What are some things I can do as an apartment dweller to fight climate change/deal with the coming effects?

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• NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Mirrored Infrared blocking films on your windows does wonders for cutting down the heat leaking into your apartment during the summer, and leaking out during the winter, you can double up with a clear piece sealed to the frame as well, which creates an air pocket that can trap air and prevents much of the emissive radiation from leaking in.

  Im not sure if they exist but you can build little shelf extensions for your windowsills and start growing herbs and edible plants, they’ll also help to absorb some of the heat from sunlight that would otherwise warm up your home.

  The solution to airflow with only one wall windowed is by using a fan and air filter to pull clean air in during the night when it’s cooler. Fitting a window seal for an air conditioner but having that attached to a filtered duct fan (get a brushless centrifugal fan, its way better when you need pressure to go through a filter not just airflow) creates a pressure difference to push the hot indoor air out of the far side of your apartment.

  If you live in a very dry climate, ‘Swamp coolers’ are especially useful for reducing the impact of those months where the nights are too hot to cool the house.

  In terms of your personal impact, reducing your meat intake and avoiding products that are individually wrapped/ fruit that are sealed in plastic despite having their own outer skin helps massively reduce the impact, the same way buying locally grown produce will.

  Look for things that are local to you, if you need meat with no alternative, get to know a butcher who knows the farmers themselves, because that will be the least ‘shipped around the country’ meat available.

  Ditch the online shopping for everything but essentials, and buy in bulk if you absolutely have to get it shipped to make it worthwhile, it’ll save you money in the long run as well.

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• zlatiah@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The idiom is “reduce, reuse, recycle” in that order for a reason. Even if plastic recycling is difficult in the US, reducing and reusing are doable by just about anyone. This can be using less one-time plastics, eating less meat (make sure nutritionally balanced), drive less, reuse those shipping boxes for other stuff such as for paper waste, buying from local farmers (if you can afford it)… something along those lines

  For home, living in an apartment is actually one of the best things one can do for the climate, since living in an apartment in a city is much, much more energy efficient than living in a suburb… not to mention cutting down on car-related costs. For ppl living in a home, methinks AC is more of a boogeyman… having good home insulation is a much better solution (as a well-insulated home uses less energy!), and the best part is that it is bipartisan so red states would happily do it too. If renovation is not possible, stuff like blackout curtains, window blinds, … are cheap insulation options

  IMO these are still negligible effects on an individual level, but these are not nothing, and if everyone does these the world would be a much better place. For more meaningful actions, probably organizing

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• DagwoodIII@piefed.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Do political organizing.

  One private jet ride for a CEO will negate anything you do on your own.

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  • Steve@communick.news ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Can’t say this enough!

    The personal carbon footprint idea was created by the fossil fuel industry to shift the burden off them.

    Your individual climate actions are practically meaningless. Your political activism to demand industrial action is where people need to focus their climate concerns.

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• disregardable@lemmy.zip ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Buy fewer things. Try to avoid plastic. Walk instead of drive. That’s about it.

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• AskewLord@piefed.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  nothing really. so chill out about it.

  nothing you can do, individually, can change the climate. trying to do so is an exercise in futility, and the cost of your own well-being and comfort, by not running AC isn’t going to make the world better.

  what you can do is just support and vote for local candidates in your city that have climate-friendly policies for your city. who want to plant trees, reduce traffic, and offer more green energy solutions.

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• AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  As an individual anything short of some kind of eco-terrorism (not recommended) won’t really have an effect. It’s the collective action of lots of people not eating meat and stuff.

  Assuming you’re in the U.S., which state? If it’s in the south I’d highly recommend trying to save up and find a way north. In 25 years some of those states will be literal hell. Better to move on your own terms than be forcibly relocated imo(worst case scenario).

  Something i don’t see posted much is to enjoy the present as much as you can. Go on walks. Admire trees/nature. Visit people who live further away. You know, things we wont really get to do in the future. Our futures have been taken, don’t let them take our present too.

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• cattywampas@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Eating less meat, especially red meat, is the most impactful thing you can do as an individual.

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• Dookieman12@piefed.social ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  1. Stand upright
  2. Lean way over
  3. Bend far at waist
  4. Kiss ass goodbye

  As long as 80% of emissions are created by 1,000 or so giant companies, all with their respective governments captured, there’s really not much you can (legally) do.

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• nomiya@sh.itjust.works ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Plugin solar is starting to role out and may be worth looking into depending on if it’s legal in your area.

