It’s hard not to have escaped the news footage of the wild fires raging in Australia, the pleas to go plastic free as our oceans struggle or the climate protests which took place around the country last year.

Climate change is a real threat to our lives and although we are unlikely to be able to stop it altogether we can help slow it down.

Small changes can make a big difference and that is what we are urging our readers to do as part of our national # Do1Thing campaign .

It’s not about changing your entire lifestyle, it’s simply about making one small change that could reduce your carbon footprint and impact on the environment.

When I looked through our list of 50 changes I realised I was already doing many of them but there was one that made perfect sense to me.

#Do1Thing: Tackling climate change in Berkshire

The people of Berkshire are all facing the critical issue of climate change, and we want to do something about it. 

BerkshireLive is asking you, our loyal readers, to #Do1Thing to help the environment this year.

We don’t expect you to make colossal changes to your life, but this list of 50 ideas will make a massive difference to our future if we work collectively.

BerkshireLive will be getting involved too, plus we’ll be publishing interesting and important stories about local issues and climate heroes. 

Want to get involved? Share your efforts with the hashtag #Do1thing on Twitter or Facebook - we’d love to see!

Alternatively, if you have a fantastic story you want to share about how you’re saving the planet, give us a message on our Facebook page.

Working in Reading town centre I am fully aware of the huge number of cars on the roads and the hours drivers spend stuck, their engines idling, on the IDR and surrounding roads.

I drive to work every day and every day I sit in the same jam, see the same drivers doing the same thing and wonder how long will it take me today?

My five mile journey can take anything from 16 minutes (during the school holidays) to an hour or more on a really bad day, but usually it’s about 40 minutes.

I already drive a hybrid, which uses both fuel and electricity, but it's not enough, traffic is a huge issue in Reading, Berkshire and I'm contributing to it.

BerkshireLive published Lucy Thorne will be driving less for #Do1Thing

So I will be committing to driving less, whether it’s working from home, sharing a lift or hopping on my bike or public transport, I’m going to try to get out of the car.

And not just on work days, at home I’ll ditch the car when possible, walking to the shop and for the school run.

And fingers crossed it will have the added bonus of keeping me fit and improving my wellbeing too.

I’m hoping that you will all take a look 50 ideas and join me in #Do1Thing to make a change.

More than four million people read our website last month, so if all of them chose to #Do1Thing to help the environment we could all make a big impact.

By making one small change we could all make a huge difference.

This can be as simple as using our online calculator to find out what your carbon footprint is below.

 

Download the Berkshire Live app

You can get the latest news for Berkshire straight to your mobile or tablet when you download the free BerkshireLive app. 

Keep up with breaking news, traffic and travel updates and what’s on from across the county plus unrivalled Reading FC coverage.

You can sign up to receive push notifications, which means you'll always be the first to know what's happening in the area.

You can find it for Apple devices here and Android devices here.