How to deal with climate change at a micro level

Is it such a stretch to envisage all our houses having mini solar, wind, and rainfall units that complement bigger changes undertaken by companies like the ESB, asks Joe Gill

I invested in a water butt last week. That’s a grandiose description of exchanging €30 for a container with a capacity for 70 litres. It’s also an anecdote about climate change, politics, and individual responsibility.

I connected the container to a drain pipe, at the back of the house, which captures water off two eaves in the roof. After a week, I had 70 litres of fresh rain water that was applied, for free, to the garden. Amid water hosepipe bans and alarmist headlines about the country facing a crisis, here I was, at a micro level, dealing with climate change.