(UNEP) 10 Ways You Can Help Fight The Climate Crisis

United Nations Environment Programme

Photo: Shutterstock / 16 Dec 2021

United Nations Environment Programme UNEP is at the front in support of the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below 2°C, and aiming - to be safe - for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed a Six-Sector Solution. The Six Sector Solution is a roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. The six sectors identified are Energy; Industry; Agriculture & Food; Forests & Land Use; Transport; and Buildings & Cities.

The evidence is irrefutable: unless we act immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will not be able to stave off the worst consequences of climate change.

The world is already 1.2°C warmer than pre-industrial times and every fraction of a degree counts. Research shows that with 2°C of global warming we will have more intense droughts and more devastating floods, more wildfires and more storms.

As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said at the recent UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), “Our fragile planet is hanging by a thread. We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe. It is time to go into emergency mode — or our chance of reaching net-zero will itself be zero.”

The outlook can seem depressing. But the good news is that there is a lot we can still do as individuals to change this narrative.

“The climate emergency demands action from all of us. We need to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and everyone has a role to play,” said Niklas Hagelberg, UNEP’s Climate Change Coordinator. “We, as individuals, must change our consumption habits and pressure those who represent us – our employers, our politicians – to move rapidly to a low-carbon world.”

Here are 10 ways you can be part of the climate solution.

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Photo: Unsplash / Becca Tapert

1. Spread the word

Encourage your friends, family and co-workers to reduce their carbon pollution. Join a global movement like Count Us In, which aims to inspire 1 billion people to take practical steps and challenge their leaders to act more boldly on climate. Organizers of the platform say that if 1 billion people took action, they could reduce as much as 20 per cent of global carbon emissions. Or you could sign up to the UN’s #ActNow campaign on climate change and sustainability and add your voice to this critical global debate.

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Photo: Unsplash / Callum Shaw

2. Keep up the political pressure

The climate emergency demands action from all of us. We need to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and everyone has  a role to play. Niklas Hagelberg, UNEP’s Climate Change Coordinator

Lobby local politicians and businesses to support efforts to cut emissions and reduce carbon pollution. Count Us In has some handy tips for how to do this. Pick an environmental issue you care about, decide on a specific request for change and then try to arrange a meeting with your local representative. It might seem intimidating but your voice deserves to be heard. If humanity is to succeed in tackling the climate emergency, politicians must be part of the solution. It’s up to all of us to keep up with the pressure.

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Photo: Unsplash / Coen van de Broek

3. Transform your transport

Transport accounts for around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions and across the world, many governments are implementing policies to decarbonize travel. You can get a head start: leave your car at home and walk or cycle whenever possible. If the distances are too great, choose public transport, preferably electric options. If you must drive, offer to carpool with others so that fewer cars are on the road. Get ahead of the curve and buy an electric car. Reduce the number of long-haul flights you take.

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Photo: Unsplash / Jeremy Bezanger

4. Rein in your power use

If you can, switch to a zero-carbon or renewable energy provider. Install solar panels on your roof. Be more efficient: turn your heating down a degree or two, if possible. Switch off appliances and lights when you are not using them and better yet buy the most efficient products in the first place (hint: this will save you money!). Insulate your loft or roof: you’ll be warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer and save some money too.

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Photo: Unsplash / Jo Sonn

5. Tweak your diet

Eat more plant-based meals – your body and the planet will thank you. Today, around 60 per cent of the world’s agricultural land is used for livestock grazing and people in many countries are consuming more animal-sourced food than is healthy. Plant-rich diets can help reduce chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

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Photo: Unsplash / Artur Rutkowski

6. Shop local and buy sustainable

To reduce your food’s carbon footprint, buy local and seasonal foods. You’ll be helping small businesses and farms in your area and reducing fossil fuel emissions associated with transport and cold chain storage. Sustainable agriculture uses up to 56 per cent less energy, creates 64 per cent fewer emissions and allows for greater levels of biodiversity than conventional farming. Go one step further and try growing your own fruit, vegetables and herbs. You can plant them in a garden, on a balcony or even on a window sill. Set up a community garden in your neighbourhood to get others involved.

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Photo: Unsplash / Charles Deluvio

7. Don’t waste food

One-third of all food produced is either lost or wasted. According to UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2021, people globally waste 1 billion tonnes of food each year, which accounts for around 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Avoid waste by only buying what you need. Take advantage of every edible part of the foods you purchase. Measure portion sizes of rice and other staples before cooking them, store food correctly (use your freezer if you have one), be creative with leftovers, share extras with your friends and neighbours and contribute to a local food-sharing scheme. Make compost out of inedible remnants and use it to fertilize your garden. Composting is one of the best options for managing organic waste while also reducing environmental impacts.

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Photo: Pexels / Teona Swift

8. Dress (climate) smart

The fashion industry accounts for 8-10 per cent of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined – and ‘fast fashion’ has created a throwaway culture that sees clothes quickly end up in landfills. But we can change this. Buy fewer new clothes and wear them longer. Seek out sustainable labels and use rental services for special occasions rather than buying new items that will only be worn once. Recycle pre-loved clothes and repair when necessary.

