Sim Bilal relies exclusively on public transit -- no easy feat in car-centric Los Angeles -- uses refurbished tech and lives in an apartment with solar panels.
As world leaders prepare to meet for crunch COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates next month, some environmentally-conscious Americans are demonstrating it's possible to rein in their carbon emissions, aligning their actions with their values in a country where such lifestyle choices are rare.
"When we are inundated with a lot of climate doomsday news, it can be really difficult to feel we have something to ground us," Sivaraman told AFP.
"What is so powerful about living a sustainable life or committing ourselves to zero waste living practices is that it gives us that sense of hope, because it reclaims our power."
Living on opposite ends of the country, both young men work as environmental activists and have carbon footprints of three to four tons per year, according to self-reported estimates generated by carbonfootprint.com.
That's well below the average Americans' annual footprint of around 15 tons, which is roughly three times the global average.
On a brisk autumn day, Sivaraman brings his compost to a local community garden, unlocks a sorting bin, and begins placing leftover vegan hotdogs, paper plates and other biodegradables inside.
"This was from a party at my friend's animal refuge the other day," the 28-year-old, who works in communications for the nonprofit Earthjustice, says, covering the pile with the dry brown waste to aid in the decomposition process.
After six months, the nutrient-rich soil is used in the neighboring plots to help tomatoes, cilantro and other vegetables grow.
"Composting diverts organic waste out of landfills," he explains, and because it decomposes in the presence of oxygen, it produces far less climate-impacting methane. It also helps foster a sense of common purpose and community, he adds.
- Thrifting and skating -
Bilal, 21, got his first taste of direct action last year after disrupting the LA mayoral debates, making local news as he led demands for candidates to release their climate action plans.
"This is the number one problem for my generation," he told AFP. He now organizes for the California Green New Deal coalition and Youth Climate strike in Los Angeles.
Though getting a driver's license is a rite of passage for US teens, Bilal decided when he turned 16 the climate cost was too great to bear.
When he's not riding the LA Metro or taking intercity trains, he can be found on his One Wheel: a self-balancing electric skateboard he finds essential for the last mile in a city where public transport can be lacking.
The clothes he's wearing during a video interview are four years old and his iPad is a five-year-old model that he recently had repaired after cracking its screen, instead of buying a new one -- measures that embody his philosophy of buying less, and buying to last.
"It is hard because some things look really cool -- maybe you want to jump on a trend, but for me it's not worth the cost," he adds.
Sivaraman -- who also participates in direct action with the Sunrise Movement and was arrested for the first time in September at the Federal Reserve building in New York -- said his health and wellbeing had only improved since he made more climate-aware choices.
The idea that weaning off fossil fuels would cause people to have "miserable, sad lives" is a "very effective PR tactic" pushed by the industry, he said.
"Across the board -- health, emotional happiness, financially... There's so many benefits to living a zero waste, sustainable life, and I'm living proof that's the case."
Ten key moments in the climate change fight
Paris (AFP) Oct 29, 2023 -
Ahead of UN climate talks in Dubai from November 30, here are 10 key dates in the battle against global warming.
- 1988: Alarm bells -
Alerted by scientists to signs that the Earth's surface was warming, in 1988 the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to investigate.
Two years later, the panel reported that heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases generated by human activity were on the rise and could intensify planetary warming.
In a series of studies, evidence accumulated that human activities -- voracious burning of coal, oil and gas; rainforest logging; and destructive farming practices -- were heating the Earth's surface, a prelude to disruptions of its climate system.
- 1992: Earth Summit -
An "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 created the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with the aim of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Since 1995, so called "Conferences of the Parties", or COPs, have been meeting to pursue that elusive goal.
- 1997: Kyoto Protocol -
In 1997, nations agreed in Kyoto, Japan, on a 2008-2012 timeframe for industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels.
Developing countries, including China, India and Brazil, were not required to take on binding targets.
But in 2001, the United States, at the time the world's biggest carbon emitter, refused to ratify the protocol, which took effect in 2005.
- 2007: Nobel prize -
The IPCC reported in 2007 that evidence of global warming was now "unequivocal" and that extreme weather events would probably multiply.
In October 2007, the UN panel shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore for their efforts in raising the alarm about climate change.
- 2009: Copenhagen collapse -
Participants at the COP15 gathering in Copenhagen failed to achieve an agreement for the post-2012 period.
Several dozen major emitters, including China and the United States, announced a goal of limiting global temperature increases to two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels but were vague on how the goal was to be reached.
- 2015: Breakthrough in Paris -
In December 2015, nearly every nation on Earth committed to limit warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
A more ambitious cap of 1.5 Celsius is also adopted as the preferred target.
- 2018: Greta Thunberg -
In 2018, Swedish teen Greta Thunberg started skipping school on Fridays to sit outside the Swedish parliament, demanding more substantive action to combat climate change.
Despite ending her Friday protests in 2023 after graduating, her protest inspired students worldwide to skip class each Friday in a bid for more efforts from global leaders.
- 2022: Record emissions -
In 2022, the International Energy Agency reported that global CO2 emissions would hit an annual record.
But at a COP27 meeting that year in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, participants failed to agree on more ambitious emissions cuts.
- 2022: Biodiversity deal -
An accord on biodiversity is reached in Montreal in December 2022, calling for the designation of 30 percent of the planet's land and oceans as protected zones by 2030, and an end of extinctions of threatened species due to human activities.
- 2023: New warning -
The United Nations warned that despite efforts so far, the world would see its first full year at 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s.
According to the European Union's climate observatory Copernicus, global temperatures in the summer of 2023 were the hottest ever registered.
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