Earth Day 2019 – stop making excuses

Lifestyle

April 20, 2019

April 22, 2019, is Earth Day. As the years go on, it will get more important for us to recognize this day and take action. The earth is being and will continue to be, destroyed by us if nothing changes.

I’m sure the idea of environmental protection is not distant to you; our feeds seem to be filled with articles, photos, and videos regarding environmental protection, as awareness is spreading. We feel good if we follow an account who claims they create a product from recycled materials, but do we really know why they do this? Why it’s so important that we recycle? That we save water? Electricity? For most people, the answer is no. We feel fulfilled enough with the little scraps of information we get from the headlines about climate change and rising sea levels, but we don’t really know how this will impact us, and we don’t bother to do anything because we feel like we can’t make a difference. So we continue to live in our naive bubble, telling ourselves that we’re doing enough by watching others tackle environmental problems when all around us the earth is changing, and we can’t undo that change.

Planet earth is our home, and it has been for about 200,000 years. It gives us food, water, and shelter, but what do we give it in return? Nothing. Instead, we tear it apart day after day, destroying it, polluting it, just for our own needs. What gives us the authority to do this?

According to the UN Environmental Report, the earth is now at a turning point. We can turn back, change our habits, and move towards a ‘sustainable future’, or we can plow forward towards a ‘bleak future’. The earth is on course to increase 3 degrees Celsius in the next dozen years. Even if only 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming happens, it would threaten ecosystems, cause extreme weather events, the coral would die off, the Arctic region would be in danger, coastal flooding would increase, crop yields would decrease, and the health of living organisms would decrease. If the sea-levels rise, it would affect 10 million people and would present us with many environmental refugees. So why aren’t we doing much?

There are a huge number of people who are doing great things to protect the environment, but there aren’t enough. It’s a common mindset to think that, if we can’t make any difference by ourselves, so we shouldn’t even try. But these are issues which can’t be solved by just one person, the only way we can move forward in a sustainable manner is to see the world unite to protect this planet.

This earth day, I challenge YOU to go further than just putting your paper in the recycling bin or taking a shorter shower for one day. I urge you to make a regular sustainable change in your life. Don’t just do something because it’s earth day, do it every day! Don’t just watch others fight for the environment, do it yourself. This problem is urgent and it’s large, so make sure that your actions for change match this.

If you are interested in reading some more articles about sustainability, here is where I got my information from Source 1, Source 2, Source 3.

If you have anything to say on this issue please leave it in the comments section below, and don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

See you next week,

Little Miss Expat

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