Best Ways to Help Fight Climate Change

Research & writing by Pieter Heyn | Editing by Faichal Ayeva

Introduction

The fight against climate change is difficult and often it’s a challenge to discover how to make a difference. How can I help? How can I make a difference? Well, the goal of this blog is to smooth over those difficulties by finding the best ways you can help in the fight against climate change. A well-researched and calculated list of the best ways to help the environment is provided below This list is organized with as generalized a viewpoint as possible, but I’m sure there will be differences in opinion. I only displayed the results on this page. Download the detailed version of this list by clicking the download link below the display, in the table section below. After you look through it, comment  on your thoughts and what method best works for you. 

 

Explanation

Before you get into the list, I want to share some information about how the list was formed and how the rankings were created. It should also be noted that all the items on this list are beneficial to the environment and the fight against climate change. No matter their grade or ranking, they are worth pursuing if you have the opportunity.

 

Ideas

There are around 30 different ways to help the environment considered on this list. It includes many of the best ways to help the environment, but I’m sure there are many other equally as good or better ways that can be considered. Please feel free to comment below on any ideas I may have left out in my research. If there is an idea not included, make sure to research it thoroughly before you start doing it as it may not have the desired effect.

Categories

To determine the best method of helping the environment, there were many categories considered as follows:

-Time - How much time does it take either regularly or during installation

-Cost - How much money does the idea cost to do

-Feasibility - How difficult is it to do it

-Perceived Feasibility - How difficult people perceive it to be

-Lifestyle change - Amount of day-to-day change that is required

-Environmental benefit - How much the idea benefits the environment

-Money saved - If any, how much money is saved

-Health improvements - Any additional health benefits that come from it

Each of these was also given different weights (out of 100) which describe their importance in affecting the final score. The weights are given below:

-Time - 10

-Cost - 10

-Difficulty to implement - 10

-Perceived difficulty - 5

-Amount of lifestyle change - 10

-Environmental benefit - 30

-Money saved - 15

-Health improvements - 10

Grades

After researching each of the ideas with regard to each of the categories, they were graded on a scale from A+ to an F where A+ is the best and F is the worst. The complete list is: A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, and F. Each of these letter grades corresponds to a numerical score which was then used to calculate the overall score of the idea which is displayed on the far right of the table.

 

The table also contains an info button on the far right which is linked to a description of each idea and why it received the grade that it did. If any of the grades are confusing or if you want to learn more about them, click on the link. There are also helpful links throughout the information page that can take you to sites to help you get started on any of the ideas. I want to remind you that they are all good ideas for helping the environment. Just because it was scored an F does not mean it doesn’t work. It does work only not nearly as well as one that scored an A+.

Table

 

Click here to download the list of the best ways to help the environment (calculations included). 

Conclusion

What method are you using to help the environment? Albert Einstein said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” He was a huge proponent of and believed the best thing for the environment is to eat vegetarian, which is what this research supports. However, it is not the only way to help the environment. Everything and anything that you do to make a difference will help. How are you going to make a difference?