Cool Ways To Reduce Your Family’s Carbon Footprint

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Climate change is a growing cause for concern. As the planet heats up quickly, addressing it is becoming increasingly urgent, but governments are acting slowly.

We all want our kids to grow up safely, and we hope they have all the opportunities we had growing up. But the change in the climate will radically affect our children’s future — and that future might be here sooner than we think.

It often seems like an impossible challenge, but if we can all make small changes in our own lives, we can make a big difference.

In this article, we will offer a few different ways you can help fight climate change without radically altering your lifestyle.

Avoiding Planes

North America is rich with glorious geography and tourist hotspots. There’s a good reason why, relative to other western countries, so few Americans have passports. There’s so much to do and see right outside your door, why travel elsewhere!

Rather than taking long-haul flights across the pond to Europe, or even down to Central and South America, why not try holidaying locally?

Planes are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to emitting carbon dioxide, particularly longer flights. Many climate activists are calling for air travel to be restricted to merely necessary trips. Holidaying locally can help you cut down your emissions a bit by driving, or quite a lot by taking the train or a coach.

In this rich continent of North America, we have all that you could ever want from traveling. Forests, mountains, beaches, amazing cities, different cultures, and rich history.

Ditching planes can cut down on your pollution and allows your family to get to know this country a little better.

Watching Your Diet

The meat industry is energy-intensive and highly polluting, so cutting down on meat is seen as a necessary change. There has been a considerable increase in vegan and vegetarianism in recent years. However, cutting it out completely doesn’t have to be the only answer.

Intensively farming soya and maize to replace meat is still energy-intensive, while grazing animals play a key role in returning carbon to the earth.

If you don’t fancy completely cutting out meat, consider sourcing your meat from a butcher that is conscious of its environmental impact. The Seven Sons website and other companies with similar intentions talk about how they farm with the safety of the environment and the animals in mind.

You can still eat your favorite meat while reducing your environmental impact.

Carpooling

In an ideal world, we’d like to be able to rely on public transport. In reality, the challenge of getting the kids to school on time and then to work or an errand can make this impossible.

Carpooling is a great alternative, however. Talk to the parents of your children’s friends and see if they’d be interested in taking it in turns to pick up and drop off each other’s children. Or, take turns with colleagues to drive each other to work throughout the week.

You will be able to quickly reduce the number of journeys you are each taking, saving you money on gas, and minimizing all the pollution using that gas causes.

Gardening and Growing

Getting your kids out in the garden and growing plants and trees can teach them valuable lessons about looking after other life and get them interested in plant life.

Plants and trees also absorb carbon and purify the air, which will help to offset your actual carbon emissions. Why not get your kids involved in a fun, rewarding way to help the environment!

Conclusion

By implementing something small, you can make a difference. No matter how little the change, it is a step in the right direction for helping slow down climate change.