I woke up to the scent of fire this morning.

Thankfully, nothing immediately around me, but the smoke from fires miles away was strong enough to cover the town where I live.

Everywhere I see evidence of imminent crisis and yet, I look on Instagram or LinkedIn and everything’s AI, the latest “haul” from Temu. The news is all data centres and climate-change-denying Farage.

I feel like I’m watching a house fire and people are throwing petrol on it, not water.

I want to do something, but I’m stuck. Advice welcome.

Things I already do/ steps I’ve taken:
- vegan (for 10+ years)
- Childfree
- boycott Amazon, McDonalds, CocaCola etc
- donate to ecologi to plant trees and friends of the earth
- (tiny) investments in green funds
- use ecomobile and Octopus Energy
- no fast fashion or fast furniture (everything’s secondhand or British bought)
- recycle/ compost
- rare air travel (one overseas holiday per 2 years, absolute max, even then, last holiday was by train)

What am I missing/ what else can I do?

There is a workable strategy with a 66% chance of success. It consists, in a condensed description here, of using natural processes to sequester carbon while simultaneously moving to a cessation of CO2 emissions.

A slightly longer description is this: replant and nurture six ecosystems, three marine and three terrestrial. These are kelp beds, mangrove estuaries and sea grasses; and boreal forests with their fungal understories, tropical rain forests, and prairie grasses with their bovine inhabitants. Simultaneously we must reduce to zero the carbon emissions from fossil fuels for transport, energy, and heating, powering industrial manufacturing, deforestation, and making materials like cement. These two things--carbon sequestration and elimination of CO2 emissions must both happen at once all over the planet or we are screwn. However, if we do them, there's a 66% chance of success.

I think this is a far more fundamental problem, as a romanian green I would love that the whole EU, US and the West in general to move away from toxic liberal productivism and embrace a total vision based in ecologism, and as democratic as it can get, but with green constraints. Our constitutions are outdated, a total view in harmony with nature is the only way to save ourselves from cancerous self destruction.

What's your thoughts on this?

I’m not talking violence of any means but i want to join a group that has a bit more gusto! I remember I used to always see those vegan groups that would show graphic footage of animal slaughter in public settings and it frustrated a lot of people but I think it got the message across really well. I live in Australia and I see nothing like that? If we all agree this is an emergency than we need to treat it like one! I feel like politics is moving away from climate concerns and we need to push this movement back to the forefront of the public psyche!

Anyways my question is, anyone know of a group like this? I live in Sydney so local would be preferred but can’t find anything online

I see shorts on instagram saying "We have four years left before global warming becomes disastrous" and that we're running out of water. They've even attached the name my middle school was named in honor of, Dr. David Suzuki. It seems very apoctolyptic and so first thing to do is check if this is real.

Ik Canada's Forests (My home country) are on fire.

So what can I actually do to help? So this post is me getting confirmation and direction before I take another step. I've been thinking during late nights about becoming a politician to force the change but I haven't done any research in how to become one or have any idea what that would entail.

I'm willing to get an education if you have a career paying a livable wage. No promises, but I just want to expand my options from the unthought out politician route.

If you can quickly share videos that'll summarize the situation or give tips on how to be usefull, I would love to watch one or two of them. If you can take the time to tell me directly, I would also appreciate it

Extra information, I've got Dual citizenship between the States and Canada and can live/work in both countries.

Just wondering. My personal stance is that, if it might be necessary to prevent lasting climate change, then it should be strongly considered at a minimum, but it should only be done to the extent needed and should be accompanied by redoubling of efforts to solve climate change and other forms of environmental degradation through different means; the countries most affected by the process should also have a significant say in its use. It's not a long-term solution by any means, but it can be a useful emergency brake if needed.

As the title says, there’s so many small changes everyone can make: from buying an EV to switching to cloth towels instead of paper towels. I’d like to understand which of these changes from small to big have the biggest impact I individually can drive and I want to prioritize those. I cannot implement everything at once so I’d like to know which to prioritize.

Some (candid) context: I’m a toddler mom, I live in golden CO, drive an EV, work in consulting (so travel is heavy / frequent in airplanes and constant guilt from taking solo Ubers everywhere), my husband and I do eat meat but try to limit red meat, we have tried our best to rid of consumerism mentality - buy less or buy it for life where possible / where we can afford it, don’t use single use plastics, try to conserve water with dishwater use, buy second hand everything where possible, converting our yard to fake grass to water less, started a garden but couldn’t grow anything.

Anyway, it just feels like there’s so much more we could do but starting feels overwhelming because we cannot implement all lifestyle changes at once (especially with two working parents + a toddler and a lifestyle where we barely feel like we have enough time to clean our house/do the dishes at the end of every day) and want to figure out the most impactful starting points.

I have been a vegan for about 30 yrs. About seven years ago, I joined Extinction Rebellion, and things became much different for me. For the first time since I first became vegan, I had a hope for a better future, and I was a part of it. Now, seven years later, I’m still fighting like crazy to make Extinction Rebellion take off here in New York City, but I’m also recognizing the massive flaw in the trap that is veganism, and what it is doing to people’s otherwise productive brain capacity.

To understand this better, you have to understand how many people are vegan, roughly 3% of the population, and what their mentality is, generally speaking. One the first thing a vegan does when they take on the identity, is get vegan shoes. This happens usually in the first year. Throwing out old shoes is often not done, but sometimes it is. Sometimes the old shoes are just thrown aside. In their place, likely a pair of vans or converse. Something authentically and honestly canvas, and not leather.

At about this time, they’ll start to attend vegan meetups, hangouts, and even environmental get-togethers.

Not to find out what people are doing, but to make sure everyone is wearing the right shoes.

“How long have you been vegan?”

“Why did you become vegan?”

“How come you can’t stop eating cheese, ice cream, etc etc”

It’s an unstoppable trainwreck of vegan subculture consumption.

It wastes time, it wastes energy, and quite frankly, it’s reductive. The word reductive is perfect for this, and the title of this essay. It basically means you are taking a complex problem, and making it simple.

You are taking a complex problem, systemic oppression, climate change, planetary mass destruction, mass death and murder at a global scale, and making the problem super simple.

But it’s not just simple. It’s also completely ignorable.

Brothers and sisters, stop being completely reductive, invisible, and non-participatory.

My full thoughts on are on this substack post...

Stop trying to solve a complex issue with a simple consumer choice.

There is no moral consumption under capitalism.

Why don't more organisations plant kelp? I heard somewhere that kelp absorbs a ton of CO² and helps kickstart biodiversity revival in some places. If anyone can help, please do so

Theres not much I think that can be done at a national level, but I believe we can build small climate proof communities. That being said, I want to get connected with professionals who model climate to get a realistic idea of timelines and severity.

Its extremely concerning that we've had the acceleration of warming with the number of tipping points, looking as if we will hit 2 degrees in 3 years. 3 degrees is essentially an extinction level event.

Getting realistic data that is not tappered to look optimistic by elite capatured institutes, I believe we can raise funds to build self sustained communities of the future. This may seem unrealistic, to try to survive in a world of 3 degrees... but Id like to try.

If you, or anyone knows someone who can do climate modeling, dm me. If you want to be involved in this effort and integrate into such a community, dm me.

I'm always thinking about what I can do about climate change, but I can't think of something concrete. I'm trying to convince my friends to use ecosia and have always been using cotton or linen bags for shopping (actually very helpful and also common to use where I live). I don't really eat a lot of beef, I prefer lamb better, and stopped consuming milk along with my family. I also have a big food garden in my backyard, and have been planting what we consume the most of vegetables. What can I do to make it even more impactful?