WHAT CAN WE DO?
One deadline, many lifelines.
We must reduce the amount of carbon emissions we put into our atmosphere and eliminate fossil fuels.
Eat Plant-Based Food
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford revealed that switching to a plant-based diet is the single biggest action we can take to reduce our impact on the environment.
Cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73%.
Researchers found that if the world’s population cut out animal products altogether, global farmland use could be reduced by 75%, an area equivalent to the size of the US, China, Australia and the EU combined.
Support Renewable Energy
Choose solar power and renewables where possible. If you are in the privileged position to be able to choose the power source for your home or office, opt to install solar panels and batteries.
Support government initiatives or politicians who are in favour of renewable energies.
Speak Up & Stand Up
Spread the word about the climate crisis and make a stand. Real change will only come when leaders are pushed by grassroots people-power to take more serious climate action. If you are not already involved with a local grassroots group working for Climate Justice to achieve our lifelines and solutions, you can find a group to join here:
List of contacts for grassroots organisations:
- The Climate Clock
- Friday For Future Thailand
- Climate Strike Thailand
- 350.org Thailand
- Too Young To Die
- Omkoi Mining Network
- Grin Green International
Climate Justice
Human rights and climate change are one in the same.
“We cannot solve environmental issues without addressing their root cause, which often stems from social inequalities like poverty and the income gap, abuse of indigenous or women’s rights, lack of education and much more”
– Lyn, Climate Strike Thailand
Compost
Compost your food scraps to reduce methane emissions.
When food scraps and food waste go to the landfill, it does not receive sufficient oxygen, nutrients, moisture or temperature to be able to properly degrade. When food waste is in landfill conditions and cannot degrade properly, it produces methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is at least 34x more potent than carbon dioxide.
Approximately 64% of Thailand’s garbage is food waste and BMA can only compost 2% of that food waste. This means that when you throw food scraps into the trash, there is a 98% chance it will end sitting in a landfill emitting methane.
ZeroWaste
Use your reusables, visit zero-waste shops, upcycle, recycle and reuse. Going zero-waste is not only about reducing your plastic waste but also about reducing your overall waste to help save the planet and reduce your resource footprint. You can work towards becoming zero-waste by:
- Visit zero-waste shops with refillable containers
- Always carry your reusables
- Cook your food at home to cut out takeaway containers
- Don’t buy things that you don’t need (limiting the purchase of non-essentials and not impulse buying)
- Buy second-hand clothes or taking part in a clothes swap
- Reduce food waste
- Compost
Quit Fast Fashion
Reduce your carbon footprint and environmental impact by quitting fast fashion.
Fast fashion is a term that describes fashion that is mass-produced at a very low cost. This is only possible by using low-cost manufacturing techniques that damage our environment, such as the use of toxic chemicals and dyes; polluting land and oceans. The mass scale of fast fashion production means that this industry is responsible for a huge amount of carbon emissions. The low cost of these products also means a high percentage of waste caused by ‘throw away’ fashion.
“Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined”
– (House of Common Environmental Audit Committee, 2019)
Carpool
Carpooling is an easy way to at least halve the footprint of your journey. When people share common origins, destinations, or stops en route, they can ride together. Carpooling uses seats and fuel more efficiently, cutting emissions.
Take Public Transport
Taking public transport can drastically reduce your personal carbon footprint at the same time as supporting the public transit system. By supporting the public transport system, you are allowing the system more opportunities and resources to improve the system and switching to greener vehicles. By taking public transport and supporting the infrastructure of public transport and both greenhouse gas and carbon emissions can be reduced today and in the future.
Use Electric Vehicles
Choose to ride or purchase electric vehicles when possible. Electric vehicles can reduce the need for fossil fuels, as well as reducing the emissions that contribute to climate change and smog.
Grow Your Own
Join a community garden or grow your own food at home. By growing your own food you can completely cut out carbon emissions from food transportation, as well as having complete control over what is used on the plants. This means being able to properly take care of the soil and completely eliminate the use of pesticides and packaging.
Stop Food Waste
Stopping food waste can reduce carbon emissions, water, and land use.
Every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted globally. That is 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption. Food losses represent a waste of resources used in production such as land, water, energy and inputs, needlessly increasing the green gas emissions.
You can reduce your food waste by making sure leftovers get eaten, cooking the food in your fridge in the order that it spoils, freezing any food that may spoil and supporting food rescue organisations.
Buy Organic
Buying organic produce can prevent environmental damage. Organic farming is widely considered to be a far more sustainable alternative when it comes to food production. Avoid GMO crops, and crops that that require mass amounts of pesticides. Organic produce also results in better soil quality and reduced pollution from fertilizer or pesticide run-off.
Recycle & Upcycle
Upcycling is when you repurpose a product or material to give it a new function. Recycling is the process of collecting materials and turning them into new products. Both up-cycling and recycling materials and products allow you to minimise the volume of discarded materials and waste that would usually be sent to landfills.
Offset Your Emission
Offset your daily emissions or travel emissions.
By offsetting your emissions you are essentially drawing your carbon emissions out of the atmosphere. You can pay offsetting organisations to offset your emissions through techniques like reforestation, methane capture, coral reef planting, implementing renewable energies, kelp farming and much more.
Think Local
By buying locally you will be reducing your footprint and supporting localisation. Buying locally is important. Buying local fruits and vegetables not only supports your local community but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint/air miles of your food and encourages localisation. There is also generally less packaging involved for local produce which means less waste and less fossil fuel usage.