Climate Change/Mitigation Strategies/Principles

Some basic principles of personal mitigation of climate change are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, and Share. Essentially, don't acquire what you don't need. When you do acquire stuff, make sure they are reusable or at least recyclable.

Examples

• Reuse: cloth bags for groceries instead of paper/plastic.
• Recycle: donate old furniture, computers, clothes, books instead of trashing them.
• Repair: try to repair broken stuff instead of buying new one. This could make you feel great because of learning, achievements and understanding that you control things, not things control you. You may be interested to visit Maker Faire to meet same minded Do-It-Yourselves or organizations, share ideas and inspirations.
• Share: books, household items, magazines, newspapers, toys, tools, car, etc.
• Use recycled material wherever you can (and products thereof).
• Avoid waste (unnecessary expenditure) of time, energy, money, material, resources. This is a good thing to do in general. Of course, the relative pros and cons need to be considered on a case by case basis. (Example: walking to work is not an excuse to come late to work everyday.)
• Encourage businesses that behave responsibly. Discourage those that don't.
• Educate: encourage you family, friends, classmates, colleagues to behave in more environmentally friendly way.
• Use common sense:
  • Don't acquire stuff just so that they can later be recycled. Example: recycling plastic water bottles, paper/plastic/thermocole cups is good. Even better is to reuse a bottle or a cup (say, to refill from a water fountain).
  • Avoid being taken advantage of by people/companies that try to make a quick buck in the name of saving the environment. Examples: dubious 'organic' labeled products, organic products sold at an exorbitant price, 'alternative' anything that is sold at a premium that doesn't make sense, etc.