So, I’m a highschooler. 15 years old. My parents and I are pretty poor. What are some ways we could help the environment in our everyday lives?
I decided to start answering some questions and this is the first one. I am so sorry that I didn't manage to answer it earlier. I bet you're 16 now:)) But anyways, enough with the excuses.
So the three best things that you can do if you want to help fight against climate change are:
One third of all the food in the world ends up in the trash. It then gets sent to landfills and there it releases methane which is about 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. You can reduce your food waste by eating the food you buy and by starting to compost the scraps and peels from what you can't eat. Just don't compost animal products or oils!! They can attract animals or leave a foul smell (the case of oil, which is also toxic to plants). You can then use the compost on your plants and if you have an excess you can either sell it or give away to neighbours! This method not only helps fight climate change but it's also potentially economically positive for your family since you won't need to buy more food than necessary, fertilizer and you can even earn a buck!
This is just plain and simple. It's also quite healthy! However, if you need to get somewhere which is farther than walking distance, use public transportation over the car. The carbon footprint of public transportation is divided amongst the people that use it you contribute less to climate change than with a car.
3) Protest, talk, spread information!
The last one's the best. The ones that are the most responsible for the climate change aren't individuals. They are mostly corporations... As such, demanding change either from a particular company (since you are their client after all), or from a particular politician (you are also a valuable citizen!) can help. Companies can change their behaviours to better address the needs of their customers and politicians can impose tighter regulation for CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) emissions.
Other than that, talk to your friends, inform your neighbours, and organize peaceful events to bring awareness in regards to the issue. Who knows who you can convince to help us in this battle. Just remember to be a diplomat in all of this because we can best convince with facts and discussions. Even though 'feelings are immune to facts' more often than not, you can't convince with feelings. A neutral person will not be interested at best and annoyed at worst by an obnoxious activist, and an angry opposer (such as a climate change denier in some cases) will be at best annoyed and at worst angered and convinced more of his own ideas.
Hope I could help and apologies for writing after so many months! Have a nice day/night!
