12/28/2016 10:40 pm ET | Updated 6 days ago
Neil Leary, Dickinson College, Center for Sustainability Education
REUTERS
After I wrote What a Trump Presidency Means for Fighting Climate Change, a colleague suggested that I write an article with “5 concrete examples of on-the-ground things people can do.” I’ve been mulling that over. You can readily find lists online of 5 things, 10 things, 50 and more things to do about climate change. Many excellent suggestions. Nearly all of them call for individual actions. Things that you can do to reduce your personal carbon footprint.
Individual actions are important. We learn through personal experience what works and what doesn’t, what’s easy and what’s hard. We prove change is feasible. We demonstrate our seriousness by walking the talk. We help motivate others to act. We move the needle, even if just a bit, in the direction that we need to move as a society.
But a strategy built solely on individual actions will not prevent the calamitous impacts of climate change that will befall us if atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise as currently projected. That takes collective action, in both public and private spheres. Actions that fundamentally transform the choices that are available to us, and that promote choices that will build a low-carbon, climate resilient economy that provides for our needs, including the need for a healthy and safe planet with a stable climate.
Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-leary/5-things-to-do-about-clim_b_13876508.html.
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