Climate change is a serious threat, but you can make a difference. Below are a few things that you
can do that actually have a meaningful impact.
👉 Eat Your Vegetables
Yes, that's the top thing on this list!
Farm animals account for somewhere between 10% and 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions.[,]
While researchers debate the exact figure, the bottom line is that farm animals contribute a lot to
Climate Change. Farmed vegetables have a significantly smaller climate impact.
Replacing some of your meat-focused meals with vegetable-focused meals reduces the demand for
meat, allowing farms to raise fewer animals, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farms.
While if might feel like one person cutting back on their meat consumption won't make a
difference, consider what happens if everyone were to make that small change. A small change,
multiplied by a lot of people, is a gigantic impact!
👉 Save Your Food, Save Your Wallet
Food waste accounts for at least 6% of all greenhouse gas emissions.[]
To be clear, this is food that you are buying with your own money, and then throwing out before you eat it.
There's two easy ways to reduce food waste at home.
The first easy way to reduce food waste is to double check that food has actually spoiled before
you throw it out. Food expiration dates typically refer to quality, not safety. In many cases,
food that is past its expiration date is still safe to eat and nutritious.[]
For more details, read the USDA guide on this topic.
The second easy way to reduce food waste is to be more deliberate about your grocery purchases.
When you go to the store, only buy the food that you're actually going to eat, and when you get
home, store that food properly.[]
For more details on how to do this, read the EPA guide on this topic.
👉 Get More Efficient
After changing your food habits, the next biggest action you can take as an individual is to use
less power.[]
Here's a few suggestions on how to boost your energy efficiency while reducing your reliance on fossil
fuels.[]
At Home
- Install Solar Panels
- Improve Insulation
- Switch Old Lightbulbs for LEDs
- Install a Solar Hot Water Heater
- Switch Old Windows for Insulated Glass
- Install a High-Efficiency Heat Pump
- Install a Smart Thermostat
In Transit
- Use public transit, bike, and walk whenever feasible
- If you have to use a car, then carpool
- Swap your gasoline car for an electric car
An interesting sidenote:
Before doing research for this section, it seemed likely that replacing a gas stove with an
electric stove would appear on the list of high-impact home improvements, but no! Compared to the
other items on the home improvement list, switching to an electric stove has a relatively small
impact on climate change. That being said, gas stoves are still
terrible for human health, and broadly switching
away from natural gas powered appliances is good for both the planet and for people.[,]
👉 Shape Society
Sadly, there's only so much that individual people can do to directly combat Climate Change. About
70% of greenhouse gas emissions come from companies and governments.[]
To address the bulk of the challenge, you'll need to help support society-level changes.
If you live in a country with elections, the easiest way to support these society-level changes is
by voting for candidates and policies that align with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The
following types of policies are known to be effective at combating Climate Change.[]
- Policies that increase the cost of fossil fuels through increased taxation or subsidy removal.
Governments can avoid negative side-effects of these policies by using the added tax revenue or
saved subsidy money to benefit economically vulnerable populations.
- Policies that reduce the cost of alternative energy through subsidies, infrastructure
investment, or research funding.
- Policies that reduce deforestation and ecosystem disruption, especially in tropical areas.
Some examples include policies that reduce meat consumption, policies that reduce food waste,
and policies that increase the productivity of existing farmland.
- Policies that make commutes easier. Some examples include policies that change how cities are
designed so jobs and housing are closer together, and policies that build and maintain
infrastructure for public transportation, bicycles, and walking.
- Policies that make it easier for developing countries to access funding for climate projects.
Talking to your friends, family, and colleagues about the policies above will help these policies
get adopted in your area. If you're in the United States, you can register to vote using this link.
Outside of voting, you can join a local climate advocacy group to help shape public awareness,
public opinion, and public policy.
Science Disclaimer
The temperature listed at the top of this page is correct insofar as it is based on the best
science available in 2024. However, the listed temperature hides a great deal of nuance and
requires appropriate context to be understood correctly.
Firstly, the temperature listed at the top of this page has far too many significant figures. The
unnaturally large number of digits allows us to illustrate the increase in temperature during the
first few seconds of a reader's visit to the page. Real-world Climate Change operates on the scale
of decades, not seconds, and is therefore much less engaging to the human brain's painfully short
attention span.
Secondly, Earth's real-world temperature is much more erratic than the steadily increasing number
up top suggests. Earth sometimes gets warmer and sometimes gets cooler; Climate Change refers to
the average change in temperature over a period of time. For illustrative purposes, it is more
useful to show the increasing average than it is to show the erratic real temperature.
For the mathematically-inclined readers: the temperature at the top of the page is produced from a
piecewise linear function that linearly interpolates the annual temperature projections of the
IPCC's 6th Assessment Report's median model. Read the source code for this page.
The source data[] used to compute the temperature
at the top of the page is used under license from its creators.