Practical Steps To Prepare For Climate Change
In between outrage and hopelessness is a plan.
There is a lot of bad advice concerning climate change. Most of it pertains to what you can do on an individual level to reduce your carbon footprint (e.g., recycle, use less plastic, don’t fly, etc.). I even wrote one of these back in the day about urging people to fly less (be gentle).
This advice isn't all bad, but it individualizes a systemic problem. A third of the world's carbon emissions come from just 20 companies. You should still try to recycle, especially if you belong in a country such as the US that contributes to a disproportionate amount of those emissions, but it's madness to assume that consumer choices alone are going to magic this problem away. Climate change is perpetuated by some of the most powerful people on the planet, and stopping it will require removing them from power.
The enormity of this task causes many people to resort to nihilism, but that's not helpful either. We need practical advice, not simply to mitigate future climate change (an increasingly difficult task), but to deal with the number of carbon emissions we have already signed up for as a species.
This short list will not suddenly make the world better, but it might help you sort out some things when it comes to dealing with…
