How to make your home more environmentally friendly – Read an excerpt from South Africa’s Guide to Climate Change by Sipho Kings and Sarah Wild
More about the book!

South Africa’s Guide to Climate Change is a practical handbook that explores what climate change is likely to mean for us as South Africans, how we can prepare for it, and how we can – in our everyday lives – help to mitigate the impact it will have.

In the book, environmental writers Sipho Kings and Sarah Wild look at how we could possibly survive a changing climate. Temperatures are already climbing, sea levels are rising and parts of South Africa are on their way to being uninhabitable. Life is already incredibly hard for many people and nobody will be exempt from climate change. Circumstances are going to get a lot more difficult very soon, and we need a plan.

What should we be doing to reduce our carbon footprint? Read the extract below for ideas on how you can make changes at home:

The internet is teeming with advice about how to make your home more climate friendly, but this advice should be treated with suspicion and this holds for all things in life, from energy-saving measures through to diagnosing your illness on Google.

If you were to follow some of these suggestions, you might find yourself in a self-dug bunker, surrounded by tin cans, wearing a tinfoil hat. ‘

So we asked scientists, government officials and activists what they think South Africans should be doing at home to reduce their carbon footprint, make their homes more energy efficient, and become more environmentally friendly.

We’ve split it up into mitigation (things that reduce your carbon footprint, save water) and adaptation (things that make you, your house and your family better able to cope with climatic changes).

This list is in no way comprehensive, neither is it prescriptive. It focuses on the major risks, particularly in cities, that you’re likely to face: water (either scarcity or flooding) and temperature. Some of these suggestions could work for you, some may not. Some require a capital investment, others don’t. Remember: every little bit makes a difference.