When it comes to big things, like voting in elections, raising money for something good, or fighting against climate change, you easily think how you can matter as a one person. But as individuals, we all have a huge role in everything. You, as well as all of us, should take small actions in our everyday life. So what exactly can you do?
Don’t waste your food
Approximately 1.3 billion tons – roughly one third of the food produced – gets wasted every year and its using 70% of our precious drinking water and taking space from the land; 28% of this space is used for the production of food that goes to waste.
Eat more meat-free meals
This is one of the issues that make people easily defensive. But concentrate on the idea to reduce your meat use, not to quit it. Producing meat is fueling climate change, polluting landscapes and waterways by creating greenhouse emissions, risks mass extinctions of other animals and pollutes our waters.
Shut down the lights
as well as another electronics when you are not using them. Change your light bulbs to energy-efficient ones, wash your clothes in shorter programs and with cold/warm water, not hot, and hang dry them, take shorter showers or shut the water once in a while… Small things on your everyday life you can effect to.
Take a bus
when it’s possible. Of course some cities and rural areas don’t have a good public transport, but when you can choose a better way to travel than your personal car – do it. Individual cars take space thus it leads to a traffic which causes air pollution. Public transport covers much more space than individual cars and is a road to less polluted cities.
Don’t trash
Harmless as it may sound, throwing your one cigarette butt or a package of the ice cream to the nature once in a while causes a huge problem when billions do it – it is affecting our environment. Cigarette butts for example, contain toxic substances, as well as other trash, and they will eventually be blown or washed into forests and waters like lakes and oceans to pollute the environment.
Don’t take the plastic bag
Get yourself a reducible bag or use the same many times – there’s nothing embarrassing when you pack your groceries to your own bag – and reducible bags are mostly also nicer to carry. You can weight your vegetables from the green market without plastic bags and put them to your own after. Plastic is one of the biggest problems in nature; when plastic finally breaks down, it causes trillions of plastic waste in land and oceans. It’s harmful for the sea life and pollutes the waters.
Reduce Reuse Recycle
When you are buying new clothes or stuff… Think if you really need it, will it be in long use and will it last. Reduce your not necessary needs, reuse everything when it’s possible and recycle as well as you can. All the countries haven’t develop yet a good system for sustainable recycling, but you can start by avoiding plastic packaging and find out what you can recycle in your country and creating reuse methods for your old materials.
Talk about it!
We all have to come together with this issue and work for it as a team. Take action, join climate strikes and conversations, vote in your elections for better leaders who are signed up for the change for the climate. You are a one drop in the ocean, but when all the single drops come together, it creates a clean sea.
Selina Niemi
Sources:
https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/top-10-ways-can-stop-climate-change/
http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/
https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/green-science/garbage_dump_in_the_middle/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/21/lifestyle-change-eat-less-meat-climate-change
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