Climate change is a very serious thing that, unfortunately, has to deal with a lot of denial these days. Don't doubt, it's a real issue and the consequences of it are only getting worse each year. Learning about the scope of this problem can be overwhelming and trying to help is a daunting task.
Today I wanted to offer you a few ideas of little things you can do today that'll help reduce your carbon footprint and bring a deeper awareness of products that surround you.
Let's get into that.
Drive less. Very simple. If you have this option, choose walking/riding a bike. There are a lot of situations when we don't have to use our car, but we do anyway because it's more convenient. All I'm asking you to do is put away your car keys at any given opportunity. Not only will this lower your greenhouse gas emissions, but it will improve your health and save you some money, cause we all know how expensive petrol is.
Eat less meat. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that livestock actually does more damage than all of our transport combined. First of all, they produce a lot of methane. Secondly, the amount of water and food necessary to feed all of them is enormous. The majority of our fresh water and crops go to feeding livestock.
Food industries work really hard towards convincing everyone that you must consume meat and dairy products on a daily basis in order to be healthy. It's quite the contrary. Yes, we do need meat to survive, but certainly not every day. Really, one portion of red meat once or twice a month is more than enough. A few portions of fatty fish and an occasional chicken. You can probably ditch dairy altogether. The only ones who need milk are babies, adults will do just fine without it, that's why a lot of them are lactose intolerant.
I understand that changing your whole life in one day is not healthy nor sustainable, so, for now, I'm just suggesting you give up one portion of meat out of however many you normally have per week. Have one vegetarian day a week or simply replace it with fish. Fish is by far the healthiest option and has the lowest carbon footprint.
I strongly recommend you to check out the Mediterranean diet. I think at the moment it's one of the healthiest diets out there. It's balanced and it includes all of the things that are hard to give up like meat, fish and dairy.
Try not to waste any food. I think about the third of all of our food ends up being wasted. This means that all of the water that went into growing it, all of the lands cleared of vegetation for agriculture and all of the petrol that went into transporting it have been for nothing. Don't buy more than you need, freeze what you can't manage to eat right now but are planning on eating later and consume the oldest things first. You'll save some money and do something good for the world.
Just keep in mind that the less food you buy, the less they'll have to produce. This means that when people start buying only what they need and limit their meat consumption ever so slightly, the food industry will produce less of it, therefore wasting fewer resources, destroying fewer habitats and wasting fewer products.
Save water, gas and electricity. I think we've already established that being wasteful hurts our planet as well as your wallet. Wasting water is a bad idea considering we have a limited amount of it on our planet. Wasting electricity is a bad idea because of how it's generated. There are clean options like hydro, wind and solar power. However, the major sources of all of our electricity are: coal, natural gas and nuclear plants. The latter doesn't emit CO2 but does produce nuclear waste that just sits in a nuclear wasteland, because we haven't discovered a sustainable way to get rid of it.
Natural gas produces a lot of CO2 from what I understand, so overusing it is not a great idea. Propane, however, gets reffered to as the "green option" when it comes to heating systems, cooking and etc. However, in order to produce methane natural gas products must be processed and transported around, and I really doubt that those steps are "clean".
Turn off the lights when you leave the room, don't leave the TV on if you're not watching it, turn the water off when you're applying shampoo. Those are the little things that really add up.
My husband and I actually took it a step further - we save all the water from washing hands and showering and use it to flush the toilets. We ended up saving so much water that the bill we get charges us the obligatory minimum. We just don't make it above it.
Reduce, reuse and recycle.
Let's start with Reduce. You can go for options with less packaging or at the very least pick the ones that can be recycled afterwards. Don't use bags in the produce section, cashiers have no problem weighing it without them. Get yourself a reusable bag to put it all in after you're done with your shopping. We use a wooden box that we bring to every store, it's very spacious and it means that we've also reused a box that could have ended up in a trash bin. Going for coffee and have a travel mug? Asking to pour it into your own mug is actually cheaper than getting a disposable one (at least in convenient stores). Reuse everything that you can. Internet is full of ideas on that subject, so go crazy. You'd be surprised of how many creative projects you can do with otherwise useless things. Recycle whatever you can, although don't rely on it too much. The demand for it is lower by the day, which means that a lot of things that we think we're recycling actually end up being plain old trash.
Don't choose the "free two-day delivery" option. This contributes to inefficient transportation that results in a lot more used petrol than necessary. I won't get into a lot of detail, Vox did a great video on this. You can watch it right here if you want. All I'm saying is: do you really need that mug as soon as possible? Can't wait a few days? If it's not an emergency, don't use this option, even if it's free.
Support local businesses. Your greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered significantly if you go for things that are produced locally or as close to you as possible. Not only you support your town's economy, but also lower your carbon footprint.
Seasonal fruits and vegetables. This is basically an extension of the previous point. And it has a few more benefits in it for you. First of all, seasonal produce that's grown somewhere nearby, is much cheaper than imported goods. Also, since it doesn't have to go through days of transportation, it's harvested when it's much more mature, therefore you'll be getting more nutrients with your meals.
Research. I would really want you to not take anyone's word as the ultimate truth. People get their facts wrong, they get emotionally involved and often can't see straight. Myself included. So don't read another person's opinion and immediately make it your own. Question everything. Fact check. Evaluate. Make sure that the sources are reliable.
Also, new information gets discovered every day, so... Always, always research.
