Giving Compass' Take:

• Alden Wicker argues that a high-impact opportunity for environmentalists is to donate to women and family planning organizations that reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and therefore greenhouse gases. 

• How can philanthropy environmentalism, feminists, and ecofeminists work together to accomplish common goals? 

• Learn about the impacts of the global gag rule. 

Yes, you should absolutely do your personal best to create less waste, eat responsibly-sourced food, and decrease your greenhouse gas emissions. But on balance, if you have a limited amount of time and money, it’s more effective to donate that time and money toward nonprofits, than to stress yourself out trying to be perfect, or blow your budget on expensive fair trade clothing.

That’s why donating to at least one charity, on a monthly basis, should be a first step for any conscious consumer.

In the long list of ways that you can reduce your carbon footprint, recycling actually doesn’t make a very big impact. You know what does? Choosing to have one fewer child.

Choosing to have one fewer child reduces your impact by 60 tons, according to 2017 research, which dwarfs going car-free (2.4 tons), skipping a flight (1.6 tons) and forgoing meat to become a vegetarian (.82 tons).

A large portion of pregnancies in the U.S. and worldwide are unwanted. According to a 2014 study, a full 40% of the 213 million pregnancies worldwide were unintended. About the same percentage of births (38%) in the U.S. were unplanned.

However, if even half of those unplanned pregnancies worldwide were prevented, it would prevent 2.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the equivalent of taking 1 billion cars off the road, or the equivalent of 14 years’ worth of cars manufactured worldwide.

Read the full article about environmentalists supporting family planning by Alden Wicker at Ecocult.