Humanity and Its Impact on the Environment
Environmentally Friendly Lifestyles
By Jacob Hardyman
What exactly are environmentally friendly lifestyles? Environmentally friendly, or eco-friendly, lifestyles are ways of living that support the planet and its inhabitants. These forms of living usually originate from learning how destructive some industries are to the world around us and how easily we can contribute. Eco-friendly lifestyles aim to change this on a personal level. It’s easy to underestimate the power of one person’s actions towards change but eco-friendly lifestyles are becoming more popular and more easily accessible. When there are enough people that care, change is imminent.
Vegan Diets
To live a vegan lifestyle is to rid all animal products from your diet. There are various reasons why one would choose to eat a plant-based diet rather than eating animal products. This diet is not only good for you but also for the planet. Most industries that produce animal products take a toll on the environment. While our population has only doubled since the 60s, meat production has quadrupled. These industries contribute towards the climate crisis, deforestation, pollution, water scarcity, and animal cruelty [1]. This lifestyle is a healthy way to help the world.
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Minimalism
Minimalism is a form of lifestyle where you own few material possessions. From kitchenware to clothing, to electronics. It’s a concept where you use what you have and don’t buy things you don’t need. This is an eco-friendly lifestyle because it opposes the overconsumption of material items and produces less waste as a result. The United Kingdom alone generated 221 million tons of waste in 2016 [2]. Most of this waste will linger upon this world for generations after us. Minimalism is a terrific way to free yourself from having too much stuff and to send less to landfills.
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Zero Waste
The zero-waste lifestyle consists of attempting to generate no rubbish or waste, recycle or repurpose what items you can, and compost the rest. Some zero wasters will only produce enough rubbish in a year to fill one mason jar. This type of lifestyle advocates for moving away from the consumption of earth’s resources and towards a more circular bio-based economy [3]. This type of economy is one that runs off of renewable resources instead of non-renewables like fossil fuels. Zero wasting is not an easy lifestyle to peruse while living in consumerist societies. Once you start minimizing your waste, it’ll be hard to stop.
Advocacy
Advocacy is arguably the greatest form of eco-friendly lifestyles out there. To advocate for the wellbeing of our planet by spreading information, educating, and volunteering. Now more than ever, it is important that we understand how our lives impact the world around us. If our societies continue to consume our natural resources at its current pace, the world’s future will suffer from resource depletion and irreversible damage to its biosphere [4]. This can only be prevented if changes are made. The advocacy lifestyle is one of great potential for the future of mankind.
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A Green Future is Possible With You
Not every person has the capability of being completely self-sustainable, nor have the means of owning an electric car or have the land to have a compost bin in the backyard. Not everyone wants to be a minimalist, or a vegetarian, or a climate activist. And that is okay. Everyone’s situation varies and we all have different opportunities in life. Every effort and action made makes a difference. It is important to be proud of any and all actions you have made to become more eco-friendly. For every piece of rubbish, you pick up off the ground, every yes to paper and no to plastic, and every item you use and reuse again is a step towards a healthier planet.
References:
[1] Stern, D.I. and Kaufmann, R.K. (2014). ‘Anthropogenic and Natural Causes of Climate Change’, Climatic change, 122(1), pg. 257-269
[2] GOV.UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. (2014). UK Statistics on Waste [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data (Accessed: 09/03/2021)
[3] Arevalo-Gallegos, A., Ahmad, Z., Asgher, M., Parra-Saldivar, R. and Iqbal, H.M. (2017). ‘Lignocellulose: a Sustainable Material to Produce Value-Added Products with a Zero Waste Approach—a Review’, International journal of biological macromolecules 99, pg. 308-318
[4] Boyden, S and Dovers, S. (1992) ‘Natural-resource consumption and its environmental impacts in the Western world’ Impacts of increasing per capita consumption, Ambio[HS1] 21(1), pg. 63–69
Image Sources:
[1] Thomas, Stocksy, 2020. Plan based diet. [online] Available: https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/scientific-benefits-following-plant-based-diet/
[2] Okazaki, 2016. Years’ worth of trash. [online] Available at: https://www.today.com/home/woman-hasn-t-thrown-anything-away-3-years-she-s-t87641
[3] Saidi, Reuters, 2016. A mountain of trash in Lebanon. [online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-companies-issued-517-billion-in-debt-2016-5?r=US&IR=T