As a teenager, I don’t have very much control over my life, but also being an avid social media user, I am constantly bombarded with people telling me about how each and everything I do is destroying the planet. So, to those who also want to make a difference in the environment and fall asleep every day feeling a little better, here are some simple things almost anyone can do.
1. Stop Eating Red Meat
For every 100 grams of beef, 49.89 kg of greenhouse gas is emitted. For context, the second largest emitter is Lamb & Mutton at 19.85 kg of greenhouse gas, a whopping 30.04 kg difference! This is partly because of the crazy huge amount of methane cows produce by fermenting grasses to make it digestible, then burping out the methane from that process. According to the New York Times, methane has 80 times the heat-trapping power than of carbon dioxide.
2. Carpool
Not only does carpooling make your gas more efficient and ease road congestion, but it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and lowers air pollution. Transportation makes up 28% of total US greenhouse emissions and sits in the top 4 greenhouse gas emitters. Plus, carpooling brings people closer together. From the car karaokes to sitting in the drive through there are no downsides in ditching the drive alone for driving with a friend.
3. Don’t Use Generative AI
As Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) grows in online consumption, the data centers in which servers, data storage, and other equipment are in rapid creation. To train generative AI it takes 7 or 8 times more energy than a regular computer uses, this makes the need for more data centers increase, and ways to cool them down too. Cold water is needed to cool down energy systems, and leaving these 1,000-watt devices running for one hour takes 2 liters of water, now imagine a warehouse full of them. Is it really worth is it really worth wasting liters of water to answer a math question?
4. Stop Shopping Fast Fashion
Have you ever stopped to think about why fast fashion is so cheap? Well, it’s not only because of the terrible condition in warehouses and the minimum wage checks alluded to, but also because of its impact on the environment. Clothes aren’t made to last, they are made cheap so that when they break you keep buying more, creating a cycle of waste. Many fast fashion brands also use polyester fabrics that create 70 million barrels of oil and take almost 200 years to break down.
5. Talk to People About Climate Change
This is the easiest- and my favorite- way to reduce your carbon footprint, just talk about it! Talking forces people to reflect and notice when they make a choice that impacts the environment negatively. I never really noticed my own carbon footprint until I spoke about it with my class, it got me thinking about how what I do affects the environment. the rest of the world should do the same. We’re living in a scary time right now, and we don’t really know how nature is going to react, but trying a little harder to reduce waste and our carbon footprint never hurt anyone.