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Photo: Unsplash / Geran de Klerk

9. Plant trees

Every year approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed and this deforestation, together with agriculture and other land use changes, is responsible for roughly 25 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. We can all play a part in reversing this trend by planting trees, either individually or as part of a collective. For example, the Plant-for-the-Planet initiative allows people to sponsor tree-planting around the world.

Check out this UNEP guide to see what else you can do as part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global drive to halt the degradation of land and oceans, protect biodiversity, and rebuild ecosystems.

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Photo: Unsplash / RawFilm 

10. Focus on planet-friendly investments

Individuals can also spur change through their savings and investments by choosing financial institutions that do not invest in carbon-polluting industries. This sends a clear signal to the market and already many financial institutions are offering more ethical investments, allowing you to use your money to support causes you believe in and avoid those you don’t. You can ask your financial institution about their responsible banking policies and find out how they rank in independent research.

Links

• 16 ways to take action on climate
• COP26 ends with agreement but falls short on climate action
• Climate Action Note - data you need to know
• Emissions Gap Report 2021
• Food Waste Index 2021
• Act Now: the UN campaign for individual action
• Count Us In
• COP15 on biodiversity is our chance to get to a world we want
• What does COP26 mean for adaptation?

(AU APS) Public Understandings Of Climate Change

Australian Psychological Society

Psychological research on risk perception explores how people perceive, appraise and understand environmental problems and how concerned people are (or not), and how motivated they are (or not) to take action. This is what we refer to as the ‘public’s understanding of climate change’.

 

The more we know about how people are feeling, thinking and doing in relation to climate change, then the more we are able to help them respond in useful ways – in ways that both reduce the threats of climate change as well as prepare people to adapt to the changes that cannot be avoided.

Key Points

• How people make sense of facts does not simply follow from rational interpretations of scientific evidence, and there are number of psychological ways we try to manage a sense of risk.
  
  
• Humans are prone to exaggerate some risks and minimise others. We tend to exaggerate risks that are spectacular, beyond personal control, much discussed, highly visible, or that affect them personally, and are imposed by a clear enemy.
  
  
• We tend to downplay risks that are common, familiar, invisible, long-term, gradual, natural, affect others not self, and lack any clear ‘bad guy’. Unfortunately, climate change is often described in these terms:
  
  
  • It is caused by commonplace, natural, invisible gases (although excessive amounts of these are emitted by human behaviour, which is the major problem).
  • It is seen as slow moving (although many would actually argue that it is taking place at breakneck speed).
  • It is often described in abstract, scientific terms, which makes it harder for people to engage with.
    
    
• Climate change can often seem distant in space. Most people tend to see the worst environmental problems as being global or far away from them. However, people’s feelings of responsibility for the environment are greatest at the neighbourhood level.
  
  
• People can also see climate change as distant in time. The worst impacts are far off in time so it still feels distant from everyday concerns.
  
  
• Climate change can also feel socially distant and not a problem that individuals can solve. As a global problem that requires global solutions, it is easy to think that world leaders, governments, and multinationals should solve it, not us.
  
  
• The ways people see the risks associated with climate change are significantly influenced by their values, beliefs, worldviews and cultural identity, which gives rise to the confirmation bias. We automatically look for information that confirms what we already think, want or feel, and filter away opposing information. People who are already concerned about climate change, for example, will read more news that confirms it. People who don’t believe in it, or who are heavily invested in a world governed by fossil fuels, might prefer news that questions climate science.
  
  
• System justification is the tendency to be resistant to changes to the ‘system’ we are familiar with, defend the status quo and to see the way things are now as right and just. People engaging in system justification are likely to selectively attend to information about climate change that does not threaten their current way of life.
  
  
• People often experience cognitive dissonance when what they know (e.g. that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change) conflicts with what they do (driving, flying, etc). If it’s hard to change behaviour (because your lifestyle is car dependent), then it’s often easier to change your thinking, and tell yourself things like: ‘Well, compared to China, our emissions in Australia aren’t really that big. What I do won’t make much difference.’ This is faulty thinking, because our huge per capita contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions make an enormous impact on climate change.

Links

• Resources for advocacy on climate change
• Motivating sustainability
• The psychology of climate change denial
• Coping and adapting to climate change
• Climate change and health
• Climate change communication
• Getting involved, taking action
• Environment, psychology and health news
• Climate change empowerment handbook
• Psychology and the climate crisis – Advancing peace, security and justice
• Young people and the climate crisis
• Insights into public perceptions of the science of climate change 
• The hopeful space between denial and despair: Three psychology professors discuss climate change
• Communicating climate change to the Australian public: Avoidance of complexity

(New Yorker) 2021 In Review: The Year In Climate

The New Yorker - Bill McKibben

A summer that really scared scientists.

Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker

Author Bill McKibben is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org and a contributing writer to The New Yorker. He writes The Climate Crisis, The New Yorker’s newsletter on the environment.

This year, a lot of the things we’ve come to expect with the climate crisis happened: there were heavy rains (New York City beat its rainfall record twice in eleven days); there was a big global conference (this one in Glasgow) with modest results; the price of renewable energy fell some more; and a record amount of solar power and wind power was produced, but not at a pace fast enough to catch up with climate change.

Raging wildfires produced plumes of smoke that spread around the world; President Joe Biden tried to free up a lot of money for climate work and, so far, Senator Joe Manchin has prevented him from doing so.

But some unexpected things happened, too—such as December tornadoes and windstorms, which have devastated parts of the country, and which are increasingly linked to warming.

The most unexpected event by far, though—the thing that was truly off the charts—came in June. Toward the end of the month, torrential rains across China created a lot of atmospheric moisture, which the jet stream sucked out over the Pacific.

Meanwhile, the remnants of a heat wave in the American Southwest moved north. The two weather events met over the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, forming a giant dome of high pressure that diverted moisture to both the north and the south. Gradually, over a period of several days, the core of the high-pressure area freed itself of clouds, allowing the sun’s rays to blast down during the days immediately after the solstice.

The result was the most remarkable heat wave in recorded history. On Sunday, June 27th, Canada broke its all-time heat record, of a hundred and thirteen degrees Fahrenheit, when the temperature reached nearly a hundred and sixteen degrees in Lytton, a community of around two hundred and fifty residents on the Fraser River, in southern British Columbia.

The next day, that record was broken, again in Lytton, when the temperature hit a hundred and eighteen degrees. On Tuesday, it was smashed again, when the temperature in the town soared to a hundred and twenty-one degrees. On Wednesday, Lytton, now parched dry, burned to the ground in a wildfire; only a few buildings were left standing.

Breaking a long-standing record is hard (Canada’s old high-temperature record dated to 1937); surpassing it by eight degrees is, in theory, statistically impossible. It was hotter in Canada that day than on any day ever recorded in Florida, or in Europe, or in South America.

“There has never been a national heat record in a country with an extensive period of record and a multitude of observation sites that was beaten by 7°F to 8°F,” the weather historian Christopher C. Burt said.

Records of almost equally incredible magnitude came in from across the region. Quillayute, Washington, broke its all-time temperature high by eleven degrees, at a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit, even though the town is just three miles from the Pacific. It was over a hundred and three at Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories, beating an eighty-year-old record.

According to Maximiliano Herrera, a weather historian who maintains a Web site devoted to unprecedented temperatures, “the number of all times records beaten by more than 5C in this heat wave is greater than all cases worldwide together” in the past eighty-five years.

Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, meteorologists who blog for a Yale climate Web site, wrote, “Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin.”

The reason, of course, is the climate crisis: within days, researchers had demonstrated—with the modelling techniques of the new attribution science—that global warming had made such a heat wave a hundred and fifty times more likely.

Essentially, this couldn’t have happened on the Earth we used to know. James Hansen, the planet’s most important climatologist, put it this way when I talked to him last month: “We’ve been expecting extreme events. But what happened in Canada was unusually extreme.”

The reason all this is so frightening is that it suggests fundamental parts of the way that the planet works have begun to shift, allowing for physical phenomena we’ve never seen before. It suggests, that is, that the predictions provided by global-climate models—which are frightening enough—may be too optimistic.

The impossible heat in that week seems to be connected with the increasingly unstable operation of the jet stream, which in turn seems to be connected with the rapid melt of the Arctic Ocean—as the temperature difference between the equator and the pole lessens, the jet stream seems to get stuck in odd positions.

Meanwhile, a flood of freshwater from that same melting Arctic seems also to be disrupting the Gulf Stream.

A new study, which was conducted by European scientists and released a few months before the heat dome appeared, strengthened the theory that the immense ocean current—which is a hundred times the flow of the Amazon, and which, like the jet stream, distributes heat poleward—had slowed by roughly fifteen per cent since 1950. We’re breaking really big things.

Scientists have done a good job of calculating how much the world will warm as we increase the amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. They’re pretty confident that, having raised the temperature more than a degree Celsius already, we’re on our way to a planet that will be, on average, three degrees warmer.

That’s if we keep on our current track; the scientists are hopeful that, if we take actions more dramatic than those promised at Glasgow, we might hold that average increase below two degrees.

But researchers are not as confident—especially since the June heat wave—that we really understand how much damage those global averages represent. Scientists are inherently conservative in their predictions.

The world is clearly more fragile than the models have led us to believe. And that’s what was terrifying about 2021.

Links

• (USA National Geographic) Year In Review: 2021's Weather Disasters Brought Home The Reality Of Climate Change
• The Year in Climate | The New Yorker
• Climate change in review: 2021 - YouTube
• 2021 was a remarkable year for Earth's climate
• 2021 in Review: Our Reports on Climate Change
• Articles in 2021 | Nature Climate Change