I am also doing nothing. However (and maybe I'm just rationalizing :P) I think that public awareness and willingness to tackle the issue on a national and global scale are the only way to an effective solution. It all comes down to public policy and the development of sustainable energy, and large scale projects to mitigate the damage. Personal contribution is very important too, especially our influence as consumers of material and energy products, but maybe the act of discussing climate change on the internet is a contribution in itself? (am I in denial or what?)

Another interesting string in a day of interesting strings. Nice one, Joseph.

The main thing that I do that I think is helpful is that I try to take to task anyone who a) doesn't believe that global warming should be a major political issue, and b) hasn't bothered to make themselves aware of the pertinent information regarding the crisis. The reason I think this is important is because there are still quite a few people in the US that (frankly) do not buy global warming as an issue, and only political will on the part of both regional and national governments are really going to help in turning the proverbial dial on fossil fuel emissions. I am not sure whether the same situation exists in New Zealand or in Israel (where lots of people still don't believe it), but if so, this is probably the biggest thing you can do to impact change in the future.

If only there were some sort of international online forum where people could come and share ideas about things like this. Obviously there would be some fairly serious language barriers to overcome, no?

But seriously folks: Brent, I agree. Short of actually chaining myself to a coal-fired power station, taking others to task does seem to be one of the more useful activities I can be engaging in. That, and donating towards the legal expenses of those people who actually do chain themselves to coal-fired power stations. And I'll get around to a letter to the relevant NZ government minister over the weekend, as the approach from the folks in Wellington strikes me as entirely wrongheaded but the chances of their changing course if I do nothing are marginally less than if I do something ...

Two things I do / have done...

The first thing is a consequence of being in a car crash in June when someone smashed into my car and wrecked it. I took the money from the insurance company, put it in the bank, and did NOT buy another car. Since June, I've got around almost exclusively on my bicycle. This is no small feat in Seattle where we have a lot of hills and lots of rainy weather, although we have excellent bike paths (see the first photo attached - that's my bike on the path I use to get to work every day). I've since cycled more than 1,200 miles in the past 5 months, mainly going to work and back. We also own a cargo bike that we use to get the kids around as much as we can (see the 2nd photo), although I should also mention that we still have one family vehicle that we use somewhat regularly (we drive that about 7,000 miles per year).

The second thing I’ve tried really hard to do this year is to buy less stuff. Sounds simple, but being an aspirational minimalist is actually quite hard. The urge to buy stuff is sometimes really powerful. I’m not sure if this is an innate urge that I’m fighting or if we’ve just been conditioned to consume to be happy. Either way, minimalism in our household is a work in progress but at the very least, there’s a dialog around whether or not we need a particular item. It also helps that I quit my job and we had to tighten the purse strings anyway :-)