Pretty much all the challenges we're facing with regard to the environment and natural resources, are collective action problems...
...Whether it's global warming, water shortages, decrease in biodiversity, phosphorus depletion, etc.: Collective Action Problems (or more specifically, Tragedy of the Commons problems - see the video below).
Traditionally, regulation and privatization are the two main ways to mitigate these problems. But they don't seem to be all that successful, for a variety of reasons. Time for another solution: Crowdacting. Here are some examples of what can be done by us regular folks. Please feel free to add ideas to the list in the comment box!
Inspired? Start a project or join an existing one at www.collaction.org.
Project ideas (feel free to add!)
- Renewable energy: If X people commit to switching to a renewable energy provider, we all do.
- Solar panels: If X people commit to installing solar panels, we all do.
- Water management: If X people commit to [not shower on Saturdays/take shorter showers] for a year, …
- Meatless Mondays: If X people to commit to not eating meat on Mondays, …
- Planned obsolesce: If X people stop buying product Y that are made with an artificially limited useful life to force repeat purchases, … (A well-known example is the ink cartridge industry. Perhaps a nice starting point is to create a list of companies that use planned obsolence as a conscious strategy. An organization in France seems to be active on this topic).
- Fish stock depletion: If X commit to eating [less/no more/only sustainably caught] fish, …
- Flying: If X people commit to not fly to our holiday destination this year, but stay home or take the train instead, …
- Carpooling: If X people commit to carpool at least once per week, …
- Electric cars: If X people commit to buying electric next time they buy a car, …
- Recycling: If X people commit to start recycling paper/plastics/glass/etc, …
- Seasonal products: If X people switch to eating local and seasonal products on [weekdays/weekends], …
- Sharing Economy: If X people commit to sharing their cars/tools/food with people in their neighborhood, ...
- LED lamps: If X people commit to only buy LED lamps from now on, …
- Work from home day: If X people in the office decide that everyone works from home one day of the week, we all will (leads to less cars on the road), ...
...Please add your ideas in the comments below!