The fight against climate change requires the mass co-operation of industries, companies, governments and communities around the globe, but individuals have a role to play, too.
Little things make a difference, and feel good too.
At the dawn of 2024, also known as New Year's resolution season, here's just a handful of small, easily achievable ways to lead more climate-friendly lives:
Food waste is an enormous environmental concern, yet it's often ignored in the conversation about how to live more sustainably, said Lauren Phillips, associate editorial director for news at Better Homes & Gardens.
鈥淥nce you start noticing how much food you throw out, it鈥檚 a simple shift to start thinking about how you can use your excess groceries before they go bad,鈥 she said.
Better, plan grocery shopping more strategically so you have little to no excess. Buy only what you need, even if BOGO is on!
Other steps: Commit to eating all your leftovers. Keep a sharp eye on expiration dates so you use foods in time. Buy locally grown, in-season fruits and vegetables. Invest in glass or bamboo containers for food storage. Freeze things.
Real Simple鈥檚 senior home editor, Hannah Baker, recommends beeswax wraps instead of plastic to seal leftovers when a container doesn't work.
And then there's composting food scraps.
鈥淭his one can be easy, so long as you consistently take your compost out and wash the bucket," said Baker. No meat or dairy products in the compost pile, she cautions.
"For an easier solution, there are some machines like the Lomi that turn your fruit and veggie scraps into nutrient-rich plant food. Just keep in mind that they鈥檙e pricier than your standard compost bin,鈥 Baker said.
Is takeout your routine? Jono Waks, 55, in Brooklyn requests that his orders come with no plastic utensils.
鈥淚f they give it to me, I go back and make them take it out of the bag. The Thai place down the block thinks I鈥檓 a hoot because I go back with the plastic,鈥 he said.
How do small steps like these make him feel?
鈥淟ike a lonely drop of water in a great big ocean of environmental despair, but I can only control what I can control,鈥 Waks said.
鈥淐onsidering longevity in the products you purchase will ultimately cut down on how much you buy and throw away over time,鈥 Phillips said.
That applies to pretty much everything shoppable 鈥 furniture, home goods, clothes, appliances, shoes.
鈥淪ure, you could buy the very on-trend shirt at that fast fashion store and wear it three times before it shrinks or disintegrates, or you could buy a well-made, more durable shirt from a retailer you like that you can wear for years to come,鈥 Phillips said.
When you calculate cost per wear or cost per use, the ultimate financial burden is much lower than the money spent replacing a cheap vacuum cleaner, say, after a year or two.
Or what about shopping thrift? Finds are everywhere.
Check out antique and second-hand stores, and also see whether you can give a second life to any treasures tucked away at home.
鈥淚 rent clothes for big events, and now I don鈥檛 have a closet full of fancy dresses I鈥檒l only wear once,鈥 Phillips said.
Also on her rental list: Reusable moving bins for relocating, instead of a towering stack of cardboard. The library versus the bookstore.
鈥淚f you look around, you鈥檒l be surprised by all the rental services that are available now," she said. "You don鈥檛 have to buy items that you鈥檒l only use a few times before they get tossed.鈥
Caveat: If you're able.
If ditching the car, or Uber, sounds daunting, pledge to do it for trips of a mile or less to get started. If four wheels is the only way to go, there's always the good old-fashioned carpool.
Try to combine errands to make fewer trips.
That goes for cloth towels rather than paper ones, too.
鈥淚 switched to cheery reusable cloth napkins," said 36-year-old Rachel Cooper in Chicago. 鈥淎nd not only does it elevate every meal and brighten up my tablescape, but it saves paper.鈥
While you're at it, skip the plastic-bag liners for small trash cans that aren't used for messy stuff, like those in the bedroom or office.
Speaking of garbage, why not make a habit of picking up some after your daily run or walk?
And speaking of cleaning, look for eco-friendly cleaning products, including concentrates. Some brands offer the chance to refill bottles, instead of buying new ones. And concentrates contain less water than non-concentrates, so take less energy to ship.
Doug Tallamy, who teaches ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, urges gardeners to plant more native plants to feed and shelter beneficial wildlife like pollinators.
Plant densely with more groundcovers, he said. 鈥淚f you can see the ground, you don鈥檛 have enough plants, because that鈥檚 the weeds' opportunity.鈥
Why not take out some lawn and replace it with native plants or a tree or two? Choose groundcovers and plantings that are caterpillar-friendly, Tallamy advised, calling caterpillars key in the local food web.
鈥淗ow you treat the land under that tree makes all the difference in the world,鈥 he said.
Lastly, he said, don't use weed killers and quit fogging for mosquitos 鈥 he suggests a natural larvicide like Mosquito Dunk for more effective and less harmful protection that's a lot cheaper too.
Pollinator-friendly garden patches can be as small as containers on a balcony, said Tallamy, who has proposed a Homegrown National Park, connecting all those healthy little gardens.
