Why it’s important to take action
The environment is the reason we have clean water, medicines, clothing, fossil fuels etc. The regulation of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere helps to reduce effects of global warming and climate change. These natural resources in our environment not only promote human survival on Earth, but they also enhance the living conditions of people. That is why it’s really important that we do everything we can to spread awareness and help preserve our environment. There are many simple yet effective tasks that we can all do to help our earth.
Educate Yourself
Congratulations! You’ve already taken the first step to helping our environment by choosing to read this article and educate yourself on how you can help the environment! Knowing what’s happening to our earth and how we as humans contribute to that is really important. If we don’t identify the problem we can’t find an effective solution.
Conserve Energy/Unplug Your Chargers
This is pretty self explanatory and super easy to do. Make sure to not leave lights on in rooms or areas you aren’t in because it wastes energy. When lights or cords are plugged in they still use a small amount of energy. When you can, make sure to unplug those cords and turn off the lights. To create electricity, many power plants burn coal, crude oil or other fossil fuels. Although this is relatively inexpensive, our planet pays the price. Things like Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are just a couple of the byproducts that come from creating energy. Releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is very bad for the environment.
Ditch Plastic and Invest in Reusable Items
Did you know that by the year 2050 the amount of plastic in our oceans will outweigh the amount of fish? Did you know that 90% of plastic bottles aren’t recycled? Plastic is listed as the number one threat to our marine ecosystems and takes on average 450 years to decompose. This will and is severely damaging our oceans, which is why investing in reusable items instead of plastic is a good and an easy way to help. Metal straws, reusable cups and reusable forks and spoons are totally worth investing in and you can take them with you wherever you go!
Switch Your Primary Search Engine
Although it doesn’t seem like it would make much of a difference, switching your search engine can be beneficial. Search engines like Ecosia strive to help the environment by planting trees around the world. This is extremely important because we need trees to survive! They use their profits to plant trees that benefit people, the environment, and local economies and their servers run on 200% renewable energy. It is a relatively simple and easy switch from your primary search engine to Ecosia. You should try it out!
Shop Second Hand
According to The United Nations Climate Change, “the fashion industry produces about 20% of global waste water. Furthermore, 85% of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated when most of these materials could be reused.” Fashion may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about what harms our environment, but it definitely plays a big role. Shops like Forever 21, H&M, Urban Outfitters (for the most part any big clothing shop you can think of) fall into the category of fast fashion. Fast fashion is the rapid mass production of super cheap clothing. Although the pricing may be low, the environmental costs of fast fashion are extremely high. That’s why shopping at thrift stores or second hand stores is more beneficial to the environment. There are many perks of shopping at thrift stores other than helping the environment such as low pricing and unique styles. You can shop at thrift stores and still get the same low prices as fast fashion but without all the pollution!
Your Diet
There are a lot of things that cause pollution on our earth including animal agriculture. Livestock accounts for an estimated nine percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, 35 to 40 percent of global methane emissions, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions, which in simpler terms means a whole lot of pollution. Furthermore, 83% of farmland is also used to raise those animals and if more of that farmland was used to grow crops for humans, then more people could be fed at less of an expense to the planet. I’m almost positive you have heard of vegan and vegetarian diets. As a refresher, a vegan diet is when you don’t eat any animal or animal by products and a vegetarian diet is when you don’t eat any meat. I’m not suggesting a full vegan or vegetarian diet because that can be a massive adjustment. Some ideas on how to start include meatless Mondays, eating pasta instead of meat, or you can try to eat one vegan meal a week. You can still make a big difference by only eating one vegan or vegetarian meal a week and maybe you’ll enjoy it and go completely plant-based! Don’t be afraid to try new things and keep an open mind!
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