PRACTICAL CHANGES YOU CAN MAKE TO HELP THE PLANET, SAYS GEOLOGIST: 'START WITH THE THING THAT MAKES YOU THE MADDEST'
You may feel like your efforts to help save the planet are too small to make a difference, but there are effective ways you can contribute as an individual.
"I think we all bring our unique abilities and gifts and interests and resources, our time and our wallets, and all of that to bear when we think about 'What can I do to make a difference on planet Earth,'" says Cheryl Leutjen, author of "Love Earth Now" which pulls from her experience as a geologist and environmental law attorney.
Leutjen isn't a fan of numbered lists of things that people can do to reduce the effects of climate change. "I think that there's not a single answer to that question," she tells CNBC Make It.
If we tell everyone to change their light bulbs, then "that really reduces us to lightbulb changers when we have so much more to bring to, well every problem we face, and certainly all the problems we face in restoring our environment."
'Start with the thing that makes you the maddest'
So, what's Leutjen's advice for how we can support the planet: "I say start with the thing that makes you the maddest."
The issue that makes you the most upset will be subjective for everyone, and can range from pollution in the ocean to wildfires, or even something "as simple as tripping over a plastic cap every time you go to the park," Leutjen says.
If the litter in your neighborhood bothers you, she says, consider bringing a trash bag with you to pick up the garbage yourself. You may walk away from the experience and say, "That makes me feel better about how the park looks when I take my kids there to play," she notes.
Or you could go even further to push for more change on a national or global level if you feel called to.
"As you go about your life noticing those things and saying, 'This is really irritating me that manufacturers send plastic out into the planet and have no plan for cleaning it up,'" Leutjen says.
"Maybe you'll go home and write some emails about that, and that makes you feel good."
But if you aren't sure about what you can start doing for the planet, "some of the most important things we can do is stop doing," she adds.
"Maybe it is stop buying fast fashion because of all the environmental waste of it. And maybe it is stop buying everything on Amazon and taking a look around and finding it where it's locally available. Or it could be [to] stop buying coffee in throwaway cups that don't get recycled," Leutjen says.
"Stop doing and make as big a difference as some of the things that we do do."
Avoid 'eco-madness'
Eco-madness is a term that Leutjen uses to describe the sense of feeling like you need to take on everything that's happening in the environment.
It's important to "stop myself sometimes from feeling guilty about all the things that I just can't take on," she says. And she recommends that others do the same.
"I have a personal practice of turning it over to people who are showing up to make a difference in those areas. I bless them and I thank them," Leutjen says.
"It's not that I don't care. I know that there's somebody else in the world who's feeling called to address it, and so I honor them and I go back to do my work and hope that we're all showing up in the ways that we can."
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