We should all strive to move in that direction, but acknowledge that there’s no ethical consumption within capitalism and our false choices are often differently bad in subtle ways. I forgive you for not making perfect choices.

A few examples: I live in Southern California and have Colorado River water piped to my house. Should I really wash out plastic peanut butter containers so that I can put them into the plastic recycling stream which is mostly made out of lies anyway? It seems to me that’s likely a waste of water and the plastic is going to end up in a landfill anyway, so it’s better to throw them away directly.

I drive a 15+ year old inefficient gasoline-powered SUV. I love it, aside from the emissions. I could buy a new EV or hybrid and reduce my personal emissions in exchange for the spyware/adware of modern vehicles, but I still wouldn’t send my current vehicle straight to a landfill. It would be sold and either driven by someone else or parted out to further extend the life of other inefficient gas vehicles. Someone is going to drive the vehicle more, so it might as well be me. By not buying a new car, I increase the cost of used cars, and reduce the demand to produce new cars (including lithium mining), albeit both infinitesimally. I believe that’s actually more responsible than upgrading just to feel better about my personal emissions.

“It turns out that moving your investments to a climate-friendly investment option is the single most impactful thing that the average American can do for climate change,” said Alex Wright-Gladstein, founder and CEO of Sphere, which offers a fossil fuel-free index fund. “It’s more impactful than the combination of going vegan, never flying again, driving an electric car, putting solar on your house.”

Although it’s likely that the greenest thing you can do for the planet is to eat the rich.

That’s great in the summer when you want to be cooling the air inside your house, but not so great in the winter when you want you want to be heating it. I’m hoping some water heater manufacturer figures this out someday and builds a unit capable of switching air sources for the heat, such that the cold output air could be circulated directly into the living space or ducted in a loop to the outside (or attic).