In light of all the awareness-raising efforts of encouraging people to do at least the minimum they can for the sake of a greener environment, feeling anxious about your future is only normal. You see the effects of the human hand and industries on nature every day, most of them impacting you daily more or less. High temperatures reached new peaks this summer, and there’s the daunting possibility that planet Earth will get 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer by the middle of the decade. Lakes and rivers are running dry, vector-borne diseases like Zika, dengue, and Lyme spread more quickly, allergies are more and more common, and sunburns more than ever.
So, are you inclined to believe in the power of example and culture change? Would you make a few tweaks knowing you’re joining forces with other green-minded individuals, but find it difficult to determine where to start? Keep reading – you may learn some tried-and-tested tips that help you green up your life and feel better in your skin.
The path to culture change
Climate change impacts everyone’s daily lives, and remaining complacent about a functional HVAC and some SPFs offer a false sense of illusory control is natural – and not to blame. Only when you realize that individual ambition is transformed into tactile action can you encourage a movement that trickles down to the bottom of the system, and you may feel some pressure or empowerment. Take voting, for instance. The cumulated actions of each and every individual coming from all walks of life could impact a generation’s well-being.
At the same time, building a day-by-day practice of becoming greener may reduce your anxiety and pressure about the future and the upcoming generations’ security. For reasons like these, a recently released mind-bending book receives a lot of media coverage and spotlight, teaching future-oriented individuals how to become greener by day by using eco-friendly cleaning products, buying groceries more mindfully, and prioritizing green food suppliers, among others.
The road to culture change is sprinkled with positive examples from ordinary people who are sick and tired of authorities’ empty words and lack of action. Market solutions and global policies may be actually put into practice and yield results if more individuals demonstrate they can make one or two lifestyle changes that won’t hurt their time or budget. Instead, these will reduce the pressuring feelings associated with your duty of care towards the environment.
Is there a point? Aren’t we too insignificant?
Why would you put in the effort of recycling your bottles and shifting to greener cotton pads if there are industries like cryptocurrency that pollute the environment to an extent that’s terrifying to acknowledge? One Bitcoin transaction was estimated to lead to the same carbon release as a trip from NY to Amsterdam two years ago. Yet, the number of adherents of this money transfer method rises as businesses increasingly introduce crypto as payment to unlock new client categories, making your eco-oriented efforts feel redundant. Now, you may have sensed an opportunity to carry some weight instead of being just another brick in the wall.
You can always discover what brands prioritize and neglect your environment’s security and personal welfare and decide to stay away from them. Did you hear that Coca-Cola pumped over 200K bottles per minute and could be held liable for a quarter of the trash and chemicals in the oceans? Therefore, you are free to decide if you’ll support the growth of mammoths associated with ecological destruction or lead by example and shift to other, less environmentally impactful providers.
For instance, future-oriented brands and businesses across all industries, including entertainment, restaurant, and medical systems, resort to budget- and eco-smart solutions to reduce the waste they release daily. Waste balers and compactors help these savvy participants make the best of both worlds, enjoying reduced on-site trash and a better reputation for getting rid of waste in ways that don’t impact the environment.
What it takes to build a regular habit of sustainability
Delving into ways to become more environmentally responsible, note that the talk is about anything but the eco-friendly cleaning products you should switch to or how you can stay away from greenwashing when buying clothes. At the end of the day, it’s all about the motivators that help you push through and how you perceive the whole movement. Do you believe authorities and political bodies have the most power to trigger change? What’s your take on individual accountability?
Before moving to tactile actions, finding your sour grapes is important. You may worry about the rising coffee prices due to increasingly worse weather and soil conditions that bear down upon crop yields. Or you can simply think of the legacy left behind and what type of ancestor you want to be, for you can help shape the environment-related behaviours of others. On the flip coin, like many others, you may find it revolting to denude natural resources in the search for money.
While simply sacrificing yourself isn’t a solution, and governments are the ones to lead change, you can make a difference by staying informed and well-intended. Reduce the activities that you feel like abusing of, such as car driving or meat consumption. Shift to last-minute appliances that consume less energy and come with reduced fees when the time to replace a tool comes.
Change how you look at nature
Your perception of the surroundings dictates how you treat it. Nature isn’t the legatee of potent climate action, but the generations to come. Natural, species-diverse ecosystems such as wetlands and forests take in more carbon released from the atmosphere, meaning that caring for and protecting the local biodiversity can make a significant difference.
Standing in nature helps you a lot and offers you the opportunity to contribute to numerous other individual efforts to improve the state of the earth. Make sure you’re not compromising the health of the already-green habitats you visit. If you have a courtyard or terrace, feel free to introduce low-maintenance plants that reduce the CO2 footprints and don’t require much time to care for.
What’s your take on the whole trend reasserting the individual’s power to contribute to culture change and sleep better at night knowing they’re ethical planet inhabitants?
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