Other tips for more sustainable gardening 鈥 outdoors and inside too 鈥 include catching rainwater at your drainpipes, or in buckets for the garden. Capture shower water for houseplants.
The U.S. National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action nonprofit, has lots of easy ideas for saving electricity at home.
Start with turning things off. Don't just hit the light switch when you leave a room, but completely turn off the TV, computer, video game console and cable boxes when they're not in use. Or unplug them completely.
They're sucking a little bit of energy if they remain lit up when powered down. Chargers for cell phones, tablets and other cordless devices do the same when they're not in use but remain plugged in.
Avoid streaming video through game consoles like PlayStation or Xbox, the NRDC said. They can use up to 30 times more energy than streaming on TVs. If you do use a game console regularly, at least set it to 鈥渁uto power down鈥 mode.
Other energy-saving ideas from the NRDC: Buy smarter bulbs. An LED light bulb uses up to 85% less energy to deliver the same amount of light as incandescents.
Don鈥檛 run the dishwasher when it鈥檚 not full.
Set your washing machine to the appropriate water level and wash all but your dirtiest cloths in cold water. Air-dry clothing when possible. If you can't quit your dryer, ditch the dryer sheets, Baker said.
鈥淒ryer sheets can increase drying time, which wastes energy, plus they aren鈥檛 reusable and you can go through them super quick,鈥 she said. 鈥淚nstead, try using reusable wool dryer balls.鈥
Set your refrigerator temperature between 28 and 42 degrees Fahrenheit and your freezer between 0 and 5. Make sure both are sealed tightly. Try the dollar bill test on the doors. If the bill shut into the door easily slides out, replace the gaskets.
Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives鈥 first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 government.
CTV News has learned there are multiple Canadian women alleging they were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed.
Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn鈥檛 been seen since Wednesday morning.
The University of Ottawa's special advisor on antisemitism says he has resigned following posts he made on social media celebrating the pager explosions in Lebanon this week.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.
For most people, dinner on a cruise ship is a time to relax. But when influencer couple Abby and Matt Howard decided to kick back with a dinner 脿 deux, they ended up kicking up a storm.
Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn鈥檛 been seen since Wednesday morning.
Friends and strangers have set up a makeshift memorial outside the home of a five-year-old boy who was found dead yesterday in Coteau-du-lac.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
The University of Ottawa's special advisor on antisemitism says he has resigned following posts he made on social media celebrating the pager explosions in Lebanon this week.
The mayor of Fort Saskatchewan apologized on Thursday for comments she made earlier this week about killing feral cats.
A federal law enforcement agency confirmed it's opened an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot and killed at the local courthouse on Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced.
Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
South Korea鈥檚 government, western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, an investigation led by The Associated Press found.
Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The head of Via Rail says a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives鈥 first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Ontario鈥檚 Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
Manitobans are getting another reminder of how long wait times are for diagnostic images.
A new strain of the virus is spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, including but not limited to sex. A lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread, according to alarmed disease experts.
Thanks to a special Texas law, NASA's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two veteran astronauts, will still be able to perform their civic duty, voting absentee from low-Earth orbit for the U.S. election in November.
Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
NASA scientists have successfully replicated spider-like shapes found on the surface of Mars in a laboratory setting for the first time.
Viewers of Jeopardy got a chance to test their knowledge of trivia about B.C.'s biggest city Wednesday night.
British actress Florence Pugh has revealed that shaving her head for her latest movie role was a 'really bizarre' experience that sent her body 'into a bit of trauma.'
Demi Lovato is highlighting the need for stronger protections for emerging child performers in her new Hulu documentary "Child Star."
Maple Leaf Foods asserted its innocence in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme ahead of a hearing to determine whether it will be added to an ongoing class-action lawsuit.
Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
For most people, dinner on a cruise ship is a time to relax. But when influencer couple Abby and Matt Howard decided to kick back with a dinner 脿 deux, they ended up kicking up a storm.
Only a month after Thailand's adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable.
Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he's been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season's playoffs.
Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette returned to the 10-day injured list Thursday due to a right middle finger fracture.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."
A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.
A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.
If you take a look to the right of Hilda Duddridge鈥檚 100th birthday cake, you鈥檒l see a sculpture of a smiling girl extending her arms forward.
B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.
Viewers of Jeopardy got a chance to test their knowledge of trivia about B.C.'s biggest city Wednesday night.
To appreciate why Mimi Vandermolen is so pleased to notice one particular vehicle she鈥檚 walking past, you need to know that seeing this many cars in one place would have been unimaginable when she was growing-up in the post-war Netherlands.
Toronto police are asking for the public's help in identifying one of the suspected shooters in Tuesday's fatal double shooting in North York.
Students across York Region will once again see uniformed officers at school, however police and board officials say they will only be stopping by for the occasional safety presentation.
