Last year, my family decided to go solar. When I got to the section of the carbon footprint questionnaire that addresses energy usage, my carbon footprint was brought down drastically when I answered that my house was run by solar energy. The questionnaire showed me how much of an impact that decision made. Another way that my carbon footprint was cut down was because of the fact that I don't eat meat very often. I only eat meat one day of the week, if that, and when I answered that I only had meat that much, my carbon footprint barely went up. Of course, I know that being fully vegetarian brings your footprint down even more, but even cutting down on your meat intake as much as you can helps so, so much. Lastly, my family has recently made a commitment to switch to buying as little plastic as possible, and when necessary, only buying fully recyclable plastic. This decision was easy to make, but it has not been so easy to find everything we need in sustainable packaging. Even harder than that is finding recyclable plastic. Even plastic that has a recycling symbol might not actually be recycled. In my area, recycling plants can only recycle plastics numbers 1 and 2. It is very unusual to find a plastic that is a 1 or a 2, but we have made the commitment and don't intend to give up. I urge your family to have a discussion about what solutions work for them, whether it be going vegetarian or cutting down on unnecessary plastic. It makes a huge difference and right now, differences in the path we're heading down with regards to climate change are much needed.