OPINION: We can all work together to address climate change

I love the Helen Keller quote you used in your recent paper thanking everyone for coming together to help during the ice storm. “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” I was disappointed a few weeks earlier to read that one of our city councilors lamented the feeling that individuals have little impact on climate change. I have many ideas of how we, as concerned citizens of Lake Oswego, could work together to address climate change and the more who join, the more impact we have. Here are some bullet points that give an example of things that you can do from home. There is a huge amount of information available for each point that I’m not able to expand upon in this short article so you may need to do a little research on your own.

RECYCLING — of course, this is the easiest thing that you can do. To expand:

Consider composting your food scraps, too. I use a metal lidded garbage can that has filters and uses compostable liners, available on Amazon. Store it under the sink and put any food scraps in it. You will have less garbage and no longer need to use plastic liners as your garbage won’t have anything wet. And no fruit flies, either, if you take your compost to your green bin regularly.

Take Styrofoam to Agilyx, open all days, 24 hours a day.

Recycle plastic bags at your grocery store and reuse lightly used plastic Ziplocs (washable) and other bags.

Take plastics No. 1 and more to New Seasons for recycling. See their website for more recycling options at your local store.

YARD

Consider planting native plants in your landscape or at least get rid of invasive plants that displace natives. Native plants support our environment and are usually less work than ornamentals. We are planting an educational native plant garden at the LO library and there are many resources for learning more (Backyard Habitat, Portland Plant List, Oregon Flora are a few sites with volumes of information).

Have your trees inspected regularly by a qualified arborist. Trees are excellent for absorbing carbon from the atmosphere which helps alleviate climate change.

Build homes with smaller footprints to allow for more plants and trees that provide shade to mitigate the heat domes that we are experiencing in increasing frequency. Smaller homes also use fewer resources and are better for the environment.

Have landscapers leave the leaves and fir/pine needles in your planting beds. This helps with water absorption and also supports the bugs, birds and other animals that make up our environment.

Lawns use a lot of fertilizers, chemicals, water and maintenance to keep them green. The chemicals run off into our rivers and lakes, and eventually our water table. Consider shrinking your lawn size.

Ask your landscapers to use electric tools and avoid Round-Up and other cancer causing chemicals.

CONSUMER

Buy fewer items in plastic bottles — laundry detergent, shampoo and bar soap are all available, weigh less for lugging around and work well. Silver Falls Sustainability Company has many excellent products, is an Oregon company and has a negative carbon impact (takes more carbon out of the atmosphere than it puts in).

Eat less meat. If you haven’t seen the Netflix documentary, “You Are What You Eat,” watch it and you may change your mind about eating beef, pork, chicken and farmed salmon. Plus, eating a more plant-based diet is better for your health.

Which environmental practices are you using? Could you do more? Do you have other ideas for dealing with climate change? Please write a letter to the editor with comments. And remember, we can do more if we work together!