may seem less obvious in your daily life, they are realistic if you consider them carefully.
And you don't have to introduce everything at once. I'm in favour of being flexible when changing habits; we should take one step at a time to prevent ourselves from being too destabilized and from failing too quickly.
1. Limit or stop eating meat, fish and animal products in general - become vegan
The production of meat, especially red meat, requires many resources for the growth of livestock, the creation of breeding areas, the processing and packaging of the products.
It is therefore recommended to change one's eating habits and to limit one's consumption of meat.
As for fish, if you haven't seen it, I invite you to watch the documentary Seaspiracy on Netflix. It highlights pretty clearly the actual state of degradation of marine ecosystems.
And the issue isn't so much the plastic waste that invades the oceans, pollutes them, and ends up finding in the fish we eat... The genuine concern is commercial fishing itself.
At the current rate of exploitation of the oceans, by 2050, there won't be any fishing because there won't be any fish to catch. And if there are no more fish, there is no more oxygen to breathe.
2. Avoid travelling by plane (especially long-haul flights)
Flying is a huge source of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. This mode of transportation can emit up to 285 g of CO2 per kilometre and per passenger, far outweighing the car (104 to 188 g depending on the model) and any other means of transportation.
3. Choose the phone over email
In 2020, digital technology generated 14% of GHG emissions.
Did you know that a simple email generates 4g of CO2?
A message containing a photo is equivalent to 500 meters by car!
Therefore, to reduce your carbon footprint, favour conversations by phone, and store your data locally (for example, on a hard drive), rather than in the cloud where data is stored thousands of kilometres away on energy-hungry servers.
Work preferably on a laptop, which uses 2 to 4 times less energy than a desktop computer.
4. Have fewer children
That's a radical solution, it's true... but I find it interesting to know that having one less child is equivalent to reducing your CO2 emissions by 58.6 tons per year, according to a study by the University of Lund.
The impact is enormous!
5. Do without a car or cut down on its use, and drive slower
Transportation, and primarily the car, is the leading source of GHG emissions.
Suggestions for alternatives:
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Walk, bike, scooter or skateboard. This way, you will help reduce your ecological impact and promote your health.
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Educate your children about the importance of using public transportation for the good of the environment.
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Carpool! A study shows that carpooling 20 km a day with three of your neighbours will reduce your CO2 emissions by 75% and save you each more than $360 in gasoline per year!
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Reduce your commuting distance by living within a 30-minute walk, bike or public transit ride of your job and by shopping close to home.
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Drive a fuel-efficient car. The most fuel-efficient vehicles are hybrids that run on both electricity and gasoline.
6. Live with others
Heating and electricity costs are largely shared when several people are living together, which makes sense.
A single person produces a carbon footprint of 10 kg of CO2/year, compared to 5 kg per person for a 3-person household.
However, it is possible to reduce one's carbon footprint without moving, particularly by adequately insulating one's home.
Climate change threatens the survival of many species, including humanity. Reducing one's ecological footprint is crucial to protect the environment, the planet and life.
There is no shortage of actions to take. So no more excuses! Now you know how to start to reduce your carbon footprint. It's time to act for the climate and reduce our GHG emissions. All together, one step at a time.
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