Its hard to think big and try to help the world with just two hands! That's why taking small steps and making small actions are easier. There are many things you can do on your own too! For example you can, recycle, walk and bike, donate to environmentally friendly organizations, take shorter showers, turn lights off, or go thrifting! When I calculated my carbon footprint i noticed that a big percentage of my purchases number was from buying new most of the time. Buying used items is a great way to reduce our plastic waste and the amount of money we are spending. But it is also a great way to reduce the amount of transportation needed to import items from far away. Most of us don't pay attention to the shipping when buying things online, but some items can come from across the world, needing a boat or airplane to ship. And even fewer people pay attention to shipping when inside a physical store. For some items, like clothing, all it takes is to look at the tag to see where it was made. With larger and more popular stores and brands, most of their items will be shipped from other countries, especially if the store originates somewhere else. So thats why when you shop local, you have a higher chance of finding items that have not been shipped or at least not from far away. So why pay for carbon to be released atmosphere when you can spend your money on an item with better quality that is made either locally, or has already been used!

I think you make so many good points. What caught my eye in your post is the title and the idea that small actions are easier, because I think that it is so true and so few people think about it that. Climate change and our carbon emissions are this huge problem and so people are scared to try and take it on because it is so hard to see that there are smaller pictures in the larger one. And that if each of us take smaller actions that will create a larger action and that will get the ball rolling. But it is really hard to see where the best place to start is and if that information was more widespread and shared better than more people would begin to take action. For me, when I was calculating my carbon footprint a big percentage came from transportation. And in the US that is a really big contributor to carbon emissions because there is not a lot of easy access to public transportation and people have such hectic schedules that it is really hard to stop and think about carpooling. So for a small action that I think would be good to take is carpooling more. I carpool to and from my sport, and I ride a public bus to school, but there is still so much driving that I do. And it is really hard to change how much we need to drive because there are not a lot of options but if more people just started to carpool that could make a big difference.

I totally agree with what you said and I hope people eventually realize that we all have complete power over our everyday choices when it comes to helping the environment. After calculating my carbon footprint I realized that every decision I make adds up, because other people around the globe are doing the same, without even realizing. Your observation about buying locally is super important especially because most people ignore it. While online shopping, most people do not pay attention to where their items might be shipping from, but the journey it takes to get here; whether through a boat, a truck, an airplane, etc, all takes a tremendous amount of energy. Additionally, these large businesses that are selling you their products are only in it for the profit. They are not being held accountable for the fossil fuels they are releasing into the environment, nor are they putting a lot of care into their products. Converting to buying locally helps keep those selling closer to home, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions needed to produce their product. Shopping locally also almost guarantees you are making a good purchase, knowing that these businesses truly care about its customers. If we start to understand that we can make a change with just our “two hands”, we can truly help the environment, which is what really matters.