Personal Actions:
What You Can Do Now
This section consists of suggestions of ways you can take action.
This is not a list of gold standards to shoot for, another way to feel overwhelmed, but options to pick and choose from.
Contents
This page is divided into:
1. Communicate
Many experts agree that making your opinions known is useful. In fact, some feel it is the single most useful thing that we as individuals can do. See our section on communication!
We need to make these issues and possible solutions visible. Awareness and agreement are critical. It is important to make the need to act on climate change and other environmental issues part of our culture, the norm, just obviously what needs to happen.
Talk to people in your life
Talk to friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues who may be receptive. Be positive when you can be. See what their concerns are. Listen to their stories and share yours. Find common ground. Maybe they have questions you can answer or you know resources where they can find the answer for themselves.
Provide information to support, give hope and inspire (see section on communication). Whatever your background, you don’t have to be an expert to share your concerns with others and to listen to theirs!
More Americans favor policies that are geared toward combatting climate change than we think. It seems we really don’t talk to each other enough about this topic! A survey reported in the journal Nature Communications found that 66-80% (for different subgroups) of Americans favor policies that address climate change, but we think it is only about half that, 37-43%. It is a clear majority that do favor action, but we think it is almost a fringe position! This was true for Democrats, independents and Republicans, though Republicans underestimated American support for these policies the most.
Even in “red states” in the American west the majority who responded to a poll in February 2023 favored strong efforts at conservation and clean energy!
That is cause for hope. That needs to be part of the conversation. We needn’t feel isolated or out of step, and we can help each other by talking about it. We need to know that wanting to do something about climate change has become mainstream. Importantly, policymakers and politicians need to know that as well.
On the other hand, it is often a waste of time and energy to try to convince a true climate denier, but fortunately they are in the minority. The reason is that to take the attitude of a hard-core climate denier, one has to have an agenda, social, political, or psychological, that results in ignoring the facts.
Discussing these issues at work may at times be appropriate, but must be done with caution and where it fits into the work flow. Don’t exploit a captive audience or cause conflict where you work! However, it can be rewarding and a way to offer mutual support.
At times you can change minds that are not totally closed with information and simple analogies like “greenhouse gases act like a blanket.” In a study it was found that both some Democrats and Republicans could, to some degree, be swayed by information and the use of analogies.
Keep it a topic of conversation.
As in all communications, it is usually best to listen and not to preach, cajole, or overwhelm (I keep reminding myself!). Try to stay positive when you can, although sometimes it is not possible; the facts are the facts.
Other ways to communicate
Post your ideas, opinions and stories on social media. Share resources!
Write to your elected representative.
Write a letter to the editor.
Speak to community groups and clubs you are part of. Find your comfort level. Find your voice. You might surprise yourself.
Consider developing a formal presentation (see presentations and clinician’s corner) consistent with your professional expertise. That expertise need not be in the health care arena! Whatever we do, we have a perspective we can share. What’s yours?
2. Educate yourself
Knowledge is power and empowering. It inspires you and gives you confidence. As noted above, but bears repeating: you don’t have to be an expert to talk about these issues! Just be honest about what you know and what you think when you form opinions and talk to others. But do try to learn what you have time to learn so that when you talk, you are reliable.
This could be as simple and minimal an effort as skimming some of the books and websites in the resources sections, picking up information here and there, reading news stories from reliable sources to have an idea what is going on, or looking at the brief summaries of various topics on this website.
Then, when you have the time and interest, when relevant to you, take deeper dives.
3. Support others who are walking the walk
Supporting others can be in the form of encouragement, sharing information, or joining in on activities with groups. If you don’t have the time or inclination to participate directly, donate money if you can afford it. There are many great individuals and groups that are trying hard, are well educated, devoted professionals, going full steam ahead, to make the world better. Perhaps you don’t have the time or expertise to make a large commitment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of a team that does.
Help them out any way you can. A lot of a little help adds up.
Some groups and websites have ways you can jump in and participate in brief activities (groups and websites).
4. Political and social action
Even if you don’t have the time or inclination to dive into politics, you can be heard.
Legislation matters. The Inflation Reduction Act, imperfect as it is, is a huge step forward.
VOTE! Encourage others to vote!
Yes, it matters. Vote for those who share your values. They may not be perfect, no one and no institution is.
Vote for and support politicians who care and will act.
Give courage to those who are active in these issues in any way you can. This can be as easy (and free) as writing to the politician, having a yard sign for a candidate or talking to others.
