We often feel helpless in the fight against climate change. The challenges that our environment faces are so monumental that, as individuals, we feel powerless to do anything about it. When huge companies emit colossal amounts of dangerous emissions every day, and almost every facet of modern technology contributes to pollution, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that it's pointless for us even to try to address it. After all, you're just one person. How much difference can you possibly make when the rest of the world seems so hell-bent on destroying the planet?
While we understand that way of thinking, it isn’t helpful. Fighting against climate change and environmental harm is a collective responsibility rather than an individual one, but if enough individuals make small changes in their daily lives, the collective impact of those changes would be significant. By changing just a few things about the way you go about your day-to-day life and encouraging the people around you to do the same, you genuinely can have an effect – and the more people join in, the greater that effect will be! There are things that all of us could and should be doing, and these five examples are a great place to start.
Stop Using Printers
Technology can be the enemy of the environment, but it can also be its savior. We live in a digital world now. We don’t need hard copies of documents or information as much as we did ten years ago, and we’ll need them even less in the future. Even important contracts, like mortgages or tenancy agreements, can now be signed digitally as opposed to physically. Ask yourself if you really need a printer in your home, or if the document you’re about to print out could be sent as an email instead. On those rare occasions where you really do need to print something, print in black and white rather than color. The production of colored ink is more harmful than the production of black ink, and so the less of it we use, the better we’ll all be.
Unplug All Of Your Chargers
The charger problem was bad enough when the only gadgets in our home that needed charging were our phones. Now there are so many other things that might need charging, from Bluetooth speakers to vacuum cleaners. We have a tendency to leave our chargers plugged in somewhere convenient for when we next need them. Your phone charger might even be plugged in next to your bed right now. The whole time it's plugged in, it's consuming electricity that's going nowhere. Unplug everything until you need it, and then unplug it again as soon as your device is charged.
Stop Wrapping Gifts
While it might be fun to tear into a gift-wrapped present on Christmas Day, your birthday, or any other occasion when gifts are given, think about what happens next. The paper gets ripped and then thrown away, and then it goes straight into the trash. That’s not a great use of something that a tree died to provide you with. Use gift bags instead – you can re-use them over and over again. If you really must use wrapping paper, make sure you’re getting it from a place that can confirm it’s been ethically sourced, and ensure that you recycle it afterward. The amount of paper that gets wasted every day around the world is frightening.
Never Buy Single-Use Items
We have an excellent metaphor for single-use items. Because there are so many of them, we never see the harm in buying a single one here or there, but that's a deceptive way of thinking. Imagine you were at an online slots website spending money on the games there. The chances are that the first few times you place your bet and spin the reels of that online slots game, nothing will happen. You'll lose your money and then pay to spin again. Eventually – seemingly out of nowhere – the spin will go in your favor, and your chosen slots will provide you with the jackpot. When it does, it wasn't the single bet that brought you a win – it was the cumulative effect of all your bets. The same is true of single-use items. It isn't the ‘one-off' purchases you make that do harm; it's the cumulative effect over time. You tend to be happy when you get the payoff from an online slots game, though. Nobody will be happy with the cumulative effect of all those wasteful single-use bottles, wrappers, and other disposables – and by the time the effect is apparent, it will be far too late to do anything about it.
Stop Chewing Gum
Cigarettes aren't the only bad habit you might have that involves your mouth. Very few people know this, but chewing gum can be just as harmful. In this case, it doesn't harm your body (unless you swallow it) – it harms the environment. Chewing gum contains an alarming number of harmful ingredients, including synthetic rubber and even plastic in a few cases. Many big-name brands of chewing gum include polyvinyl acetate, which is a polymer. That substance isn't biodegradable, and so your discarded chewing gum sticks around for a long, long time after you're done chewing it. Think about how many people all over the world chew their way through multiple pieces of gum every day and then discard them carelessly. This is a huge issue and one that you don't want to contribute to. As with any habit, giving up on chewing gum isn't easy – but the good news is that you don't have to. It's possible to buy plastic-free chewing gum if you know where to look for it, so you can chew away to your heart’s content without having to worry about the consequences for the environment will be.
None of these changes are difficult to implement. They won't inconvenience you, and they don't require significant changes to your everyday routines. You don't have to miss out on anything or sacrifice any of the things that you enjoy in order to play your part in saving the environment – you just have to be a little more conscious of what you do and how you handle disposables. Anyone can do it – and that includes you, your friends, and your family. Make a few changes today, encourage the people around you to do the same, and we'll be one step closer to winning this battle!
