“Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of our industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits, in the classic formulation. Now it’s long been understood, very well, that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails, as long as it’s possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage can.”Noam Chomsky

There are four stages of what people can do (from Rising Tide UK):

Level one is in our own lives. By accepting the scale of the problem and our own involvement in it, by setting goals for reducing our own emissions. After all we can’t ask other people to do something that we refuse to do.

Level two is acting locally. This could be as simple as talking to your friends and people at work, spreading information encouraging them to make changes. It could involve putting pressure on your employer, the local council, local organisations or companies. It could be forming a local protest group. There are any number of issues to work on: wasteful energy use, transport, information and education

Level three is acting nationally. Get political- challenge the government and national organisations and companies- demanding that they make changes. Supporting national campaigns and protests.

Level four is acting internationally. This is harder, but there are still many ways that we can put pressure on international companies, foreign governments such as the US, and demanding that our own government takes a lead in pushing for real change.

Lifestyle Changes – Things we can change in our day to day lives

Buying the environmental alternatives is great but we also need to think about the resources being used to make the things we buy, so buying less and secondhand is also the idea.

“…we are consuming 25 percent more than the Earth can give us each year,” says William Rees, of the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. Rees and other experts have calculated that annual human consumption of natural resources exceeds the planet’s ecological capacity to regenerate them by 25 percent, a proportion that has been growing since 1984, the first year they calculate that humanity crossed that capacity threshold. “Our planet needs natural capital (resources) like trees to provide the ecosystem services of clean air and water that we all depend on,” said Rees in an interview.

Estimate your Ecological Footprint here

Some suggestions

• buy local produce
• buy secondhand clothes, shoes,
• have a pact with family and friends to do secondhand birthday and xmas presents only – or you could add locally made to that if you want or a ticket/voucher for an activity like a movie/play/sports event
• change to a renewable energy electricity company – clean energy guide
• leave your car at home and walk, bike or catch a bus/train.
• car pool to things like sports events
• grow our own vegies (no transport required for that!)
• cut down or eliminate beef, dairy and mutton from diet. These cause 49% of green-house emissions in New Zealand – Statistic from Ministry of Environment
• Buy as much of your weekly food from bulk food bins as we can, reusing the bulk bin plastic bags each week. This cuts down on the rescources gone into packaging and production.
• Use cloth bags for putting shopping in or reuse plastic ones.
• recycle as much as you can
• compost! Even if you don’t have a garden it can be given to friends or community gardens when finished.
• Get involved in reforestation projects, great way of meeting people and a great pastime that gives to the earth instead of taking!
• jet planes are HUGE oil consumers. We must rethink air transport.
• use cloth nappies and give our babies a brighter future!
• moon cups or washable cloth pads for menstruation
• Our kids don’t need piles of toys – make use of toys at Playcentres, kindies, Playgroups etc, join a Toy Library , buy secondhand
• If you own your own house you could look into getting solar water heating etc.
• write letters to local papers, councilors, harmful companies and help keep/put Climate change on the agenda
• Please send this email to Jim Anderton, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, asking the New Zealand Government to STOP the importation of illegally logged timber from ancient forests. Become a cyber activist for Greenpeace any easy quick thing to do.

Fifty ideas for actions on climate change – In May and June 2001, the Rising Tide Climate Chaos Tour visited 12 cities in Britain. Some 300 people came to the Tour. In the last session of each gig people broke into small groups and brainstormed ideas for action. This is a list taken from their ideas.

Solar Panels – The latest solar panels UK (micro generation), with our famous ‘No CO2′ eco friendly solar surveys. Learn about domestic solar panels, solar energy, solar panel installations or find local solar installers including DIY solar panels kits, for a greener, smarter lifestyle.

Living Conditions and Anti-Consumerism - Consumerism diminishes our quality of life and diverts us from our needed values and virtues. This page intends to be part of the response to consumerism.

Appropriate Technology for Living Association Inc. – We aim to promote environmentally sustainable alternative technologies and healthy lifestyles.

While changing our personal consumption and lifestyle is necessary it is also important to remember that the scale of the problem has been let to get so huge that spreading the word about climate change and getting active with other people on campaigns is where alot of the bigger differences will happen.

Monbiot, a widely read columnist with the UK Guardian “The industrialized world must cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by the year 2030; if this sort of drastic reduction is not made, world temperatures will rise to a point where “runaway climate change” will be beyond our ability to curtail, and unspeakable disintegration of human civilization inevitable.”