After writing an article about building sustainable websites, I read and learned more about sustainability, climate change, and the net-zero carbon plan.

Climate change has been a long-debated topic for many years, and somehow I have managed not to get too involved in it. There had to be some realization in my area of expertise before I saw what people around me had been debating about.

I haven’t completely ignored debates about climate change, but I must admit that I haven’t put too much thought into it during my lifetime. Now that I have been putting a little more thought into it, I can see that my daily habits and decisions in my everyday life are pretty environmentally friendly. But there is always more room for improvement.

What is climate change in short?

In short, when talking about climate change, we usually refer to the rapid increase in temperatures across the globe.

What is the net-zero carbon plan?

The net-zero carbon plan is a long-term strategy in the EU where all parts of society and economic sectors will play a role in keeping the global temperature increase well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to keep it to 1.5°C.

What does sustainability mean?

Sustainability is usually about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future.

How did I get started with climate change?

While rebuilding and optimizing my website, I realized a significant impact on energy consumption by choosing the right technologies when building computer systems and doing so in the most efficient way. Every byte that travels through the internet requires energy, which has to be generated somewhere.

Building sustainable websites are one of the simple efforts I am doing myself to meet the net-zero carbon plan by the EU, which aims to fix the rapid temperature increase in climate change.

While optimizing my website to be more environmentally friendly served as a trigger for me to start thinking about my actions and habits in more detail, I realized there are already many things I consider myself doing quite well.

Some of the things I am pretty happy about my habits in the eyes of climate change are:

• Driving a hybrid car
• Eating 95% plant-based food
• Using renewable energy sources in my home

I know driving a hybrid car is not something many would consider a thing to be proud of. Still, as someone who cannot live without a car, I take pride in choosing even a slightly more environmentally friendly option when I bought my Hyundai Ioniq. I have the 2018 version, which consumes around 3.5 liters of gas per 100 kilometers.

When I bought my Hyundai Ioniq 2018 model in March 2020, I wasn’t yet ready to jump into EVs just before the pandemic started. However, I am sure that my next vehicle will be an EV.

I also did an excellent carbon footprint test on this website, which gave me 3900 kilograms of CO2 per year, while the average was 7000 kilograms.

Best climate change-related online resources

Whenever I get excited about a new topic I want to learn about, such as climate change and how to fight against it, I typically try to explore books, blogs, and podcasts.

The best climate change podcast

As I wanted to learn more about climate change and its relations, I tried to find a good podcast that would cover the topic. This is how I found Sustainababble.

Sustainababble is a weekly podcast about the environment, for and by the confused.

As of writing this post, the Sustainababble podcast has released 224 episodes, of which I have currently listened to about five or so episodes.

After listening to a few of the recent episodes, it was apparent that the podcast was something special. Dave and Ol, who are the hosts of Sustainababble, try to break down many aspects of climate change and how to fight against it in their very engaging, funny, yet profound manner.

Whenever I explore something great on the internet, be it a blog, a podcast, or a book, I always make sure I reach out to the authors and let them know how much their content means to me and encourage them to keep up the excellent work.

I also reached out to Dave and Ol to let them know how I recently discovered their podcast and will be going through their podcast archives shortly. I also asked them to recommend where to start my listening journey, to which they kindly replied that they found their groove for the podcast after episodes 23 or so.

The best climate change-related book

In Sustainababble episode 199 - “Is it really green?” - Dave and Ol discuss many everyday activities you can do to make your life more eco-friendly with the author of the book “Is It Really Green: EveryDay Eco Dilemmas Answered,” Georgina Wilson-Powell.

This book is an excellent read about making small and simple everyday choices to fight against climate change.

Find the link to this book on Georgina’s website.

Conclusions

While getting started with fighting climate change might seem overwhelming, it comes down to small and simple actions in everyday life.

I wouldn’t feel so strongly about our planet, environment, and fighting against climate change if it wasn’t for my already great appreciation for nature, which I’ve built over many years of hiking, moving closer to nature, and simply just loving the incredible biodiversity of our planet.

I’ll be taking more small actions in the future and continue covering climate change and sustainability topics in my blog going forward.