Climate Action Checklist

A few notes before we get started: 

First, if you’ve never done it, take some time to calculate your current carbon footprint. It’s an interesting exercise that will provide insight into the areas of your life with the greatest impact. 

Second, the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken, is referenced throughout this list. It has since become a robust web resource called Project Drawdown, which we link back to. The rankings from the book are based on the total amount of greenhouse gases each action can potentially avoid or remove from the atmosphere globally. This gives us interesting insight into what big levers we can pull, but should not be used to rank the effectiveness of your own personal actions.

Third, do your best to make this fun. It’s a crazy and exciting time to be alive. It can be overwhelming and depressing but it can also be an opportunity to find a greater purpose and build stronger communities. Let’s get all hands on deck and save our beautiful Earth ship.

1. TALK MORE

Come out of the closet and start talking about climate regularly, even with strangers. (It’s much easier now than it was even a few years ago.) Seventy percent of people want action on climate change – but we’ve been the silent majority. It’s time to stop being silent.

Your Action Checklist:

• Make small talk. Choose something from our list of media recommendations – they’ll make for good conversation starters. Or there is always that standard fallback – the weather!

• Organize a conversation. Host a movie night with your friends or start a book club. We’ve got ideas to get you started.

• Influence Petaluma. Speak at City Council, Commission, or Committee meetings. Here is the schedule for Petaluma. Look for the agendas on the right side of the list. And sign up for the 350 Petaluma newsletter to be notified of upcoming issues that need your support.

• Influence California. Volunteer with 350 Bay Area Action. Check out their legislative trainings and webinars.

• Influence public opinion. Write a letter to the editor. For the Argus Courier - no more than 300 words, send it to editor@arguscourier.com. For the Press Democrat - no more than 200 words, send it to letters@pressdemocrat.com. Include your full name and home city for publication. Letters must be original and written exclusively for The Press Democrat. Letters that do not include a home address and daytime phone number will not be considered for publication. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

  
  

2. EAT WELL

Eating is a great pleasure and necessity in life. It also has a huge impact on the Earth – for better or worse. Make your food work for the good of your body and the good of the planet.

Your Action Checklist:

• Reduce food waste. About 40 percent of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted and more than 45,000 tons of food ends up in Sonoma County landfill each year! This turns into methane, a potent greenhouse gas. That’s why reducing food waste is so impactful (#3 in Drawdown), and it’s something we can all work on every day. Check out Save the Food or Love Food Hate Waste or Think.Eat.Save. You’ll find tips on date labels, planning, leftover recipes, storage, and much more.

• Create compost. Compost the food you can’t eat to create healthy soils instead of landfill methane (#60 in Drawdown). It’s easier than you think. Check out these worm bins and bokashi, a Japanese form of composting, or use your curbside green bin. Apartment buildings usually don’t have access to any of these options, but one trick is to freeze your compost and take it to a friend’s green bin. Better yet, go back to step one and organize to get compost service started in your building.

• Eat a plant-rich diet. Adopt the Michael Pollen diet – eat real food, not too much, mostly plants. A plant-rich diet is not only good for the planet (#4 in Drawdown), it will also save you money and make you healthier. 

• Know your farmer. Join a CSA or shop at local farms that practice conservation agriculture (#11 in Drawdown) and managed grazing (#19 in Drawdown). Check out this list of local farms and farmers’ markets and the Feed Sonoma food hub.

• Grow your own. Turn your yard into a food forest. Daily Acts can teach you how. In the 1940s, the U.S. grew 40 percent of its fresh fruit and vegetables in backyard “Victory Gardens.” Let’s do it again – only this time for ourselves, not a war effort!

3. LIVE LIGHTLY

California buildings are responsible for more than a quarter of statewide greenhouse gas emissions. Making home improvements can cut these emissions while reducing your monthly bills and increasing your comfort.

Your Action Checklist: 

For Everyone:

• Go 100 percent renewable. It’s time to stop using fossil fuels. We are very lucky to be the only place in the State where all you need to do is “opt up” to get 100 percent clean energy, day and night, produced locally using geothermal (#18 in Drawdown) and solar (#8 in Drawdown) with Sonoma Clean Power’s EverGreen Program. It costs, on average, an extra $13/month and takes about 60 seconds to sign up (you just need your PG&E account number). 

