Our earth, home to more than 7 billion people, is now suffering from human activity and its excessiveness. Pollution of air, water, soil. Greenhouse gases. Climate change. The 6th continent of plastic. All these catastrophes are due to humans. The situation is getting worse and worse. According to the UNO annual environmental report of 2018, the world population only has until 2020 to react and act before the consequences of human activity become irreversible.
The truth is, much damage has been done and for some no solutions have been found yet; but for some others there are still solutions that we need to implement globally. And most importantly, we all need to work on to avoid worsening the situation of the planet.
First of all, awareness must be spread by everyone; people need to understand the depth of the situation. A general awareness is necessary to move forward. Then eventually individuals can start to act on their own. There are a lot of measures that can make a difference. Some simple, others which require going out of one’s comfort zone.
To begin with, we need to reduce our waste and especially single-use plastic which has terrible effects on the ocean, sea life and the earth in general. It might be hard to change habits but it’s necessary. We might also want to reconsider our shopping list and be more careful of the origin of the products we buy. Buying local is always better, for the economy and for the earth.
Here is the mantra of zero waste:
We also need to reduce drastically our meat consumption because of the impact it has on climate change. A kilo of meat takes 15,5 L of water to produce, which is an alarming number. The breeding of cattle causes a high rate of greenhouse gases and is also causing deforestation because the farmers need arable land to grow crops to feed the animals.
We also must pay close attention to our water consumption or else there won’t be enough fresh water for humanity, animals and nature in a few decades.
Little steps are encouraged in ecology because it is by starting with them that we can move forward and really make a difference. Don’t go vegan, just eat less meat. Don’t stop shopping for clothes, just buy from more sustainable brands or thrift shops. Don’t live a zero waste lifestyle, just cut out the plastic of your food packaging. And after a reasonable amount of time, you can start to implement more radical measures. It can be at your own pace but always remember that the earth is dying and we need to act.
(In such a limited format I can’t really explain more, but here is a short article from the Guardian that is really interesting to understand the stakes of ecology in our era if you want to know more)
You can also understand your impact on earth by doing a footprint test: https://www.wwf.ch/fr/vie-durable/calculateur-d-empreinte-ecologique
Romane Muller.
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