BoycottPro

stabby_cicada made an interesting comment on how personal choice and leading by example can be combined with politics to effectively address climate change. This is a good article that combines the two approaches, it shows you some changes you can make along with reminding people the importance of voting, and being involved politically. The article mentioned the biggest user of fossil fuels in homes may be a gas fired furnace so if it's time to replace your furnace you may want to consider an electric heat pump.

One thing not mentioned in the article is if you have any incandescent light bulbs that receive regular use consider replacing them with LED. The payback period can be pretty fast for example if you replace a 60w light with a 10w LED assuming you use it for an average of two hours a day and you pay $0.20 kw/h you'll save $7.3 per year. This was calculated as follows:

(60 energy usage of old bulb - 10 energy usage of new bulb) * 2 hours per day average usage * 365 days in a year / 1000 to convert from watts to kilowatts * 0.2 cost per kwh = $7.3.

Over a 10 year period that's $73 in savings.

If the light bulb cost $2.5 to buy you'd break even in only 125 days (a little over 4 months) if we use the same usage assumptions.

Payback period can be calculated like this:

$2.5 cost of light bulb/(50 our energy savings*2 hours of average use)*(1000kw /0.2 price per kwh)

This is why I say politics matters more than individual action.

Yes, changing the lightbulbs in your house from incandescent to LED is great but it's just a drop in the bucket. Politicians can mandate energy efficient bulbs for everyone as an example, at scale this makes a huge difference.

We all have 24 hours in a day and a lot less of that is free-time, use it to contact your politicians and urge other people to do that.

I really hope after reading this post that you'll consider sending an email, calling or faxing at-least one politician. Your message can be really simple.

For example this could be your message:

Dear (politician),

I'm really worried about the effects on climate change. I believe it's hurting the economy much more than the cost of transitioning to renewable energy such as solar and wind. I'm calling for ending subsidies for fossil fuel companies and a faster transition to renewable energy.

Thank you so much for your consideration,
(Your name)

See that wasn't so hard was it? Sending an email could take just minutes a day and you're message could have a huge impact.

What fuels the Republican party and Donald Trump? Money from big donors including fossil fuel money. The fossil fuel industry spent $219 million on the 2024 election according to Yale Climate Connections citing data from OpenSecrets.

If you're from another country and you're buying U.S. fossil fuels you are funding your own demise due to Trump's disastrous tariff policy and aiding of the global far-right authoritarian extremists.

Donald Trump and the Republicans are not just hurting Americans, they're hurting nearly everyone in the world due to damage to the global economy and damage to the environment which impacts everyone due to rolling back pollution regulations. It's the right of every person who's been hurt by Trump to fight back!

I have an easy way you can fight back! Reduce your dependence on fossil fuels, switch to electricity powered by renewable energy.

All you need to do is contact your politicians and build up public support for electrification and switch to renewable energy. When you boycott fossil fuels you're taking away funding from the fossil fuel companies who are hurting the planet and hurting everyone by promoting authoritarian, far-right policies.

I'm call on you to take the following action:

1. Contact at least one elected official and tell them you feel electrification and renewable energy is important and we need a faster transition to it.

2. Make at-least one post on social media urging people to move away from fossil fuels.

Then keep scaling this up!

Also another thing if you personally can switch to solar or wind, if it's right for your situation, do it! You'll save money on power bills in the long run.

I found this article while researching how much sway fossil fuel companies have in Canada. What I found is many are foreign and just like in the U.S. fossil fuel companies spend lots of money to influence politics.

I wrote a post explaining how Europeans can help fight off the far-right by boycotting fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy. Canadians can do the same.

Contact your representatives and demand a faster transition away from fossil fuels. Fossil fuel money fuels the far-right. Boycott them today!

The article makes a really important point:

Reble said he became aware of Uline’s support for Trump through an Etee customer.

This shows the power of contacting companies who are still using Uline. If you receive a product shipped with Uline products please contact the company and tell them that there are lower cost and more ethical alternatives to Uline.

For example here: https://bsky.app/profile/geneha.com/post/3low65f4zac2d a Canadian man was able to literally cut his costs in half by switching away from Uline.

The website https://refuseuline.com/ has a list of Canadian alternatives to Uline. Scroll down to the section labeled "WHAT ABOUT CANADA?".