One of the things that baffles me most in this world is peoples ignorance towards the Earth. I used to be one of these people and I’m not ashamed to say it. These days I’m doing every little thing I can to save the planet for future generations. I don’t see why as human beings we wouldn’t want to help protect the planet we live on, our home and in turn, allow the future people of our world to live a life as amazing as ours too.

The climate.

Okay, so let me give you a little bit of context into what’s happening currently on Earth.

Since the late 19th century, the global temperature average has risen by 1.6 Celsius. This may not seem like much, but it’s things such as one degree that can highly impact the glaciers in Antarctica and the North Pole. It’s also these slight temperature changes which can cause higher dehydration for many animals due to less water being able to be found in drier climates such as the desert.

Water absorbs heat and this is true for our oceans too and as touched upon, the ice mass. Between 1993 and 2016, 286 billions of tons of ice were lost from Greenland PER YEAR. For Antarctica, this was 127 billions, this is very very scary.

Due to the above, the sea levels are rising. In the last century it’s rose by around 8 inches and for countries close to sea level, this is an immediate and very real threat.

Thanks to climate change this can cause many different extreme weathers which I think we can all agree we’ve experienced. From mad rain fall causing floods, to thunderstorms destroying homes and forests, wild fires in places of high population, draughts and crazy storms which now have names so we can ‘follow their journey’ this is all things I don’t remember happening when I was a kid. I appreciate I wouldn’t have been old enough to understand but I feel we hear about new storms or weather extremes on a monthly basis at least.

It’s little things.

Now no, one single person isn’t able to change the world but there’s so many little steps we can take ourselves that may not seem like much, but if millions of people do it, it’ll have one hell of a big impact on the world and the climate.

So here’s some things you can do;

• Decline a straw, use a paper one or take your own reusable one
• Take a reusable cup if you’re going to a coffee shop or cafe (I appreciate this isn’t always doable in the current circumstances, but when we’re able to, be sure to think about it)
• Use a ‘bag for life’ and where possible, decline a plastic bag
• Eat less meat and other animal derived products. Animal agriculture is a cause of a lot of methane gas, deforestation and beyond, see more on this here: Save our Planet.
• Use power saving or renewable energy. Use energy saving light bulbs in your home, don’t leave lights on if you’re not in the room and if you’re able, look into power such as solar panels to supply your home’s energy.
• Think about how you travel. Are you able to walk there? Just do it. Or even think about getting a push bike to help you get from a to b. If you’re able, can you use public transport or car share with others?
• Avoid fast fashion! The production of clothes contributes to the world’s emissions and due to fast fashion, many clothes are disregarded after a few months or even a couple of years of use. If not sold to someone else, they simply go into landfill and due to the plastic content of many clothing items, that where they’ll stay for many years to come.

By doing the above, these are some number facts on what could happen;

• In the UK alone, 1.75 billion single use plastic bags are used each year
• In England alone, it’s estimated that 4.7 billion plastic straws are used a year
• If everyone in the US went vegan for one day, this would save 100 billion gallons of water and greenhouse gas emissions would reduce by 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide.
• An estimated £140 million worth (around 350,000 tonnes) of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year.
• An energy saving lightbulb of around 9 watts can produce as much light as a 60 watt bulb.

Think about the little things, they can make a big difference.

Love, always – B
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