Good news for Earth’s inhabitants… a new, positive, and encouraging initiative launched by Julien Vidal as part of the movement to raise public awareness about the climate emergency. The website “It starts with me” It offers hope by showing that each of us has the ability and the power to change the world through our own actions! It is a true guide to everyday, individual eco-action in all areas of life.
Julien Vidal tried out eco-friendly habits for a year and managed to reduce his ecological footprint by a factor of 4 and his carbon footprint by a factor of 5! He created this website last year to help people who want to change their lifestyles while saving money and reducing their impact on the environment. Julien used to work in the humanitarian sector, and it was during a trip to the Philippines that he realized climate change was well underway there. Tired of empty, powerless, or guilt-inducing rhetoric about the environment and the climate emergency, he decided to take concrete action on his own and help others by showing them that it’s actually pretty easy!
If everyone lived like him, 0.8 Earths would be enough for all human beings to live decently, whereas today, it takes between 1.7 and 2 Earths to sustain our way of life—which does not ensure sufficient resources for all of humanity, either today or in the future.
It proposes concrete, eco-friendly actions we can take to reverse the current catastrophic trend, with plenty of advice across a wide range of areas: technology, education, consumer behavior, transportation…
400 ways to change the world on an individual level based on one’s talents, availability, and resources, including a list of the “Top 10 Actions That Truly Change the World”:
1. I'm becoming a vegetarian
2-I'm joining a cooperative supermarket
3-I buy green electricity
4- I choose an ethical bank
5- I buy organic products
6- I prefer to ride my bike for short trips
7- I find a meaningful career
8- I compost my organic waste
9- I continue to learn throughout my life
10. I volunteer
The average French person emits 10 metric tons of CO2 per year—that's five times more than Julien Vidal using his method!
You can follow Julien's discoveries on the website cacommenceparmoi.org or on the blog
Also check out the “Utopian, Pragmatic, and Uplifting Manifesto: It Starts with Me,” which you can order on the website, and the newsletter, which you can subscribe to.
Nathalie Laulé
