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What are you doing to:
A, reduce your carbon footprint (ie lifestyle change, beyond cycling places)
No flights, minimal meat, reduced dairy, growing our own veg, reduce level of foodwaste. I still need to switch energy supplier & consider the eco-impacts of my coffee habit.
More to do on journeys, it's hard to not jump in the car for allotment runs with daughter (6) when cycling there would use valuable working time and leave her tired & grumpy.
B, improve or reverse the carbon footprint of others
See above re challenging journey purpose/necessity/mode.
Trying to end appliance standby / lights on culture in our own house, as minimal a benefit as this makes. My partner thinks I'm nuts switching idle stuff off all the time, but I keep explaining why. Hoping the message gets through eventually.
Otherwise it's gentle conversation. E.g. have realised my Dad is receptive to discussing this when we talk in terms of wildlife disappearing. He notices this and is saddened by decline in bird species & absence of bats in his locality, this is the hook around which to discuss things.
C, encourage others to action A & B
Hard, as that's when the defences go up.
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rhb
In no way cynical, nor sarcastic, but genuinely a challenge to those that feel one way or another about this...
What are you doing to:
A, reduce your carbon footprint (ie lifestyle change, beyond cycling places)
B, improve or reverse the carbon footprint of others
C, encourage others to action A & B
?
For example,
Sharing the news stories to friends and family to try to increase awareness and promote discourse about the issues. Before the protests I linked to the original BBC story and one friend effectively said “I think it’s the wrong approach”, but when linked to the other stories one week later said, “maybe I’ll look into getting involved some time in the future”. I challenged that friend for driving one mile to the shop out of convenience, and that a start is to make more journeys in less environmentally damaging means. That friend actually cycles to work in all weathers, and it is nearly 10 miles round trip. In the near future I must prompt that friend to make a greater effort.
Or,
Discussing with family to try to promote more discourse, and learn to talk around issues like those @cycleclinic raised, where you might otherwise get brickwalled. I must try to find ways of encouraging actual positive outcomes rather than all talk and no action. But, I must encourage those family members to talk to other extended family and friends to try to build on the discourse, if only to keep the issues current.
Mostly, are you actually doing more than simply enjoying the echo-chamber here?
This to me is the same challenge as the cycle safety argument, in that it’s easy for people to say “oh yes, road deaths and injuries are terrible aren’t they, but they shouldn’t be cycling on those dangerous roads”, but it’s difficult to challenge someone you may otherwise get on well with and say “but what are you doing to improve the safety of that road? Do you want me to be next?” At every opportunity I am the road safety evangelist, arguing helmets don’t save lives, considerate road use saves lives, greater care, etc etc.
Maybe some things you are doing are easy or difficult but are encouraging for others here to try.
So, what are you doing for A/B/C ?