I am feeling that a lot of acts which harm our ecosystem, cause global warming and cause damage to other beings too. What things can I do to minimize the harm from my side? I try not to throw rubbish on street but that is only thing I know. I don’t have recycling bins where I live.

  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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    10 hours ago

    unless oil/gas , meat industry/agriculture does it, your impact may not matter that much. they contribute the most current global warming, and it shows no sign of slowing down. take for example the palm oil industry in indonesia destroying the borneo jungles.

    getting people to completely adopt EV will make an impact though.

  • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    20 hours ago

    The thing is the personal responsibility to help the planet and climate was propaganda put out by oil companies to direct it away from them. Realistically as a single individual, the most impactful thing you can do is clean up litter. If you must use dangerous chemicals, after their use dispose of them properly. Not down a sink or storm drain. As an individual that’s the most impact you can really do. Everything else is really performative.

    • Naive@lemmy.worldOP
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      22 hours ago

      well where I live, it is quite common to throw trash, to spit on street. You will even see some people publicly peeing on the walls.

  • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Not eating meat is probably the biggest impact you can have, followed by using public transportation whenever possible.

    Grow indigenous pollinator-friendly plants. Minimize your trash output as much as you can. Vote against expanding the military budget if youre in the US.

    Fr tho going vegetarian/vegan is huge on a personal scale, large-scale farming is tremendously harmful.

  • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    reduce your consumption, reuse items, and recycle waste. prioritize in that order.

    don’t eat farmed meat. it’s very resource intensive to farm.

    minimize travel by plane and by car. they’re not very fuel efficient.

    vote for politicians that share your ideals.

      • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        20 hours ago

        Majority of the meat most people have access to is from farms. Poultry, beef, pork are typically farm raised. Hunting some regard as the only ethical way to get regular meat, I have a differing opinion on that.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      2 days ago

      I love all of these and would add only that even doing small changes can have large impacts if we all did them. If everyone are just one less meal a week of red meat farming as a whole would be so much less horrible. Replacing one weekly car trip with a bike, walk, or transit. If even half of our population started with small things like those we could make a real dent.

      That being said doing more is always better!

  • kersploosh@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    The old slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is in priority order. Buy less stuff, and try to fully make use of used things before you buy new. In this vein, I saw a great rhyme posted at a children’s play center to encourage the kids to make efficient use of the craft supplies: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

    Try to reduce your day-to-day travel by living close to work/school/groceries/etc.

    Eat less meat and dairy.

    If you own your home, consider energy efficiency improvements like new windows or a more efficient HVAC system. If your home has a yard, don’t spray herbicides/pesticides, and plant things to support native insects and birds.

    Advocate for dense zoning and walkable urban development in your city, and better public transit.

  • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    Watch your own money, where you spend it.

    Think about it. Inform yourself and decide carefully.

    This is where you can make the biggest change. Even though you might not actually see the impact, but it will be real.

  • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    Others have mentioned the meat but wanted to point out this can include milk and milk products.

    If there’s any parks near you, go for a walk and bring a bag to collect garbage in. I almost always find wrappers or bottles I can pick up.

    If there’s any citizen science projects near you those are great. Scientists sometimes need regular people to just record things from around them like how many bugs they can catch or something.

    Also, biodiversity loss is a huge problem. If you can create a hedge or some sort of wild area in your yard it can really boost the local biodiversity over time.

    • mrmacduggan@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Citizen science is also very engaging and entertaining! I participate in the Breeding Bird Survey in my town, and I get to know my assigned patch of woods like the back of my hand by trying to find all the bird nests (and breeding pairs of various species, and migrating birds) in there each spring.

  • Grumpy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Go vegan. It has a huge impact on the environment, and at the same time, you aren’t actively and intentionally harming other animals.

  • marighost@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    If you have the space and knack for gardening, try cultivating a native plant garden for pollinators. Maybe put out a bird feeder or two, keep it cleaned

    • redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      If this idea appeals to you, but you don’t know where to start because you’ve never tried your hand at gardening before, it’s possible your local university will have information tailored specifically to your region and growing conditions. At least, my state’s university extension website has a whole section dedicated to tutorializing every stage of the process and suggested plants by type. Very helpful if you don’t know your zinnias from your azaleas.

    • Creativity@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      The best part about native plants is you don’t need the knack for gardening since they’ve evolved to survive in your area without help! You just have to do a bit of research to make sure the plant is a good fit for the yard location with regards to sun, water, etc and then ignore it.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      Another benefit of gardening is a lot of organic waste reduction. I started to do composting using lactic acid bacteria and it reduced the amount of stuff we were throwing away to the point where we only really need to set the trashcan on the curb like once every 4 weeks.

      You basically inoculate your food scraps, paper, and cardboard with bacteria that starts breaking it down before you put it in the ground. No more flies, smell, watching what you are putting in the compost, or having to turn it over all the time. Once you fill your container you just set it aside to pickle for a week and then bury it, two weeks in the ground and its good to go.

          • moonshadow@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            Specialized equipment and input kinda makes it a no go for me, but that’s super cool! Do you do direct burial or use it to heat up a heap? Right now I’ve pretty much got a mound of food scraps, sticks, and cardboard that eventually turns into something I can mix into a planter

            • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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              2 days ago

              If you want to keep it basic you can buy the bokashi bran online. I just use a 5 gallon igloo water cooler for fermentation.

              Do you do direct burial or use it to heat up a heap?

              Just bury it after fermentation. It becomes really rich soil in like a week to two weeks. The worms love the fermented scraps, so it really gets broken down by them before it fully decomposes. No heaps or heating required. You can also just buy it directly under what your planting and it will feed the plant for at least a season.