Or you can become more involved, get to know your representatives, and even volunteer if you have the time and are inspired. Donate to their campaigns. Volunteer if you can, even a small amount of time, with “get out the vote” (GOTV) groups that target your interests like the Environmental Voter Project.
Contact your representatives
This site has a way to access your representatives easily.
They need to know where you stand. Let them know. They care what voters think! They figure if you care enough to speak up, you may care enough to vote on the issue.
This can be for specific legislation or more general statements of your values and concerns.
For example, you might encourage your municipality, county and state to use electric vehicles or similar low environmental impact alternatives, and to require buildings to be designed to be energy efficient.
Consider contacting and working with local government agencies
Activities that impact other related issues of sustainability may be the purview of local government, through assistance, education and expertise, or regulation.
Such local government actions can include: permits and zoning, air quality regulations, landfills and waste management, traffic flow, sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture, parks, recycling, composting, regulating toxins, cleaning up polluted sites, public health( including clean water and infectious disease control), disaster planning to increase resiliency to climate related emergencies, awareness of health concerns and issues of ecological justice.
That is a very long, yet still incomplete list. The point is local governments matter.
Demonstrations
Are school strikes useful? They are not a way to secure a young person’s future or credibility, but then young people are the largest stakeholders in this, and perhaps such actions can be the right thing, at the right time and place, for the right young person.
Similarly for adults: what about demonstrations? Getting arrested? Again, this is not for everybody and it is hard to gauge success. When a celebrity gets arrested it gets attention, and most celebrities have sufficient resources and visibility that they incur little risk. What would be the risk/benefit of getting arrested for you? Lawyers, bail, missing work and family. Perhaps few would hesitate if convinced it would lead to change.
There certainly may be a time and place you find protesting, and even getting arrested, to be something you want to do, maybe even feel a need to do. Are such protests, including street theater, effective? There is some evidence reviewed by the Social Change Lab that violence (including destruction of property) can be counterproductive. Modestly provocative actions, like gluing oneself to a museum wall and flinging food at glass-covered paintings causing little actual damage (as has been happening in the fall of 2022) could have a positive effect indirectly by making more mainstream efforts more palatable!
Of course, most protesters in most protests don’t get arrested. There is evidence that non-violent, large protests can be effective in moving public opinion and increasing the chance of legislative action if there is clear, consistent messaging, by bringing the issues to greater attention and showing support for the cause.
Resources
What Can I Do? The path from climate despair to action. Jane Fonda. Penguin Books, 2020. A call to action. Part memoire. Some fine information.
How To Change Everything, the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. Naomi Klein with Rebecca Stefoff. Atheneum Books for Young People, 2021. For progressives and activists of all ages.
Support non-governmental activities locally
This may be civic, social or religious groups, or activities where you work. There may be community gardens or composting, or other community activities. If you hear something is going on in an organization you belong to, good or bad for the environment, chime in if you can. Let them know you care.
5. Engage with corporations or institutions
Engage particularly those companies that sell products you use, or are part of where you work, play or invest. Let them know what they are doing right, or how they may improve.
If you have investments, are shareholders active and vocal? Can you add your voice, however small?
Can your place of work be more energy efficient? It need not be that you start off with a major time-consuming campaign, but sometimes a small effort can make a difference and even snowball or at least give encouragement to others.
See also “Invest in and buy from companies that don’t ‘greenwash’” under the lifestyle changes section.
6. Professional efforts
Whatever you do, consider seeing what your professional organizations such as national, state and local professional societies are doing, if anything, and if you can either help or at least encourage them in their efforts, however limited.
Aspects of the sustainability of medicine are on the radar of some medical societies. This includes aspects that impact health directly (e.g., pollution and groups interested in cardiovascular and pulmonary disease) or specific practices (e.g., the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons has a task force on waste generated in the operating room). Some of these activities include working with local governments to change regulations and can be very time-consuming. Maybe you can find ways to support those doing the work. The Medical Society Consortium on Climate Change and Health is comprised of many medical specialty societies and is a great resource.
This goes for professions that are not health related. Whatever you do, you have a community, and some members are likely interested in these topics. Use your imagination and your contacts.
Work is where many of us spend most of our time and we are heavily invested personally in what it means to us, our identity. So, speak up if you are in a position to! If you see something that involves an environmental impact that is relevant to your colleagues or place of work, consider discussing the situation with others, whether those responsible for the physical plant or relevant clinical practices, or at staff meetings.
Many corporations (and even local governments) have sustainability offices now and hopefully would be interested in ideas you might have.