Today officially starts Autumn, but it feels more like a humid summer. Our planet is warming up at an alarming rate and, the truth is, we can’t just say climate change is happening and leave it at that and not do anything about it and go on with our lives as if it doesn’t affect us. Failing to act to save our planet, even when we believe in climate change, does not make us any different from someone who is denying this fact. At the end of the day, the consequences are the same. Ever since the beginning, our planet has gone through a few climate changes, only that the last time was 7,000 years ago. The current climate change we are experiencing right now is happing at an unprecedented rate, and 95% is as a result of human activities. What are you willing to do to preserve our planet? What steps are you taking to reduce your footprint in our ecosystem? If as mothers, we can’t even answer our children’s questions about why our planet is changing, how are we ever going to face them in the future if we fail to act?
Evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming… Global sea levels rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the previous century and is accelerating slightly every year… source.
If you prefer to ignore the daily evidence that pervades our news or you don’t believe in global warming, then why not stand for a better future in general. Why being opposed to cleaner water, better air, and to preserving our biodiversity? Why being opposed to a better future for our children? There is no losing in fighting to better our planet. With the worst global emergency in front of us, and having politicians that fail daily, we as individuals continue to act as if this was not a common issue as if others should do something instead of doing something ourselves. It comes naturally to think this is political or partisan, but it’s not. This is about individual actions.
All and mayor movements started with an individual. MLK Jr. led the American civil rights movement to end racial segregation and discrimination, and many other social and global improvement began with a single individual. Until our world leaders decide to stop fossil fuel companies from polluting our planet, until world leaders start taking the necessary actions to slow the warming of our planet, we should do what we can as individuals because the world population is 7.7 billion so yes, our individual actions matter a lot.
How can we adjust our daily lives to do our part? By being conscious about everything we do and choosing our steps with higher awareness. Below are straightforward steps we all can start taking today.
Pay attention to the food we buy- how were they produced? How far were they transported?
Search about the industries and their practices.
Eat less meat.
Buy local.
Buy less.
Reuse more.
Drive less, walk more.
Purchase your clothes from ethically and conscious brands.
Know who to vote for.
Replace the toxic cleaning product for more environmentally alternative ones.
Go paperless whenever you can.
Plant a tree.
Conserve water.
Don’t buy canned and boxed food to keep for months and then discard when they are expired.
Be more like Europeans and buy from local markets, or if you don’t have those close to you, then buy daily what you’ll eat that day. If it sounds too tedious, then buy every two or three days.
Never use plastic bags. That includes the produce bags in your supermarket. Why do we feel the need to put every little piece of cilantro in a small bag and then wrap it up with a twist tie? All those things end up in our landfill. It’s a waste. If we take our grocery shopping bags with us, why not take smaller reusable bags for our veggies also?
Here are 50 More Ways To Save The Planet.
This article that talks about how extreme weather due to climate change displaced more than a million people in this case as a result of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 is both terrifying and awakening. This other article about America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys is also a must-read. We as humans usually don’t realize the reality of the situation until it’s too late. Our lives are too pretty, too lovely, too precious for us to change it or for us to focus on other external things. I would love to just worry about making things pretty around me, but what use does it have if we first don’t make sure the preservation of our only planet is secured? You can’t decorate if we have no planet in a habitable condition.
