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Ask HN: How to change lifestyle to reduce negative environmental footprint?
I'm a student and would like to work towards more environment-friendly lifestyle. There are currently two problems with this:
1. There's a whole market built around overpriced "vegan" goods, bamboo toothbrushes, etc., everybody saying their product is _the_ one that will save the world.
2. There's a lot of contradictory info; e.g. somebody saying that paper bags in markets are a great move, while others are pointing out that the production of said bags is x times worse than that of plastic bags when it comes to carbon footprint.
I don't know who to believe, and there's nobody I know who is well informed on these issues. But maybe somebody here could help me build a list of things/actions (or share his/her own) that help to reduce one's carbon footprint or to preserve the environment in other way. I'm sure many people here care about these issues and try to fight them, and thus are better informed than my peers.
(e.g. 1. Don't use car for <5km rides 2. Don't use plastic bags when buying fruit, use reusable linen ones instead 3. ... )
- cimmanom 8y agoSome of the big ones go against the grain of the American suburban ethos: Live somewhere where you don’t have to drive at all. Don’t fly on airplanes. Choose multi-family housing with central heating and air, the larger the building the better (both because larger heating/AC systems are more efficient and because the lower surface area to volume ratio helps reduce loss). Minimize your use of heat/AC and hot water. Purchase only produce grown locally (shipping produce is very carbon-inefficient). Buy less stuff overall.