• Use LEDs. Just in case you haven’t yet, switch your bulbs now. (#33 in Drawdown) Want the warm glow of incandescent? Look for labels that say 2700K.

• Save water. Droughts and water shortages aside, it takes a lot of energy to clean, transport, and heat the water at your tap, and then process it as wastewater past your drain. Low-flow fixtures and water-saving appliances can reduce home water use by 45 percent! Don’t forget outdoor water usage, too. Switch to drip irrigation and check for leaks. Check out Petaluma’s FREE Water-Wise HouseCalls to get started. (#46 in Drawdown)

• Save trees. Please don’t flush virgin Canadian boreal forests down your toilet! A simple switch to 100 percent recycled toilet paper and facial tissue can prevent clearcutting and ecosystem devastation. Check out this NRDC report on how Toilet Paper is Driving the Climate Crisis with Every Flush.

For Homeowners:

• Tighten your shell. Seal and insulate your building – you’ll use less energy and be more comfortable (#31 in Drawdown). Sonoma Clean Power has a DIY Home Energy Toolkit you can check out. Or you can have a contractor give you a Home Energy Audit so you can find your building’s weak spots.

• Go all electric. “Natural gas” is primarily methane, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet 86 times more than CO2! Replacing your gas appliances can cut fossil fuels out of your home altogether. The Switch is On has resources to get you started. Sonoma Clean Power’s new Advanced Energy Center in Santa Rosa has lots of information plus a show room you can visit.

• Go solar. Get rooftop solar (#10 in Drawdown) – it's probably more affordable than you think (as long as you don't need a new roof). Energy Sage is a one-stop shop for getting solar estimates and making comparisons.

• Take care with refrigerants. Turns out when we replaced the ozone-damaging CFC and HCFC refrigerants with the new ozone-friendly HFC refrigerant, there was an unintended consequence. Those HFCs have the capacity to warm the planet at 1,000-9,000 times greater than that of carbon dioxide! (#1 in Drawdown!!) Ninety percent of refrigerant emissions from air conditioners and refrigerators happens at disposal. You can find disposal info at Zero Waste Sonoma. And when buying new appliances, check out this guide to HFC-free refrigerators. 

4. MOVE RESPONSIBLY

Transportation is responsible for 60 percent of Sonoma County's local greenhouse gas emissions. Changing long-held transportation habits isn’t always easy, but the benefits are plentiful.

Your Action Checklist:

• Telecommute. Ditch your drive. It saves time, money, stress, backaches, and pollution. Win-win! The pandemic kick-started this process for many. Keep it up! (#63 in Drawdown)

• Walk or bike. The exercise is good for you! Here is a map of walking and biking paths in Petaluma. Need a little help? Try an electric bike (#69 in Drawdown). Sonoma Clean Power has exciting new eBike incentive programs. Frustrated by the lack of safe bike paths or walkable neighborhoods? (#59 and #54 in Drawdown) Go back to step one and speak up to influence local policy!

• Support public transit. Take the SMART train for regional trips – it’s a great ride. Want more options for mass transit? (#37 in Drawdown) Go back to step one and speak up to influence local policy!

• Drive smarter. Consolidate trips, carpool, and switch to an electric car (#26 in Drawdown). They’re super fun to drive and low maintenance, and you’ll never have to go to a gas station again! Sonoma Clean Power has tips and rebates. Need more charging stations? Go back to step one and advocate for expanded infrastructure!

• Fly less. Planes are gross polluters, and there’s not much you can do to make it better. Instead, vacation locally (luckily, we live in a world-renowned tourist destination) and conduct business virtually (the pandemic has made us all experts!)

5. SPEND WISELY

You only get to vote with your ballot once or twice a year, but you vote with your dollar every day. You have more power than you think. 

