c/climate-action

Wasted $300 on a fancy compost tumbler that barely breaks down anything

I bought this expensive dual-chamber tumbler thinking it'd make composting fast and easy, but after 4 months all I got was a stinky pile of half-rotted scraps. Has anyone found a cheap bin that actually works without babysitting it?

Hit 500 pounds of food waste diverted from the landfill in 6 months from my kitchen alone

I started weighing my compost and food scraps back in January just to see what I was really throwing out. Last week I added it all up and hit exactly 512 pounds. That number shocked me because I thought I was already pretty careful about food waste. I just wonder how many other people are throwing away way more than they realize without actually tracking it. Has anyone else tried measuring their own waste and gotten a number that surprised them?

Wasted $150 on that fancy compostable trash bag subscription before I realized they just fall apart in the bin after three days.

They disintegrated in the heat and I had to pick soggy coffee grounds out of the can by hand, has anyone found a brand that actually holds up?

That local solar co-op in Tucson folded last month with my deposit

I put $2,000 down on a group solar install through Tucson Sun Power back in March and by June they stopped answering calls. Last week the Better Business Bureau flagged them as out of business with 40+ complaints just like mine. Anyone else get burned by a local clean energy co-op that seemed too good to be true?

Fixing an old window with plastic wrap and twine saved me $400 this winter

I live in an old house in Buffalo and my upstairs window has a gap that's been leaking cold air for years. I tried caulk, foam strips, even a heavy blanket taped over it, nothing worked well. Then an old timer at the hardware store said try wrapping it tightly with bubble wrap and twine like a package, then tape the edges. It actually sealed it up perfectly and my heating bill dropped by about $40 a month compared to last winter. Has anyone else tried weird old school fixes for drafty windows that actually beat modern stuff?

Noticed something smart at a coffee shop in Portland last month

That solar panel install took me 14 hours when it should have been 4

I tried to install two 100 watt panels on my roof last Saturday and the racking system instructions were completely useless. Ended up having to watch 3 different YouTube videos and drive to Home Depot twice for extra bolts. Has anyone else had a simple diy project turn into an all day nightmare?

After painting our living room with recycled paint last month, I'm wondering if there's a catch I should know about

I got 5 gallons of recycled latex paint from our city's hazardous waste program for free and it covered really well, but has anyone else noticed it takes longer to dry or is that just me?

TIL the construction sector is responsible for like 39% of global carbon emissions, not just transportation

I was reading this report from the UN Environment Programme last night and it blew my mind. I always figured cars and planes were the big problem, but buildings and the materials we use to make them apparently dwarf everything. My buddy works for a local contractor here in Portland and I asked him about it this morning. He said most of his clients don't even ask about low-carbon concrete or recycled steel. Has anyone here actually tried switching to something like that for a home project? I'm just curious if it's crazy expensive or if it's more about people not knowing.

Warning: Read the IPCC report section on methane if you haven't yet

I skimmed the latest IPCC report last night. The methane section is brutal. We're at 190% of pre-industrial levels now. That's way higher than I thought. Livestock and leaks from gas wells are the main sources. It traps 80 times more heat than CO2 in the short term. Has anyone seen local data on methane levels near their town? I'm trying to figure out what's realistic to push for at city council.

My household carbon footprint hit 10 tons and I didn't see it coming

I've been tracking my household's emissions for about a year now using a simple online calculator. Figured we were doing okay with the solar panels and composting. Then I actually sat down and added up all our natural gas usage from heating and hot water. Turns out that alone put us at 10.2 tons of CO2 per year. That number really hit me because the average American household is around 48 tons, so I thought we were doing great. But then I looked closer and realized our gas furnace is 22 years old and probably leaking heat. The water heater is even older. Now I'm trying to figure out if a heat pump would actually pay off or if we should just focus on insulation first. Has anyone here swapped out an old gas system for heat pump and seen a big drop in their numbers?

My grandpa was right about planting trees in my backyard in Phoenix

Back in 2015, my grandpa told me to plant native mesquite trees along the west side of my house in Phoenix. He said it would cut my cooling bill by a lot, maybe 30% or more. I thought he was just being old school and didn't bother for a few years. Then I finally planted six of them in 2020 and now my AC runs way less from June through September. My electric bill dropped about $40 a month during peak summer. Has anyone else seen big savings from shade trees in a hot climate like this?

Can we talk about that study on meat and carbon footprints?

