Dear Friends,

As you may already be aware, climate change has taken on a new urgency in recent months. July 2016 was the warmest month ever in recorded history. This record July warmth continued a streak of ten consecutive months that have each set new monthly high-temperature records. As a result, Arctic sea ice is rapidly melting, and extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common across the globe.

The evidence suggests that global warming is now in overdrive; it is not just that temperatures are continuing to rise, but also that the rate of increase is accelerating. According to a report from Japan’s Metereological Agency, global temperatures increased by approximately 0.15°C every ten years for the past three decades. However, from December 2014 to December 2015, global temperatures rose by 0.36°C. That is, within the span of a single year, global temperatures rose more than twice as much as is typically seen over an entire decade.

At our current pace of emissions, scientists project we will reach 4°C global temperature increase by the year 2100, and the consequences would be catastrophic. A 4°C global temperature increase would lead to an estimated sea level rise of 6 feet, which would erase many major cities and some nations from the map; a severe drought affecting over 40% of inhabited land, devastating agriculture and food supplies; an extinction of up to half of known species; and the displacement of hundreds of millions of people. As Professor Kevin Anderson has stated: A 4 °C future is incompatible with an organized global community, [and] is likely to be beyond ‘adaptation’. Yet, this is the eventuality that we will be facing if we continue on our present course.

The issue of climate change needs our greatest possible attention. Global, government-led emergency action is unlikely at best. In the face of feelings of hopelessness, futility, and intense worry about our collective future, I realized that what I can do is to try to clean up my own act, and hope that others will be encouraged to do the same.

Thus, I have made a personal pledge to change my energy consumption habits. I hope that you will join me by signing this pledge and committing to making similar changes in your own daily life. Some items above may not be practical/feasible for you; signing the pledge doesn’t mean that you promise to do everything here, just that you promise to make whatever changes are possible for you. Please also feel free to share your own personal pledge in the comments.

My pledge

1. I will wash all clothes in cold water, and use a clothesline or drying rack to dry my clothes, rather than a dryer.
2. I will turn off all lights when I leave a room. I will switch out conventional lightbulbs for energy-efficient bulbs.
3. I will power down and unplug devices and appliances when not in immediate use.
4. I will walk or bike whenever possible, rather than driving.
5. I will not eat meat, and significantly reduce my dairy consumption.
6. I will challenge myself to “speed shower,” aiming to limit showers to 3 minutes.
7. I will call my power provider to inquire whether more of our household power can be coming from renewable sources.

Further reading

If you’re interested to learn more about what’s happening and what we can do about it, here are some readings and videos I’ve benefited from:

• The Guardian, “NASA: Earth is warming at a pace unprecedented in 1,000 years”

• David Roberts Ted X talk “Climate Change Is Simple”

• Truthout, “In Artic, Ancient Diseases Reanimate and Highways Melt as Temperatures Hit “Frenzy” of Records”

• New York Times, “English Village Becomes Climate Leader By Quietly Cleaning Up Its Own Patch”

• How vegetarian/veganism combats climate change (PETA)