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• JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The closest place to take plastic last I checked was over an hour away by car.

  Unfortunately, plastics recycling was largely a scam perpetrated by various business concerns to whitewash their image. Actual plastics recycling is a pretty toxic process as I understand it, and at some point the world’s largest importer (China) no longer accepted used plastic.

  I agree with the other suggestion that holding local and regional politicians to account is probably the most useful step overall.

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• undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I live in a blue state that loves recycling but they still don’t accept plastic film and multilayer packaging, so I recently signed up for Ridwell after lots of research.

  God this reads like an ad, but I’m really just some guy.

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• RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Avoid red meat and using AI.

  A window fan or two (one blowing in, the other blowing out) might help with the heat. Wouldn’t do anything for humidity.

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  • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Also getting fewer children. If I were a demographic planner I’d say 3 is the max.

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• NaibofTabr@infosec.pub ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The most effective thing you can do in your situation is collective action. You can’t change your apartment building in any appreciable way. But you can direct your efforts to changing your local politics by organizing with other like-minded people.

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• Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Walk when you can or ride a bike

  Destroy the nearest oil refinery or industrial animal farm.

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• ultranaut@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  To maximize cooling, close your windows in the morning as soon as it starts warming up after sun rise and block any windows letting in light. It makes a huge difference during heat waves compared to leaving your windows open and letting the air inside heat up at the same rate as outside. If you find yourself overheating, a wet towel on the neck with a fan pointed at you can be an effective way to cool down quickly.

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• jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  You’re already on Lemmy, that isn’t nothing. Open source things are more resilient against censorship and mass surveillance.

  The conversations are not steered by an algorithm, and you’re helping that be more normal while in apartment!

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• jared@mander.xyz ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Maybe some gorilla gardening?

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  • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    As vegetarians, I really like the idea of letting gorillas plan out gardens for a change.

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• schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Yes! There is a lot you could do.

  Start with considering, “what kind of vehicle defines me as an environmentalist?” Research which vehicles are the most energy efficient; and the LARGER the vehicle, the more impressive it is that it is labelled green, so get the biggest one you can afford. And since technology updates frequently, I recommend leasing a new one every two years.

  I know you are currently living in apartment, but if you really love nature, you want to be surrounded by of much it as possible. Start saving money to find a big house you can drive to, maybe near a highway, so you can drive to work, and also drive to shopping. If you want a bigger house with even more land, you’ll have to drive even further, but it’ll be worth that extra commute because you love the environment, and therefore, you love nature. When all your friends drive out to visit you, they will be really impressed about your passion for conservation.

  You also want to look at what you are putting into your body. There are a lot of really amazing advances in farming around the world–hydroponics, organic, crop rotation… so do your research and have that food shipped to your house from around the globe.

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  • Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Lmao.

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• Hello_there@fedia.io ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Disinvest from Fortune 500 and start investing in less shitty companies

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• compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  You could do some dialing in of your HVAC settings so it’s heating and cooling as little as needed to keep you comfortable, like pre-cooling at night when it’s colder outside, setting the temperature higher when you’re gone, and sealing up any gaps that let air in or out. You could see if your utility has a community choice aggregator or voluntary green pricing or some other way to allocate your power usage towards renewables.

  I’m an energy manager as my day job, so this is like my favorite subject! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask away 😊

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  • Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Unfortunately it’s an older model that doesn’t allow you to program different temps throughout the day. I do try to put it up to about 80 during work hours.

    Is there a way to detect spots where you lose cold air during the summer short of buying a thermal scope?

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    • compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Ah, darn. If it’s an older model, you would probably save a lot of energy just by upgrading. But if it’s owned by the landlord… split incentives suck.

      And yes! You can get a stick of incense (they also make dedicated tools that do it with glycol) and waft it by your doors and windows to see where the air is flowing through

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    • Hello_there@fedia.io ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      See if your utility or a nonprofit offers energy assessments. Sometimes they have someone that can come to your house and use one of those. Or they give free LED bulbs. Or free switches so you can turn off outlets when not in use.

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• yenahmik@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  You can look into container gardens if you have a balcony. Also consider if plug in solar is an option for you (it’s slowly spreading through the US).

  I’ve heard getting a box fan and putting a bowl of ice in front of it can act as a poor man’s AC.

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• trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Depending on the apartment you might be able to isolate or get more efficient heating. Limit shower time and hot water use. And buy less plastic or things in plastic packaging.

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