Carbon footprint is now one of the leading global topics, and will having fewer kids save the climate? No, it’s not. Having fewer kids would eventually lead to stagnation and perhaps even regression in progress since, to keep improving civilization, you need more and more people.
The best solution I see is to try to reduce your carbon footprint in the meantime and make investments in renewable energy until you can afford an EV and switch your house to renewable energy.
China is currently the country with the largest carbon emissions in the world, accounting for about 30% to 45% of the world’s carbon emissions. China’s largest carbon emission industry is the power generation industry (mainly thermal power generation with cheap coal), which accounts for about 40% of Chinese carbon emissions.
What adds to China’s carbon emissions is the large fleet of cargo ships and airplanes it uses to export its goods. Ships run on cheap, heavy oil and add another 5% carbon dioxide. Almost all of these ships run on fossil fuels, so they emit a lot of carbon pollution. Maritime shipping causes about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions—even more than airplanes. It appears ridiculous to go carbon-free in Europe.
Actually, according to a study by the Danish government, the creation of a plastic bag is so minuscule in energy usage and CO2 emissions when compared to the creation of a reusable cotton bag. You’d have to use that reusable bag approximately 7100 times for it to have less of an impact on the planet than the plastic bag, and it’s highly unlikely you’d even go through half of those 7100 cycles before losing it or breaking it.
Also, there is definitely a political aspect to your personal impact. Large change in society is almost always wrought when individuals band together and force the world to do more through shared choice rather than individual change. Child labor didn’t end because factory owners cut back on their child abuse footprint, but rather because they no longer had the choice to use a slightly blunt metaphor. However, I expect that this will be a larger and more carefully nuanced video in the future. If not already planned (and I think the team here will have one; the team is a good one), then I really do think they need to schedule one.
Politics, science, and eventually desperation from climate change will be what solve carbon emissions… Hopefully, we need less of that last one because of the first two.
Contacting your political representatives and saying you want them to focus on stopping climate change (or, for some places, get their heads out of their asses and stop denying the fact of it in the first place) is something else you can do. Individuals are certainly important, but real change will also require government intervention, because no matter what people are told or even feel that they “should” do, a large percentage of them will always resort to what’s most immediately beneficial to themselves.
How to Reduce Carbon Footprint
I know it’s really hard to tell people not to drive, especially if they need to commute a lot. But can improving public transport, public walkways, and bicycle-only roads in a city really help? I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and we have a major problem with too many cars on the road. People suggest expanding the roads, but that results in many of our rainforest trees being removed and encourages more people to buy cars. Our public transport system is rather poor, and we’re only just improving on our MRT train system, but there’s still a long way to go. Our bus system doesn’t have fixed schedules, we don’t have safe or well-maintained pedestrian sidewalks with no shade from the sun, and we don’t have safe bicycle lanes.
In my ongoing quest to reduce my impact (it’s a work in progress), I have discovered:
1) solar panels work better than you might think if you just asked the internet: if you think you might possibly be able to actually finance solar panels, especially if you live in a SFH or own a building, get a real quote from a professional installer so you actually know how much energy your house can produce. Bids are usually free, and you might be surprised!
2) Electric assist bikes are the new family car. Well, no, but they could be. Need that big car and don’t have room for a nice, efficient EV? It’s likely that much of your commuting or errands can happen on an EB (kidding, nobody calls them that), which will fairly easily fit in your garage. Selection is growing rapidly, and range is pretty good for most city residents, and they use a lot less power than even an EV (because of physics), while also lowering material and infrastructure costs and improving health. I get that they aren’t for everyone, but they do offer a nice alternative for people who can’t just bike and don’t have to always drive.
3) There are lots of great options to buy used or even trade your old stuff around! It takes a little work, but is often a great option to reduce production byproducts and landfills (which are both greenhouse emitters).
4) You can be vegan and still eat great food! Give peas a chance!
The problem with the less children approach is demographic contraction (I think that was the term?), which many European and Asian countries already suffer, as well as the US, which is the point where the number of retired citizens grows faster than the number of working citizens. This brings along many economic repercussions that are not yet properly addressed as far as I know, so be careful with that one.
A reduction will help, but until we get to zero emissions, we are still making things worse. If your sink is overflowing, turning the tap down half way isn’t going to stop the flood. It just makes progress slower. Reduce, reuse, and recycle were great ideas 30 years ago, but we have still left the tap on 3/4 of the way for 30 years. Yes, it’s better than it would have been, but it’s still a complete disaster.
This direction from my uncle will also help: 1. INSTALL SOLARPOWER!!! 2. GO SOLAR! 3. Try to get rid of cars. 4. Use the car as low as possible. 5. Try to avoid planes.
The expert panel of the UN declared that animal agriculture contributes more to climate change than all transportation combined! That is why they urged everyone to switch to a plant-based diet. Instead of comparing cutting out meat to other options, you should have compared a vegan diet to the rest.