I read that piece from the University of Oxford last month about methane from cattle, and I get the math, but it really oversimplifies things. People are jumping to say everyone should go vegan, but grass-fed operations like the one near my town in Iowa actually build soil carbon. Has anyone else looked into the role of rotational grazing in offsetting emissions?

Vent: That protest in Portland last June changed my recycling habits

I was at that big climate march in Portland last June. Watched a speaker show how only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled. Made me realize my sorting at home was mostly pointless. Now I just focus on reusing containers instead, anyone else ditch the recycling guilt?

The stat about food waste blew my mind

I was reading through a report from Project Drawdown last night and saw that roughly 1/3 of all food produced globally gets wasted. That's like 1.3 billion tons per year. It hit me because I've been composting my kitchen scraps for a year now but never realized how much energy goes into growing food that just gets tossed. Has anyone else looked into their own household waste and found a number that shocked them?

I finally read that climate report from 1990 my dad kept on the shelf

Honestly, I was cleaning out my parents' garage last weekend and found this old EPA report from 1990 about greenhouse gases. It had a specific prediction about temperatures rising 2 degrees by 2025, and dang, they were pretty close. It made me think how different things would be if we actually listened back then instead of waiting 35 years. Anyone else find old documents that just make you sigh about where we're at now?

Just realized most people are setting their AC to 68 and wondering why their bill is insane

I worked at an HVAC place for two summers and saw so many folks cranking it way down. Setting it to 78 instead of 68 saves about 15% on cooling costs, and a ceiling fan makes it feel way cooler anyways. Anyone else notice people overdoing the AC settings?

Watched my neighbor install solar panels on his shed last month in Phoenix

He went the DIY route with a $600 kit from the big box store and now runs his whole workshop off it. It got me wondering how many other people are doing small scale solar setups for garages or sheds. Does anyone here have experience getting those smaller systems permitted or are you just going for it without one?

The old farmer's market stopped using plastic bags last summer

I've been going to the Saturday market in Oakwood for about 12 years now. One day in July, I showed up and every single vendor had swapped to paper bags or nothing at all. The berry guy handed me a cardboard clamshell and said 'this is it from now on.' At first I thought it was annoying because paper rips when berries get wet. But after a few weeks I got used to bringing my own cloth bags from home. Now I see people doing the same thing at the grocery store too. Has anyone else had a market near them suddenly switch like that?

Community solar programs vs rooftop panels - I did the math

I spent 3 months comparing community solar subscriptions to installing my own panels in Phoenix. Rooftop panels saved me $600 more per year after the tax credits, even with the high upfront cost. Has anyone else run the numbers and gotten a different result?

Hacked my gas bill by switching to a pellet stove insert

So last winter I compared my natural gas bill to what I spent on a used pellet stove insert plus pellets. The furnace was costing me about $180 a month just to keep the house at 65. After I installed the insert in my fireplace, I spent $220 on a ton of pellets that lasted the whole season. That saved me over $800 compared to gas for just heating the main floor. Has anyone else tried swapping a space heater or wood stove for their central heating? I'm curious what numbers you saw.

Watched a webinar about community solar gardens yesterday

I tuned into this free webinar from a local nonprofit and they explained how community solar gardens let people without roof panels buy into a shared array. It blew my mind that we have a 2 megawatt project starting up just outside of town next month. Has anyone here actually subscribed to one of these programs and seen real savings on their electric bill?

Overheard my neighbor saying solar panels are just a tax write-off for rich people

Was out front yesterday and heard my neighbor telling someone that solar only benefits rich folks who want a tax break. Meanwhile I installed mine 3 years ago in Portland and my electric bill went from $120 a month to $20, plus I get credits on cloudy days. Has anyone else dealt with people dismissing solar as some kind of scam?

Appreciation post: lunch lady at my kid's school got me thinking differently about food waste

Last week I was dropping off my daughter and saw this woman named Susan separating leftover milk cartons from the trash bin. She told me the school goes through about 200 cartons a day and she started rinsing them out for a local pig farm, lol. It's such a small thing but it made me realize how much we just toss without thinking. Anyone else have a random person change how you look at waste?

Ran into a climate denier at a hardware store and it still bugs me

I was at Lowe's last month grabbing some LED bulbs and this older guy in the aisle starts going off about how solar panels are a scam because "the sun doesn't always shine." I tried to explain battery storage, but he just laughed and walked away. It's stuck with me because he shut down the whole conversation without hearing me out. How do you guys handle people who refuse to even consider the evidence?