It's important to get away from the virtual world of screens and connect with the reality of the world right outside our front door. Sometimes I think we spend too much time looking at and thinking about far away places and people on screens. Or on the flip side, we turtle in and just think narrowly about what's going in our personal lives and spaces. More attention needs to be paid at the local community/neighborhood level, where we are closer to the issues and most of us can have the most impact. In addition to the many health-related benefits, walking can help you connect more deeply with your local communities and environments.

Our local newspaper still comes in a thin plastic sleeve every morning to keep off the rain and dew. Instead of plastic bags, subscribers could be given a permanent rain-proof box instead and have the paper deposited in there. I contacted the paper about this once but didn't get a response...maybe I'll try again.

It's better for your health overall and less carbon-emitting. Synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are still a problem with fruits, vegetables and grains, but it's a problem for animal products too indirectly (animals have to be fed). We can get fresher and more nutritious food by sourcing our food from local, regenerative and chemical-free farms. But right now there's just not enough of those to meet potential demand. Meeting that demand would require an overhaul of our food system. It would also likely spell the end of cheap food. Although, arguably food was never really cheap - it just seemed that way because the true costs are hidden - pushed onto exploited labor or externalized in the form of environmental damage. Cheap food right now is also inseparable from cheap, transportable fossil energy.

I can prevent myself from accumulating more things in the future by focusing on downsizing in preparation for retirement in the next few years.

Support a local CSA (community supported agriculture) if you can and source as much food as possible from local farmers practicing regenerative agriculture! Our hyper-industrialized food system is at the heart of so many environmental, animal welfare and health-related problems. Eat less meat, especially beef and lamb, which contribute the most emissions per kilo (Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food )

There are a few products that come from warmer or tropical regions that I would really have a hard time doing without - coffee, citrus fruits (oranges, lemons) and sesame products/sesame oil, which is used a lot in Asian and Mediterranean foods. I don't think we'll lose access to these items any time soon, but they may become much more expensive as climate change continues to bite and cheap energy winds down.

I find that the biggest hold up i have is utilizing public water systems, whether that be from a water fountain or tap i find it alittle unsettling to consume, being unsure of the water quality of the given area. To combat this, i consistently drink spring water from home that we have delivered in glass jugs, ensuring a reduction to my microplastic intake, as well as providing traceable sources of purified and properly treated water. I like consistency, ice cold water and i think there are too many variables when drinking from a random public faucet, beyond contents, but also temperature. Now before i got my Owala i struggled with having a consistent bottle in my life that i would fill daily, and i blame this on the oral fixation that comes with traditional water bottles on the market; for example, the gatorade bottles that have the spout-like top to suck from is a limiting factor for me. additionally I'll mention any reusable cup that has a straw, i find this to be very unsanitary and i dont like the physical act of sipping through a small straw or pouring things into my mouth from a bottle with a large top. the owala allows me to have a liter of ice cold purified water from the time that i leave my house to when i get home 10 hours later.