Making Climate Action Manageable
Allow the following to serve as a guide for navigating your entry into climate action and recruiting others in your community to join in collective action.
Climate change is an overwhelming reality. Nothing is truly spared from the threat of climate change, given that the planet itself is in jeopardy. Everything is affected by this climate crisis — human health, wildlife habitats, infrastructure, food, water, and air. And with such a wide range of effects comes a number of potential solutions. However, the countless ways to mitigate climate change at the individual level actually make it difficult for one to know where to even begin.
Local action
A good preliminary step for climate action is to act within your local community. The phrase “think global, act local” is continuously tossed around the environmental movement as a starting point for climate action. It encourages an individual to identify a climate issue at a larger level and take action at the smaller level, which is often more accessible. For some, the local level might be a hometown, whereas for others, it might be a little larger, like a state or region. However it is defined by the individual, the local level is simply a smaller piece of the larger level of the planet.
Local action is important because it can have a real global influence when members of a community are universally motivated and are actively pursuing climate action. Action taken on a local level will often feel more personal, and a personal connection is what helps keep the issue relevant and the individual motivated. A motivated individual can bring change.
One way to start local is to consider your location. We all have a geographic connection to the land we physically occupy, and many of us may have more than one. But by identifying just one personal location and understanding how climate change has impacted that space, we not only learn what we must do, but we are also left with a message for action that will resonate with others who share our location.
As I began to consider what local action looks like for me, I asked three key questions.
Where am I?
My space is the Midwest. I was born in Chicago and moved to the northern suburbs when I was just one year old. I share this space with my family, my neighbors, and members of my town. I also share this space with a larger community of people I have never met, such as the Native American tribes of the Midwest, farmers in rural Illinois, and the hundreds of thousands of residents in fellow Midwestern states.
In considering the influence of the climate crisis on the Midwest, my mind jumps to agriculture, a common association with the Midwest. According to the USDA, the Midwest is home to over 127 million acres of agricultural land. Notably, 75% of that area is used to produce corn and soybeans, the top two U.S. agricultural exports. The United States is the largest agricultural exporter in the world, so its agricultural practices are of importance to people both inside and outside of the country.
How has climate change affected this space?
Unfortunately, the farmlands of the Midwest are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Today, fewer crops are being cultivated and their nutritional values are in decline.
Climate change has increased rainfall in the Midwest, which has led to mass flooding. When floods hit the farmlands, farmers are unable to plant their crops at the ideal time. As a result, they yield fewer crops at the end of their season. In the spring of 2019, the Midwest was inundated, wrecked by severe floods that hit the region. By the end of May, only 58% of corn and 29% of soybeans were planted during the planting season, which typically runs until early June for corn and mid-June for soybeans.
Furthermore, climate change is caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide, which are predicted to have a negative impact on crops. Carbon dioxide is one of the principal offenders of climate change because greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide become trapped and accumulate in the atmosphere, causing the planet to heat as the gases are continuously emitted. This is known as the greenhouse effect, and many now believe that this will reduce the quality of crops. Researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute recently discovered that the rising levels of carbon dioxide will hinder the development of nutrients in crops. Levels of vital nutrients like protein, iron, and zinc are projected to decrease in crops like corn and soybeans that are exposed to increasing levels of carbon dioxide.
Where can I make a change?
Investigating effects of climate change on the Midwest, a clear pathway to action for myself and others in my community emerged. I encouraged my family to begin to compost because composting helps generate healthy and climate-resilient soil. For areas that are prone to flooding, compost can be an effective means of absorbing water, given that compost can retain water up to four times its weight. I have also contacted my village about encouraging composting and bringing more visibility to the program. Midwestern communities and farmlands that compost will be in a better position to deal with excessive rainfall and flooding.
Flooding and nutrient reduction are just two examples of how climate change threatens the Midwestern farmlands. The people who grow our food and the food itself are both affected by climate change.
These consequences can translate into a message on caring: more than ever, we need to be caring for ourselves and others. In the Midwest, we should be caring for our bodies by caring about the nutrients we are receiving, or lack thereof. We should also be caring for the farmers who are struggling to grow and produce the very food we eat as a result of climate change.
Steps to action
By starting at a personal, local level, I effectively brought the reality of climate change closer to me and my community. But I also recognized the far-reaching effects of climate change, as the Midwest’s agricultural battle with climate change will impact the food that the United States exports across the world. This exercise revealed how interconnected we, as people on this planet, are.
Climate change is widespread, and our actions — both bad and good — are felt worldwide. We are all capable of making a positive change to the planet. Here is one way to do it:
Ask, “Where am I?” This simple question will help you identify a potential starting point for action.
Ask, “How has climate change affected this space?” This follow-up question will encourage you to consider the impacts climate change has had on your community. There are many different ways climate change influences the land, water, and air of the spaces we occupy. But zeroing in on just one affected aspect of your space, such as agriculture, can be a good starting place. This helpful tool by the National Climate Assessment identifies the various climate risks to regions in the United States.
Ask, “Where can I make a change?” Once you have identified one area impacted by climate change, think about the ways you can take action to help that specific cause. For example, if you decided to dive into your community’s struggle with droughts, then perhaps you install water meters on your pipes to conserve water by monitoring water usage, tracking leaks, and preventing pipe ruptures.
Individually, we do not have to attempt every possible solution. Identify something personal to you that has been threatened by climate change and then begin to think of at least one way you can help at the local level. In doing so, climate action becomes much more manageable.
Finally, use your voice to start conversations. Raising awareness is critical when it comes to climate change. Our voices are our most powerful assets. So, find common ground. Your physical location is something you automatically have in common with those around you. Revealing to others in your community how climate change is affecting your shared space will bring the reality of climate change closer to them and hopefully inspire them to take necessary climate action.
Individual actions will not be enough to stop climate change, but collective voices can rise together to enact necessary change in the systems and corporations that bear the largest ecological footprints. Fighting this climate crisis is not about who is doing the most. Rather, it is about what we are all doing together.
