Carbon capture is like focusing on the third R- recycling- instead of the first- reduce. We don't have to focus as much on carbon capture if those billions of

Carbon capture is like focusing on the third R- recycling- instead of the first- reduce. We don't have to focus as much on carbon capture if those billions of us who use the most resources reduce our usage. I don't fly on airplanes anymore. I avoid long trips in general, and accept that I will miss out on in-person family gatherings and seeing friends as often as I'd like. I've flown enough in my life, enough to know firsthand how similar people are all over the earth. You can reduce your footprint, too, and promote regulation that makes the most polluting behaviors better-reflect their actual long-term costs. I increasingly have less confidence that our current elected officials will do anything bold enough, so it might really boil down to us acting individually together. I still eat meat, but sparingly, maybe one to three servings a week, primarily SMASH fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, herring). Most of my protein is from nuts and sprouted legumes. I stopped drinking coffee long ago, and along with reducing my carbon footprint, I sleep better. I'm only buying chocolate opportunistically, when it's on sale. I really like chocolate, so this will be one of the last luxuries I give up. I understand 1kg of chocolate is near the top of the charts for GHG cost, second to 1kg beef (a wonky comparison, to be fair; as much as I love chocolate and have been known to down a 100g bar in one go, I can conservatively claim to have never eaten 500g of chocolate in a day, while I having eaten a pound of beef in a day, several times). I stopped drinking alcohol in 2020, except for a few times a year for special occasions. A lot of energy and land use goes into making alcohol. I forage for food in my yard; so much is edible, you just need to eat the "bland" stuff first or mix it with more intense flavors, like dandelion + sardines + apple. We keep the house near 60F in winter and high 70s in summer (PNW, so it's not too difficult anyway, though the heat dome a couple years ago was momentarily rough). I take a cold shower for less than two minutes, sometimes skipping a day or two if I haven't gotten sweaty or stinky, and rarely use hot water (I save that for shaving days, maybe once a week). There's more but in the weeds, and I feel like my quality of life has improved, perhaps in part by feeling a sense of purpose. Of course, no one has to do anything different, we just do what we choose with the time available to us. (paraphrasing Gandalf, paraphrasing someone Tolkien knew or read?) Useful reference for prioritization: https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector