There's a compact worm farm in the sheltered corner on the balcony, a bokashi bin too. And in the kitchen, a stainless-steel bin with a recycling logo etched onto the lid stands tall. Sprouting jars along with eco products form a story about this apartment - indoor plants, outdoor crops and milk-crate-seats all chant "reuse, repurpose, recycle". This pad is an environmental mecca, or is it?
Conducting a mini audit of my surroundings made me realise that embarking on a carbon cleanse is about more than just a few swaps. Generally, the first step is to replace (reduce, reuse and repurpose too of course). Adios meat patty, hola Beyond Burger. But we can't stop there! So, we're going to take a look at some of the impactful ways we can decarbonise our daily lives, right through to lobbying for industrial change!
So, what can more impactful change look like?
The above apartment occupant looks like they're well on their way to reducing their carbon footprint – true. But, let's keep going on that decarbonising journey. At the moment, many governments are taking small steps, not quantum leaps towards a zero emissions future. In Australia, the government is pursuing a disastrous gas-led recovery. When governments ignore the climate reality, we have to start going our own way and voting with our dollars is one way to do this.
How we choose to spend money is like casting a vote in the ballot box. Our fiscal habits influence what is brought into production, or on the flipside, what is dropped from the market due to less demand - this is known as voting with your dollar. An example of voting with your dollar would be opting for an electric vehicle (EV) the next time you upgrade your car. Or splashing some cash on solar panels and soaking up that sweet, sweet sun. If that's an impossibility (you live in an apartment complex, you're renting and not able to make infrastructure change or don't have the funds) then you can try switching to an energy provider powered by renewables. You could also investigate community energy and solar gardens!
Let's keep with the electric theme. When the time comes to make a big impact purchase (new car, water-heater, stove, roofing) source an electric alternative. It isn't always easy to get (and also afford) some of these products. But we can write to our elected representative about introducing subsidies to make things like EVs and solar panels more affordable. Not only do subsidies help us make those bigger purchases, they help lots of people make change - like incentives offered by state governments in Australia for rooftop solar (now, 1 in 4 Australian homes have rooftop solar!). And, the more people jumping on the EV bandwagon, electrifying their homes and demanding clean energy with their dollar, the cheaper and more accessible these products become!
If going electric doesn't work for you, there are still so many ways we can take power into our own hands. Look around your house, apartment, or living space and conduct an eco-audit. Do you have a worm farm, bokashi or compost bin?If not, check out your local council website. Many council's offer heavily discounted compost systems to encourage residents to reform their waste production (products come in a variety of sizes to suit most living situations).
Why is it important to make changes now, not next year?
Have you heard of the phrase 'committed emissions'? If not, you're not alone. Committed emissions are those that are locked in due to existing infrastructure that emit carbon dioxide. An example is your car, say you own a reasonably new vehicle fuelled by petrol, that car will likely be discharging emissions into an already fraught future for another 20-years. Now upscale that to major industrial infrastructure and the picture starts to come together. A fossil-fuelled power plant built today will emit carbon dioxide for another50 years. These committed emissions alone are projected to push us beyond the 1.5-degree climate target set in the Paris Agreement. The sobering reality is, we're not going to stop all fossil-fuel operations today (we can't) but that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do.
So, let's be political agitators, vote with our dollar, be a composting, clean-energy-consuming cool cat and embrace 21st-century solutions to 21st-century challenges. The present, and any kind of prosperous future demands a radical overhaul of infrastructure, energy production and consumer choosing. And we each have a role to play in getting there.
Written by Kate Cussen
Kate is a scientist specialising in environmental pollutants, a freelance writer, avid hiker and professional waterfall finder.