By Catherine Clifford
The full article is worth a look. My own suggestions:
Vote for climate-conscious leaders
Voting is the advice of Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at New York University, too. Specifically, Wagner calls on individuals to “vote well.” You may think that your vote doesn’t really count, given that you’re one voice among millions, but Wagner addresses that in an essay he wrote with the late Martin Weitzman.
“Get up and vote; it’s the right thing to do. And don’t just vote for the sake of voting. Vote as an informed citizen. Vote well,” Wagner and Weitzman write. ”Vote for a cause larger than yourself. Vote for those who promise more than just to further their own agenda (or yours!). Vote for those who seek to look out for society at large.”
Cut your personal consumption
Start a decarbonization plan at home, said Wagner. His own home greening journey was detailed by New York Magazine, and included everything from new insulation to adding a heat pump on the roof and rewiring the house to support it — and it cost over $100,000. But not every project needs to be so extensive.
“Many households can easily switch to an affordable renewable-oriented electricity plan, and improved insulation and windows make our homes climate-smart while saving us money,” Funk said.
As with voting, Wagner provides a rebuke for the statisticians who are ready to provide proof their individual behavior doesn’t matter. “Reducing your own carbon footprint to zero is a noble gesture, but it’s less than a drop in the bucket. Quite literally: the standard U.S. bucket holds about 300,000 drops; but you are one in over 300,000,000 as an American, and you are one in seven billion as a human being,” Wagner and Weitzman write.
“So why go green at all? Because it’s the right thing to do. It’s also how we learn the values that we have to apply on a much larger scale to tackle climate change,” they write.
Also, your behaviors have an impact on those around you. “Recycle. Bike to work. Eat less meat. Maybe go all the way and turn vegetarian. Teach your kids to do the same, and to turn off the water while brushing their teeth. It’s good for you. It’s good for those around you. It’s the right thing to do.”
Identify your personal passion or talent and use it
“Do anything — anything at all,” Wagner told CNBC. “That begins with talking about climate change. It also means doing what you do best. Students, study. Teachers, teach. Writers, write. Entrepreneurs, invent, build, ship! Whatever it is you do best, consider how climate change figures into it, and do that.”
“How you can help fight climate change in ways that really matter” by Catherine Clifford, CNBC, 4 September 2021.