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“The Impact of Individual Action on Climate Change”
Presented by Tanya Long and Catherine Francis

Individuals are encouraged to take action to help alleviate the impact of climate change. But do Individual actions make a difference?

Here’s Tanya Long’s answer – In a nutshell, “Not much.”

Take for example recycling. We all diligently save our newspapers, magazines, egg cartons, cans, bottles, etc. and deposit them in blue bins. Where does all this stuff go? 

According to Global News, March 2019, Toronto manages about 180,000 tonnes of recyclables. About 30% goes to landfill because of contamination from food waste, clothing and textiles, and non-recyclable materials. Much is sold overseas to countries like China but because of contamination much of that goes to landfill. Because of contamination it has become difficult to sell at a profit. After 35 years, we still don't know what can be recycled. 

Plastic bags have been banned by most retailers and we use reusable bags. But what about the environmental costs of making those bags? Reusable bags are often made from cotton, a notoriously water-guzzling crop, and need to be used 173 times (UK government report) to be more eco-friendly than plastic. Many reusable bags are made from polypropylene plastic-yes, another plastic. 

Solar panels and electric vehicles? Electric vehicles don't perform well in cold weather and if you live in Toronto you know that we've had almost no sun for the past two months. 

Things we could do but choose not to because it is hard for humans to give up our pleasures include plane travel and cruise ships. Mid-size cruise ships use as much as 150 tonnes of fuel every day, which emits as much particulate as 1 million cars. The engines run 24/7 on heavy oil, the dirtiest fuel imaginable, and they have no emissions abatement systems (CBC Radio 2017). 

Air travel is responsible for about 5% of global warming. Only a small percentage of the world's population travels regularly but that number is increasing and expected to double in the next 20 years. A return flight from London to San Francisco emits around 5.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per person, more than twice the emissions produced by a family car in a year (BBC). 

To me, all these numbers sound pretty dire and suggest that our individual actions are a drop in the bucket as the effects of climate change become more and more apparent.

Catherine Francis looks at individual action on climate change a little differently. 

A quick search on Chat GPT provides the following suggestions: 

 1. **Energy Efficiency**

 2. **Transportation**

 3. **Waste Reduction**

 4. **Water Conservation**

 5. **Plant-Based Diet**

 6. **Support Renewable Energy**

 7. **Shopping Responsibly**

 8. **Educate Others**

Yes, it can feel like a drop in the bucket. And certainly, recycling may to a large extent be delusional. For individual action it is far better to reduce and reuse than recycle. What are some of the things I do to reduce my “carbon footprint”:

 1.   Going paperless.  This was largely a pipe dream before the pandemic. As lawyers we used huge amounts of paper. Everything had to be filed in court, sometimes 5 copies.  Boxes and boxes of records. Then suddenly the court was forced to shift to electronic filing. We will never go back.  Now, we don’t even open paper files. At a court hearing last week the other side showed up with boxes of documents. I came with just my iPad. Yes, electronic filing uses energy but it doesn’t kill trees or fill landfills.  Earlier this month I spent days/weeks going through old paper files, consigning mountains of documents to shredders or recycling. I’m not done.  Never again.  

 2.  Vegetarian. I was a vegetarian long before it became fashionable. But the resources used to create meat are far greater than say soybeans. There’s a lot more to do.  

 3.  Walking. I don’t drive. I use public transit and I walk. Not only fewer resources but it’s healthier.  

 4.  Reducing purchases.  Shopping can be fun.  But I’ve started asking myself: do I really need that?   

There are lots of other ways to reduce and reuse. Donate used items instead of tossing them. There are Apps out there to reduce restaurant waste - people can sign up to purchase leftover food at night for a deep discount. Avoid the waste in the first place.  Recycling should be a last resort.  

How much does this really help?  Not clear.  But collectively being conscious of our consumption and waste could make all the difference in the world.