The major drivers of climate change are collective enterprises such as power grids (电力公司), industry, large-scale agriculture and transportation systems. About half of all greenhouse gas emissions comes from electricity generation and industrial fossil-fuel use. Substantial (大量的) emissions reductions in these settings most likely will not come from personal actions; they will come from laws and policies such as carbon-pricing systems, revised building codes and supports for green investment. But one effective act is to consume less meat.

Cutting meat consumption is a powerful and personal thing most Americans can do to tackle (解决)the climate crisis, and they can do it immediately. About 40 percent of greenhouse gases come from agriculture, deforestation and other land-use changes. Meat-particularly beef-drives climate change in two ways: first, through cows’ emission of methane(甲烷), a strong greenhouse gas, and second, by destroying forests as they are changed into grass land.Despite the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), atmospheric greenhouse gas levels continued to rise in 2020, in large part because of an emissions increase in the Amazon as rain forests were changed into land for cattle to satisfy the global demand for beef. By eating less beef, we can start to decrease that demand.

You do not have to become a vegan (素食主义者) to do this. According to one recent study, if every person in the U.S. cut their meat consumption by 25 percent, it would reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1 percent. That might not sound like a lot, but it would help protect the rain forest, so the positive effects-including reduced water and fertilizer use, improved biodiversity and safeguarded rights of local peoples-would be amplified (放大).

Perhaps, social action is kind of infectious (有感染力的) in a good way. If lots of us begin to eat less meat and if we talk about it constructively, we will likely influence others. Pretty soon the 1 percent reduction becomes 2 percent or more. Reduced demand for meat could motivate my local supermarket to carry better produce, making it easier for me and my neighbours to prepare a few more satisfying meat-free meals. Ultimately changes in demand will influence industry. Forty years ago few mainstream supermarkets carried organic (有机的) products; now nearly all do. Consumer demand did that.

Above all, cutting back on red meat also has the added benefit of being good for your health.

What is the best part of a typical relaxing summer day? Nothing is better than sitting in an armchair with a beer and some chips in your hand, enjoying the great comfort.

The much-loved combination of beer and chips is being exploited for the first time to deal with climate change. Chips firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will cut CO₂ emissions (排放) from its production process by 70%.

The technology will use CO₂ captured from beer processing in a brewery (啤酒厂), which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertilizer. It will then be spread on UK fields to feed the following year’s potato crop. Creating fertilizer normally produces high CO₂ emissions, but the technology adopted by Walkers makes fertilizer without generating CO₂. So, the beer-and-chips combination performs a double function. It stops the emission of brewery CO₂ into the atmosphere — and it saves on the CO₂ normally generated by fertilizer production.

This Creative win-win solution was developed with an approval from the UK government by a 14-employee start-up called CCm. The fertilizer was experimented on potato seed beds this year, and next year Walkers will install CCm equipment at its Leicester factory to prepare for its 2022 crop.

A decision has not yet been made on which brewery Walkers will work with on this. The new technology adds to carbon-saving techniques already under way. The firm has installed an anaerobic digester (厌氧消化池), which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce a useful gas. The gas is burned to make electricity for the chip-frying process — so this saves on burning gas or coal.

The new system will go a step further by taking away potato “cake” left after digestion — and mixing the brewery CO₂ into it to make an enriched fertilizer which will help put carbon back into the soil as well as encouraging plant growth.

It’s an example of scientists finding ways to use CO₂ emissions which otherwise would increase the over-heating of the planet.

Connie Monroe clicks a button, flicks her wrist and watches as her neighborhood floods. The shorelines are first to go. Then, the baseball fields at Fleming Park. By the time seawater reaches the senior center, it has flooded streets and over a dozen brick homes. Monroe moves her head up and down, side to side, taking in the simulated (仿真的) view. This is what could happen to Turner Station, a historic African American community southeast of Baltimore, as sea levels rise.

Climate change presents many challenges to coastal communities and to those trying to prepare for its impacts, but one of the most basic is also one of the most vexing: How do you show people and convince them of a possible future?

Communicating the realness and immediacy of the climate threat is hugely important to climate researchers and those aiming to lessen its causes. But it's also the most important to communities faced with coming changes that are already unavoidable. These projects need public support and input. That's why Monroe and other residents (居民) are being directed to sit in metal chairs, put on virtual reality headsets and watch their homes flood.

Turner Station, a community which gets flooded easily, is trying to prepare. It has partnered with the Port of Baltimore, a few nonprofits and a local landscape architecture firm to adopt a range of tools and ways to communicate climate change to the public, because every person is different and every place is different.

The virtual reality program is only the most recent, and perhaps the most effective step. Virtual reality is an immersive experience that can trick the human brain into thinking it's real. But tricking people is not the goal of the sea level rise simulation being used at Turner Station, says Juiano Calil, one of the program's developers. ''The goal, '' he says, ''is to start a conversation and help folks visualize the impacts of climate change and the solutions, and also discuss the trade-offs between them. ''