The worst are wars imo. Massive usage of resources to build war machinery, massive destruction of infrastructure that used resources to build, massive usage of resources to clean up and rebuild… And it’s usually not accounted for: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/warfares-climate-emissions-are-huge-but-uncounted/
If you own your home, you can drastically reduce your carbon.
- installing solar to take energy off the grid
- install a heat pump to generate heat and cool off of electricity
- even if your grid is pure coal, this is still more efficient than burning your own gas
- you can keep a gas furnace as a backup, look up “dual-fuel” systems
- take transit whenever possible
- if you are in a car dependent area, look into e-bikes and EVs. Even replacing just your commuter car can have huge impacts, you don’t have to replace them all.
In the US it’s roughly a tie between road transportation and energy generation (which lumps together both heat and electricity).
(Source: University of Michigan https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/sustainability-indicators/carbon-footprint-factsheet)
The global breakdown is similar: https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors
The solutions? Build mass transit, live in temperate climates, buy less stuff, …? Honestly, I don’t think we’re not going to fix the problem with simple, local improvements (though by all means do what you can). There are global demographic forces to contend with. A century ago there were 2 billion people on earth. Now there are >8 billion, and in my lifetime we will surpass 9 billion. Many of those people are climbing out of poverty, and they want cars and air conditioners and all the other energy-intensive things that rich countries have enjoyed for a century. IMO we’re going to need massive technological changes (like powering much of the world with nuclear very soon) in concert with a major population reduction and/or major changes to how people expect to live.
I’m curious about how CO2 emissions from road construction in the US compares to that of Europe (adjusted for scale, obviously).
Concrete creates A LOT of CO2, and after driving a lot in both US and EU roads I can say that US roads involve a lot more concrete.
EDIT: Autocomplete and autocorrect is even worse at this than I am…
Side note: If worrying about climate isn’t enough, we can also worry about potential famine as we use up our fossil fuels.
We are able to feed the world because of the Haber-Bosch process. This process uses fossil fuels, usually natural gas, to produce synthetic ammonia for fertilizer. That fertilizer makes modern high-yield farming possible. “Without the Haber-Bosch process we would only be able to produce around two-thirds the amount of food we do today.”
https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/
The excess production of useless shit that nobody would need or want without the manipulation of advertising convincing us otherwise. Cell phones and such are nice, don’t get me wrong, but do we need thousands of factories around the world churning out cargo ships full of cheap plastic junk that’s designed to fail? No. It only exists because it makes some rich people even richer, and it’s burning our planet down. If all that productive capacity was bent to the purpose of meeting peoples’ actual needs/reasonable wants it would be a different matter.
There is no need to express opinions when we have good estimates for both your questions:
Sector by sector: where do global greenhouse gas emissions come from? -> https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector
individual solutions reviewed and assessed by Project Drawdown, including their relevant sector(s) and their impact on reducing heat-trapping gases -> https://drawdown.org/solutions/table-of-solutions
Both the links above are from a very interesting video on the topic that I suggest to take a look at. Also the whole channel is really interesting and well done -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReXaS4QausQ
For typical middle-class people (like the ones probably reading this), usually the single worst thing they do is flying. It’s the only way to blow your personal carbon budget for the whole year in just a few hours.
That’s at the individual level.
Going vegan was the easiest for me. The Co2 impact is massive!
Obligatory “not vegan” but it’s hilarious to me when people ignore this.
Why do you think we cut down trees? Yes, more farmland. Farmland for what? To feed the cattle lol
Having children
The last thing this world needs is more little consumers, especially living, or aspiring to, the western levels of consumption
#1 Making more humans #2 Making less humans
Honestly, capitalism.
The whole damn consume consume consume mindset. The idea that things are discarded instead of being repaired or properly recycled.
I don’t know, there are progressive capitalist countries which do pretty well, especially in Europe. And there are nominally communist countries which have the number of new coal plants and poorest environmental records on the planet.
saying “capitalism“ certainly does make people check out because that’s an irresolvable “problem”, compared to “See if you can start eating vegetarian one day a week and beef no more than once every two weeks”
What Economic system would you change out for Capitalism?
Communism or socialism.
Bad
- Voting for reactionary or fossil industry-backed parties and candidates
- participating in local initiatives with climate action delay campaigns (eg “wind farm too loud”, “PV lowers property prices”, “bike lanes decrease spending”)
- keeping an internal combustion engine car,
- keeping a fossil fueled heating/cooling system
- paying for fossil fueled electricity plans
- building with concrete
- eating an omnivore diet with high waste lifestyle
Good
- Bicycling
- avoiding transportation
- using public transit when necessary
- decreasing load on electric grid
- using self-made energy (ie PV, communal wind) at the right time (ie washing clothes on solar peak)
- building with timber
- eating a plant-based diet with low waste lifestyle
- understanding LCAs of various materials and things
- increasing participation in circular economy (recycling, waste separation, repair shops, 2nd hand/gift economy)
- listening to actual science
