Every day, we make choices that shape the overall health of our planet. From the transportation we take to how long we let the water faucet run while brushing our teeth, each daily habit and decision directly impacts the strain on our environment around us.
As individuals on a shared planet, we must take greater responsibility for protecting it, because governments and corporations can’t always be counted on to act quickly or effectively. Our transportation habits, diet, and energy use are major contributors to carbon emissions into our atmosphere. Even simple things like using public transportation, conserving water, and recycling properly can cut down on a lot of individual impact.
Renée Cho of The Columbia Climate School explains how the yearly holidays that take place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s cause Americans to produce 25% more waste than usual. This includes over nine billion tons of decorations and papers, and each person wastes almost 100 pounds of food. The waste of an abundance of products accounts for how producing and using household appliances and services make up 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This highlights how individual consumption choices, such as what we buy, how much we use, and even how often we replace things, all directly impact climate change.
While governments and corporations hold the biggest influence in fighting climate change, as they set the policies of energy systems and control the largest-scale emissions that determine how sustainable the world economy can be, they have the resources to make major policy or industrial changes that individuals can’t.
The recent years have shown that political leaders and corporations can’t always be counted on. During Donald Trump’s second administration, several environmental actions were pushed back and reduced. This includes 13 million acres in Alaska being opened for oil and gas drilling. Trump’s proposed budget would eliminate NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, including cutting “all funding for climate, weather, and ocean laboratories and cooperative institutions.” The NOAA, OAR, and their laboratories conduct crucial research on weather, oceanic, climate, and air quality.
This, tied in with FEMA’s major cuts, emphasizes the increased possibility of disaster as FEMA acts as a safety net that helps prepare, take action, and recover from climate-related disasters, such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.
William S. Becker of The Hill, a newspaper that focuses on government and politics, emphasizes how 70% of Americans believe Climate Change is a serious threat, 64% support the development of clean energy, and 52% consider global warming a top priority for the president. Despite this, Trump stated that climate change and the carbon footprint were a “hoax” at the United Nations General Assembly on September 3rd of 2025. When leaders fail, it’s important that individuals step up to advocate and take responsibility as the impacts of climate change increase.
Environmentalism isn’t the responsibility of one group or person; it’s everyone’s. From the way we dispose of trash to how we use energy and water, all of our daily decisions have a real impact. We can’t always rely on our government or our corporations to save our planet; it starts with us.
