Citizens Can Do Their Part

We have the power to turn the climate crisis around

We can all play our part in solving climate change.

What we do matters.

According to Statistics Canada, just under 20 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions come from activities in households, including transportation. If we add the emissions associated with things we buy like food, clothes, and consumer products, household emissions rise to over 40 percent of Canada’s total. If we add emissions related to flying, household emissions rise even more.

Taking direct action is important. So is talking to friends and family about climate change. When we share our concerns and ideas about solutions, we signal to friends and family that it is an important issue. When we take the time to listen to each other, and speak from the heart about what we each care about, we can find common ground. Check out this guide from Climate Outreach on how to talk about climate change: Climate Outreach’s Real Talk Model is a great guide  

 

Climate Outreach’s Real Talk Model:

  • Respect your conversational partner and find common ground
  • Enjoy the conversation
  • Ask questions
  • Listen, and show you’ve heard
  • Tell your story
  • Action makes it easier (but doesn’t fix it)
  • Learn from the conversation
  • Keep going and keep connected

Talking about climate change is a great first step to acting. When you tell friends and family how you feel about it, they start to care too. Share these resources and comment on social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Social media comments influence how people think about issues. Let them know climate change is important to you. 

More solutions

There are many solutions to climate change. Some solutions we can manage ourselves but many require government help through policies and incentives (see below for our letter-writing tools to help you call on the government to do more).

As citizens, we can urge decision-makers to do their part and we can do what we can to reduce our household carbon footprint.

Most people think about garbage when they think about environmental problems. We turn to recycling as a solution and we worry about plastics in our oceans. That’s a good place to start, but it won’t be enough to solve climate change. To do that, we also have to think about the energy we use.

Here are some tips to lowering your carbon footprint covering energy, transportation, food and waste (click on the section title for more information).

Waste generates about six percent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions, including from rotting food in landfills and using oil and natural gas to make plastic. Once plastics are in the environment they, on average, take more than 400 years to degrade while leaching toxic chemicals into the natural environment, harming or killing wildlife, and contaminating land and oceans.

Reduce plastics use by buying unpackaged goods and re-using plastics because nearly 90 per cent of plastic in Canada is not recycled and pollutes our lakes, parks, oceans, landfills, or our air when incinerated. Oil and gas are used to make plastics, most of which is used for packaging and then sent to landfills.
Government policies like banning single-use plastics, requiring more recycling and making producers responsible for their waste are important cutting plastics use.

These seven actions do the most to cut food-related greenhouse gas emissions (from energy used to grow or transport food, from rotting food in landfills, animals like beef that burp methane or fossil fuel-based fertilizers). 

The big contributor to household greenhouse gas emissions is our vehicle (about half and more if you count flying) followed by space heating, water heating, appliances, and lighting. Think about these solutions the next time you travel, buy products, and buy or renovate your home:

Here are some tips to protect yourself from the impacts of climate change

Click on the images below to make them bigger, or click here to view them as a PDF.

Calculate your carbon footprint!

Seeing is believing. Take a few minutes to calculate your carbon footprint, click here. To calculate greenhouse gas emissions for an upcoming or recent flight click here.

Send your letters, for the Love of New Brunswick​

Send your letter for an affordable, reliable and renewable electricity system in New Brunswick

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    Send your #ClimateAction letter to Premier Higgs

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      Learn more about climate change and solutions:

      Ciizens can do their part

      Governments can do their part

      How and Why Climate Change is Affecting New Brunswick

      How Global Heating Works

      Who Pollutes our Climate the Most in N.B.?

      Videos: For the Love of New Brunswick

      These videos explore how climate change is already affecting the things we love doing in New Brunswick, and how we can all do our part for solutions.

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