Your Action Checklist:

• Buy less stuff. Consumption-based emissions often get left out of the equation because the production pollution happens somewhere else. But consumption-based emissions actually make up a larger share of our community’s greenhouse gas contribution than activity-based emissions. From fast fashion to plastic water bottles to junk mail, it all adds up. Check out The Story of Stuff Project. Want to give your old stuff a new home? Check out this Reuse Resource from Zero Waste Sonoma.

• Avoid single-use plastics. Every bit of plastic ever made still exists. Scientists estimate that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans. Plastics break into smaller and smaller pieces that do not decompose becoming permanent pollution which is toxic to fish, wildlife and the environment. Eliminate this unnecessary harm by taking the Plastic Free Challenge.

• Avoid fast fashion. It’s cheap and always changing for a reason. They’ve got us buying 60% more clothing than we did just 15 years ago! Don’t fall into the trap of low-quality, short-lived clothing – it’s the number one polluter of fresh water, it reinforces horrendous working conditions, and exposes us to countless chemicals. Learn how to make better choices through the local non-profit Fibershed and the film The True Cost.

• Divest from fossil fuels. Are you proud of what your money is supporting? And are your savings at risk when the Carbon Bubble pops? Divest your investments, and ask for Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) by picking investments based on environmental, social, and good corporate governance criteria (called ESG in the industry). Then ask others to divest – write a letter to your company, your city, or your university, urging them to divest. Want to make this more fun and effective? Invite a group of friends to do it with you by starting a Divestment Campaign.

• Bank wisely. When you keep your money in the bank, they might very well be lending it out to support harmful industries. Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America are the worst offenders. Cutting off the flow of cash may be the fastest way to curtail the fossil fuel sector. Find local, ethical banking alternatives like credit unions and move your money to where your morals are. Same goes for credit cards. For information on local banks in Sonoma County, check out Go Local’s Bank Local page.

• Invest in Offsets. After you do everything you possibly can, you’ll will still have a carbon footprint. Use high-quality offset to make up for unavoidable impacts, especially big-ticket items like plane flights. Here is a list of reputable offset programs.

6. FIND JOY

With all this talk of eliminating, it’s important to also focus on adding to your life. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have found joy through baking, bird watching, hiking, dancing, singing, writing, painting, and so much more. Reconnecting with the simple pleasures that do no harm will make this transition a blessing in more ways than one. It’s time to reimagine our future with a fresh outlook that embraces the reality of our current climate emergency and plots a new course.

Your Action Checklist:

• Have Fun with Drawdown. There are lots of ways to add joy without adding carbon or desecrating ecosystems. In fact, drawing down carbon and building back ecosystems can be fun and satisfying. Make a list of ways you can help – and then do them! Volunteer with groups like Friends of the Petaluma River, Releaf Petaluma, and Petaluma Bounty. Or use Daily Acts’ Carbon Gardening tutorial for your own backyard.

• Find Beauty Nearby. That vacation to Ireland might be off the table now, but the Sonoma Coast is breathtakingly beautiful. View your current location with fresh eyes and appreciate how spectacular this little corner of Planet Earth is right now. Find ways to appreciate it every day.

• Repurpose Your Skills. The Climate Emergency needs all skill sets so take what you do best and apply it to the survival of the planet. Love painting – great! We need art and signs. Great with project management – awesome! We need help organizing and staying on track. Experience with marketing – perfect! We need strong messaging. List your skills and experiences and apply your favorite to the movement now. Remember – we need all hands on deck. That means you! You’ll be surprised how much better you feel when you get to work.

• Explore New Hobbies. Think of all the wonderful, low-impact things you can do: take up a new musical instrument; try identifying the birds in your neighborhood; learn to cook beautiful plant-based meals; spend more time laughing with friends; paddle the Petaluma River; get crafty upcycling your trash; create art for climate action. Make a list as a reminder for when you are looking for an activity.

• Bring Your Friends Together. This circles back to step one, Talk More. Everything is more fun when you do it with people you love. Get a group of friends and family together to pick up trash along the river, watch a documentary, or write letters. Better yet, tick through this entire Climate Action Checklist together! Share food and good company and a common mission to take action now.