You say you care about the environment. You like clean air and water, and you don't attach a 'but' to that statement. You want to do your part to make this planet a better, not worse place to live. Mostly, you want to know what you can do that will be of the most help. This comes down to, what could you do, and what should you do. Your thoughts may vary, but in case you’re interested, here are mine.
You should reduce, reuse, and recycle. Yes, we’ve all heard this before, but it’s one of the most basic environmental actions. Especially, take note of the order of those verbs. It’s most important to simply use less. Use less food (side benefit: you’ll lose weight); use less packaging (buy things without it, and skip the bags); use less energy (walk more, and turn down – or up in summer – your thermostat); use less stuff in general (do you really need to buy even more clothing?). Reuse containers as well as clothing and anything else you can think of. And if you absolutely must buy that bottle of water or that can of soda, at least recycle the containers.
You could spread the word. Tell others how you feel. Better still: attend a march or some other form of protest aimed at protecting the planet. My wife and I have been doing this, and we at least feel like we’re making a difference.
You should teach your children well. They have to inherit this mess; they may as well know what we’ve done, what we may be trying to do, and what needs to be done. They’ll be stuck with whatever comes next. Most importantly, children need to be raised to have a healthy respect for knowledge, facts, and science. Yes, they should be critical and question everything, but more importantly, they need to learn the basic facts about how the universe works.
Most importantly, you should vote. Vote for those who will pass and uphold laws that protect our planet. Those who say they like clean air and water, but who also want to remove regulations, are not friends of the environment. Those who say the science isn’t ‘complete’ or that they are otherwise skeptical about climate science, do not have our earth’s (or even it’s people’s) best interest in mind. Vote for the other guy or gal, the one who truly cares, instead.
