If you own a home or small business, you will likely be at risk for wind, hail, flood, and fire damage, and could possibly face multiple threats in the space of a single year. Though you might have insurance, damage will still cost you both directly and indirectly; it pays to be prepared, and in some cases your advance preparations could even lower your insurance costs.

One important thing to remember is that in times of crisis, you might not be the only person in need of assistance. The threat could be widespread across multiple counties, which means there could be hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people facing the same issue. In times like this, you might not be able to get your hands on the supplies you need or you might be without power. Upgrading your home of business under serene, sunny skies could mean the difference between life and death when the situation becomes dire.

Our daily existence depends on multiple interconnected systems, some natural, some manmade. Many of the manmade systems that govern housing and land development are geared toward maximizing profit and energy waste. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LEED for short, is a different way of thinking about building spaces and their environmental cost. From the materials used to the energy spent regulating indoor air temperature, even down to the cleaning products used and trash generated inside the building, LEED programs look at every way the construction, design, and use of a building impacts the surrounding environment.

Using the parameters in the LEED guides, homeowners and renters can save money on bills, reduce their impact on the environment, and even mitigate chronic health conditions like asthma and allergies. Some of the guidelines can be retroactively implemented in existing spaces, and every little bit helps, especially if a critical mass of people across the nation adopt these practices and mindsets.

For many of us, the land that surrounds us is almost completely developed. This means the contour of the land has likely been flattened or substantially graded, native species have been removed in favor of a lawn, concrete, or asphalt, and trees have been removed. The aftermath generally means that water will leave the property more quickly instead of sinking down into the ground and recharging the aquafer system. Birds, pollinators, and other mammals will become unable to survive in what is now a food desert, creating an opportunity for pests to thrive without natural predators. Without the shade nature provides, surfaces will absorb and retain more heat than normal, exacerbating water loss and increasing energy bills.

How many people do you know that have had allergies, asthma, cancer, strokes, heart attacks, emphysema, or other debilitating illnesses? Reducing emissions isn't about saving some endangered owl in a forest two thousand miles away, it's about saving us. Our bodies are seriously affected by pollution, and while polluters want you to believe they will go bankrupt if we demand the slightest bit of accountability from them, that doesn't mean we have to just go on suffering and going bankrupt ourselves over spiraling healthcare costs. Our demand is literally the only thing that will change emissions. Our demand for products and our demand for action.

You might think that the only way a carbon offset can be achieved is by some big corporate or government-sponsored project a thousand miles away, but the truth is that you can create a carbon sink in your very own backyard. Doing all the other things you've seen on this website and in a hundred other places to improve your immediate environment can also trap carbon back underground where it serves life instead of destroying it. Want to take a flight to the Caribbean? Include a carbon offset project in your budget that you can do in your own backyard or balcony. Plant a native berry-producing shrub in a corner spot, start a compost pile, reclaim a piece of lawn for wildflowers, or be the catalyst that makes this happen at work, school, church, or in a local public space.

This is a country of inventors, tinkerers, bootstrappers, and dreamers. Our new reality also brings with it great opportunity for new products, new methods, new ways to interact with the world that can make a difference. If something out there bothers you about the world, why can't you MacGuyver a solution instead of waiting for someone else to solve it? It might just change your entire life while saving the world. We need ways to clean the air, reduce the Heat Island Effect, reduce plastics in the foodchain and the ocean, improve soil quality, reduce food waste, plant more trees and perennials, the list goes on and on and the need is urgent.

If you have an idea or a new way to do something that reduces waste, energy consumption, or fills a need, now is the time. Rivers are running dry. People's homes are on fire, under water, or being blown to the ground. Pointing fingers or refusing to act because no solution is "perfect" is no longer a luxury we can afford.

Change is already here, there's no going back. There are still people disconnected from reality, engaging in nonsense on the airwaves, in halls of power, and even next door. We probably cannot help them, but we can help ourselves, our families, and our communities. There is so much within our power to change, but the willpower to change is what we all need most right now. Find one thing, just one little thing that you care about today, and see how many people in your sphere you can convince to change something locally with you, and then just get to work. One thing will lead to another. Perceptions will shift, consumer habits will shift, jobs will shift, industries will change, and we simple folk are the ones who have the ability to make that happen.