Police have identified the two men killed in an early Wednesday morning shooting at a park north of Toronto. York Regional Police (YRP) say officers were called to Bayview Park, near Bayview and Lowndes avenues in Keswick, Ont., just before 7:30 a.m. for a report of shots fired.
We've produced a special webcast edition of CTV News Calgary for Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024.
The Parole Board of Canada says a man who assaulted a young pregnant woman and left her for dead remains too dangerous to be released into the community.
Calgary police are seeking public assistance to locate a vehicle stolen in an early September carjacking in southeast Calgary.
The daughter of a man accused of killing her mother and of trying to kill her in a stabbing attack in Ottawa's west end in June 2021 took the stand at his trial Thursday.
Customers are in the dark about the sudden closure of the Upper Room Furniture stores. The company has filed papers under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. It鈥檚 not known whether orders placed and paid for will be honoured.
The University of Ottawa's special advisor on antisemitism says he has resigned following posts he made on social media celebrating the pager explosions in Lebanon this week.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.
A harrowing video has been presented to a jury at the trial of three men facing first-degree murder charges.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
An Edmonton man who is charged with sexually assaulting a teen boy is a member of the Alberta sheriffs, CTV News Edmonton has confirmed.
The mayor of Fort Saskatchewan apologized on Thursday for comments she made earlier this week about killing feral cats.
Canadian National Railway will be moving its rail operations from Jasper, the town in the national park of the same name that was recently devastated by a wildfire, to Hinton, Alta., says the union representing workers.
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called for a provincial election. Voters will go to the polls on Oct. 21, as prescribed by the province's fixed-date election law.
The head of a committee monitoring the government's response to the inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass killing says she's pleased with progress made so far.
Police are asking people to avoid the Dartmouth Commons area in Dartmouth, N.S., as they assist with a wildlife call for a bear.
Manitobans are continuing to mop up after a deluge of rain hit southern Manitoba earlier in the week.
Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn鈥檛 been seen since Wednesday morning.
A Winnipeg pet rescue is putting out a warning to dog owners across the city about a possible parvovirus in the province.
A case involving stolen funds from a Saskatchewan business being used to purchase cryptocurrency will be heading back to the courts, thanks to a new decision by Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has confirmed a tornado touched down Wednesday evening near Langbank, Sask.
The rain didn't put a damper on YWCA Regina's annual Walk a Mile in Their Shoes event Thursday.
New details have been shared about a missing family that was last seen on Sept. 1 in Kitchener, Ont.
Wilfrid Laurier University鈥檚 football team has an undefeated record this season and the Waterloo, Ont. team is now ranked number one in the country.
A celebration of life was held Thursday for a little girl who never got to see her seventh birthday.
A gym teacher at a private Christian school in Saskatoon has been charged. Terra MacEwan, 44, is charged with assault with a weapon. A Saskatoon mother who spoke with CTV News says her autistic son was MacEwan's victim.
Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.
A case involving stolen funds from a Saskatchewan business being used to purchase cryptocurrency will be heading back to the courts, thanks to a new decision by Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal.
They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
As northern Ontario gets ready to welcome autumn this weekend, it鈥檚 still feeling a lot like summer as provincial forest fire crews continue to battle blazes.
Fire officials in Greater Sudbury are concerned about a recent increase in the number of wildfires in the area.
A Woodstock homeowner says she鈥檚 at her wit鈥檚 end over a homeless encampment situated alongside her backyard. She鈥檚 calling on the city to do more to help those living rough, so she can live in peace.
Damage is estimated around $500,000. Police said the investigation is in its early stages and more information will be provided when it becomes available.
Police were focusing their attention on the northeast corner of Richmond and Horton, with members of the emergency response unit taking up positions at the scene.
Two men from Barrie have been charged after a deadly shooting at a park in Keswick on Wednesday.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
A 32-year-old man is facing charges after police say his vehicle struck a child in an Owen Sound intersection.
The Windsor Police Service (WPS) has seized over $56,000 in drugs and have arrested one suspect.
SERVEONE Canada, a global procurement solution company, has begun Canadian operations in Tecumseh.
Enrolment may be down at St. Clair College, but President Mike Silvaggi isn鈥檛 bothered.
In a rare move, the Greater Victoria School District Board of Education has been slapped with a ministerial order from the province requiring it to update a student safety plan 鈥 drawing concern around political posturing leading up to an election.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities is asking the provincial government to make transit free for teenagers.
To appreciate why Mimi Vandermolen is so pleased to notice one particular vehicle she鈥檚 walking past, you need to know that seeing this many cars in one place would have been unimaginable when she was growing-up in the post-war Netherlands.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls 鈥 including one that gave birth to 10 puppies 鈥 from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
More than a year after a missing Kamloops, B.C., woman鈥檚 body was found, her son has been arrested and charged with her murder, Mounties announced Friday.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
The City of Lethbridge's encampment response team continues to see a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the summer months.
A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester鈥檚 farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.
