The best thing you can do for the planet on Earth Day

It’s Earth Week, and these days, it’s become hard to know just what to do with this holiday. Is it a reminder to start composting, ditch fast fashion, or donate to climate causes? Or does nothing we do as individuals really matter, and it’s on governments and corporations alone to fix our climate and ecological crises?  The latter idea — that our own individual actions won’t help to heal the planet — has become almost gospel in the modern environmental movement. And it’s largely right. But there are a few actions that individuals can take that actually do make a substantial difference in turning our current environmental trajectory around. And some of the most impactful ones might not be what you’d expect. The environmental nonprofit Project Drawdown analyzed the top 20 actions that households can take to minimize their carbon footprint. It found that reducing food waste and eating a “plant-rich” diet — one that’s lower in meat and dairy — came out tied with each other for the No. 1 spot of most impactful changes. Putting solar panels on your roof ranked third, lagging far behind. (A number of other environmental analyses have put plant-rich diets as top contenders for environmental lifestyle changes, too.)  This story was first featured in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here to explore the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them. Sent twice a week. And fortunately, food selection is a low-overhead choice we get to make many