Ask What You Can Do for
YOUR PLANET WITH THE ENVIRONMENT IN CRISIS, ARE THERE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE ACTIONS THAT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE? OUR EXPERTS OFFER THEIR THOUGHTS. BY LINI S. KADABA
Last year was the second warmest on record, government agencies found. Carbon dioxide levels are higher today than at any point in at least 800,000 years, according to the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists website. Human activities—what we drive, how we produce energy, what we eat, how we use land—are fueling record amounts of anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gases. For anyone concerned about climate change and other significant threats to the environment, such as plastics in our rivers and oceans, or deforestation, the mantra is act, act, act. But what exactly can you do as one person, or as one group, to have the most impact? “That’s the really dire question,” says Jonathan Wilson,
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Haverford Magazine
Haverford College chair of environmental studies and an associate professor who teaches the environmental studies major’s introductory course “Case Studies in Environmental Issues.” This is the department’s central role, he says: to prepare students for this type of thinking. Haverford magazine reached out to alumni working in a host of environmental spaces, to the environmental studies department, and the College’s arboretum director for ideas on specific actions—both individual and collective—that they think can make the most difference. While there is no single cure-all, these experts offer plenty of possibilities. Here are some:
