No doubt there is ample awareness of the stuff that awaits us should we not consider climate change a real threat. The ever-increasing global temperature is just one of many factors resulting from human life on Earth.

In 140 years, the global temperature has increased by around 3 degrees with nearly each year in the last few decades being record-breaking in terms of oh god, why is it so hot outside?

But before (and hopefully, not at all) humanity burns alive if nothing effective is done, we will experience an ever-increasing number and multitude of extreme weather conditions. What’s that? In formal terms, weather is extreme if it’s on the extreme end of what’s been seen in weather patterns historically. This also includes unexpected, unusual, severe and unseasonal behaviors in the climate.

So, things like heat waves, cold waves, heavy rain and storms, tornadoes, droughts and floods (among many other things) fit the bill of extremes.

And while you might not necessarily be affected by some of these, it doesn’t mean you can’t be affected at all. A tornado, flood or a drought coming through an area where a lot of the world’s food comes from might mean a shortage for countries that rely on it. And you can’t ever know when supply is restored because that 7-minute tornado won’t take 7 minutes to fix. It’s just impossible.

This is besides the economic costs that natural disasters can incur on infrastructure and natural landscapes, prompting first responders and emergency services to arrive at the scene—all of this costs a lot of money. And it gets way worse if there are human casualties. Economically speaking, though, hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey and Irma together were responsible for $427 billion of damage several years ago.

In other words, it can be a chain reaction that can reach you in the end.

All of this is caused by pollution. Pollutants, like greenhouse gas, being thrown out into the air has an effect on the climate, forcing it to warm up to a degree where it starts affecting everything else on earth. Soon, one animal population starts to dwindle, affecting other animal populations, which can affect plant life and that’s how you get a domino effect. And imagine that you’re at the end of the chain, being squashed by the last oversized domino. Or getting a tornado-propelled corn cob square in the noggin.

Speaking of pollution, it’s not the regular Joes who are the biggest polluters, but entire business industries. But regular Joes can be blamed for supporting the said industries with their money in exchange for convenience and other very addictive commodities.

But to give you a clear idea of who’s the most responsible, in the first place we have the fossil fuels sector with a whopping 40.5 gigatons of CO2 emissions. Next up, it’s the agriculture industry with 9.3 gigatons of CO2 or 11%, followed by all things fashion with 10% of all global emissions. These three industries alone amount to more than half of the total emissions worldwide.

It goes without saying that one man armies can amount to something if they work together. Even if it is in small ways: buy second hand, giving companies no incentive to produce more; buy loose tea because screw microplastics and added manufacturing materials; reduce meat intake to also reduce the industry’s necessity for various resources to produce it. Prompting for anything that is reusable is the first and foremost thing to do.

But if you’re already using reusable stuff—tea balls, rechargeable batteries, reusable bags, etc.—using less of something is the next step. Wash clothes in colder water, lower your monitor brightness (added bonus of not being blinded on the regular), set up automatic power-downs on your devices, and, one of the more surprising ones—download music instead of streaming it. All of this uses less resources to deliver and hence less electricity consumption. And hey, you save some bucks in the end!

It’s not all bad, though. Humanity has been moving towards eco-friendly alternatives for a while now—just not as fast as we’d hope for—but there is movement. Green architecture is pushing forward to meet new climate and energy generation requirements, recycling is expanding with plastics finding new (re)applications, electric vehicle propulsion is key in managing renewable energy. The list goes on and on. It’s not all sad, folks.

So, what are your thoughts on any of this? What do you do to make sure the planet doesn’t cleanse itself of us in violent ways? Share your thoughts and hacks in the comment section below.