I hope, this article was helpful. If you are digging into this subject on your own free time to help our environment, you're doing a great job! Thank you. I have nothing but encouragment and mental hugs for you.
Have a great day, beautiful stranger.
Today I wanted to offer you a few ideas of little things you can do today that'll help reduce your carbon footprint and bring a deeper awareness of products that surround you.
Let's get into that.Drive less. Very simple. If you have this option, choose walking/riding a bike. There are a lot of situations when we don't have to use our car, but we do anyway because it's more convenient. All I'm asking you to do is put away your car keys at any given opportunity. Not only will this lower your greenhouse gas emissions, but it will improve your health and save you some money, cause we all know how expensive petrol is.
Eat less meat. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that livestock actually does more damage than all of our transport combined. First of all, they produce a lot of methane. Secondly, the amount of water and food necessary to feed all of them is enormous. The majority of our fresh water and crops go to feeding livestock.
Food industries work really hard towards convincing everyone that you must consume meat and dairy products on a daily basis in order to be healthy. It's quite the contrary. Yes, we do need meat to survive, but certainly not every day. Really, one portion of red meat once or twice a month is more than enough. A few portions of fatty fish and an occasional chicken. You can probably ditch dairy altogether. The only ones who need milk are babies, adults will do just fine without it, that's why a lot of them are lactose intolerant.
I understand that changing your whole life in one day is not healthy nor sustainable, so, for now, I'm just suggesting you give up one portion of meat out of however many you normally have per week. Have one vegetarian day a week or simply replace it with fish. Fish is by far the healthiest option and has the lowest carbon footprint.
I strongly recommend you to check out the Mediterranean diet. I think at the moment it's one of the healthiest diets out there. It's balanced and it includes all of the things that are hard to give up like meat, fish and dairy.
Try not to waste any food. I think about the third of all of our food ends up being wasted. This means that all of the water that went into growing it, all of the lands cleared of vegetation for agriculture and all of the petrol that went into transporting it have been for nothing. Don't buy more than you need, freeze what you can't manage to eat right now but are planning on eating later and consume the oldest things first. You'll save some money and do something good for the world.
Just keep in mind that the less food you buy, the less they'll have to produce. This means that when people start buying only what they need and limit their meat consumption ever so slightly, the food industry will produce less of it, therefore wasting fewer resources, destroying fewer habitats and wasting fewer products.
Save water, gas and electricity. I think we've already established that being wasteful hurts our planet as well as your wallet. Wasting water is a bad idea considering we have a limited amount of it on our planet. Wasting electricity is a bad idea because of how it's generated. There are clean options like hydro, wind and solar power. However, the major sources of all of our electricity are: coal, natural gas and nuclear plants. The latter doesn't emit CO2 but does produce nuclear waste that just sits in a nuclear wasteland, because we haven't discovered a sustainable way to get rid of it.
Natural gas produces a lot of CO2 from what I understand, so overusing it is not a great idea. Propane, however, gets reffered to as the "green option" when it comes to heating systems, cooking and etc. However, in order to produce methane natural gas products must be processed and transported around, and I really doubt that those steps are "clean".
Turn off the lights when you leave the room, don't leave the TV on if you're not watching it, turn the water off when you're applying shampoo. Those are the little things that really add up.
My husband and I actually took it a step further - we save all the water from washing hands and showering and use it to flush the toilets. We ended up saving so much water that the bill we get charges us the obligatory minimum. We just don't make it above it.
Reduce, reuse and recycle.
Let's start with Reduce. You can go for options with less packaging or at the very least pick the ones that can be recycled afterwards. Don't use bags in the produce section, cashiers have no problem weighing it without them. Get yourself a reusable bag to put it all in after you're done with your shopping. We use a wooden box that we bring to every store, it's very spacious and it means that we've also reused a box that could have ended up in a trash bin. Going for coffee and have a travel mug? Asking to pour it into your own mug is actually cheaper than getting a disposable one (at least in convenient stores). Reuse everything that you can. Internet is full of ideas on that subject, so go crazy. You'd be surprised of how many creative projects you can do with otherwise useless things. Recycle whatever you can, although don't rely on it too much. The demand for it is lower by the day, which means that a lot of things that we think we're recycling actually end up being plain old trash.
Don't choose the "free two-day delivery" option. This contributes to inefficient transportation that results in a lot more used petrol than necessary. I won't get into a lot of detail, Vox did a great video on this. You can watch it right here if you want. All I'm saying is: do you really need that mug as soon as possible? Can't wait a few days? If it's not an emergency, don't use this option, even if it's free.
Support local businesses. Your greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered significantly if you go for things that are produced locally or as close to you as possible. Not only you support your town's economy, but also lower your carbon footprint.
Seasonal fruits and vegetables. This is basically an extension of the previous point. And it has a few more benefits in it for you. First of all, seasonal produce that's grown somewhere nearby, is much cheaper than imported goods. Also, since it doesn't have to go through days of transportation, it's harvested when it's much more mature, therefore you'll be getting more nutrients with your meals.
Research. I would really want you to not take anyone's word as the ultimate truth. People get their facts wrong, they get emotionally involved and often can't see straight. Myself included. So don't read another person's opinion and immediately make it your own. Question everything. Fact check. Evaluate. Make sure that the sources are reliable.
Also, new information gets discovered every day, so... Always, always research.
I hope, this article was helpful. If you are digging into this subject on your own free time to help our environment, you're doing a great job! Thank you. I have nothing but encouragment and mental hugs for you.
Have a great day, beautiful stranger.
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