Give and take, and take and take? #OneEarth #Water
<We have but one Earth to live in (well, at least until Elon Musk figures out Mars). How does what we do affect the Earth? For 3 days I want to reflect upon this as I go about my daily routines.> <60% of the human body is water. For 3 days, I intend to pay attention to this life-giving resource that we do not own or create yet use and abuse.>
Let me start with a profound statement. One that we know to be true, but never pay attention to — This Universe exists by virtue of constant give and take.
The sun burns itself to give us food; the food burns itself to give us energy; and the energy gives us the freedom to do as we please (really, it does!). If this be the case, then, it is only logical for us to question — what it is that we are to give and to whom? Great question for the philosophers! But what does it mean in our daily lives?
Quite simply, it means that we need to be mindful about this give-n-take ritual of the Universe as we go about taking and taking and taking from it! Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m a big believer of balance. And convenience. Who isn’t?! I love having running water. And the air conditioner. And the handy paper towels and electricity. And, oh, how did I forget, the freedom of disposable diapers. And everything else that modern society has granted us so graciously. But I also believe that we have a responsibility to make informed choices. And to be aware of the realities of modern conveniences. If an alternative exists, I’ll try it. If simple practices help the Earth, I’ll follow it.
What if we live our lives thinking about impact — not of our one action, but of that action repeated over and over, by millions like us. For example, that obnoxiously excessive packaging that arrived with your latest Amazon order is not going to make your breathing harder tomorrow. BUT scale this across the millions who are receiving obnoxiously excessive packaging with their Amazon orders and it sure will. Well, here’s the thing — ALL of us are more ALIKE than we realise. All of us are wasting bits of food, leaving lights on longer than required, ignoring the leaky faucets in our guest bathrooms, and not recycling obnoxiously excessive packaging that arrives with our Amazon orders.
And so I tried to spend the last 6 days trying to think about this very impact at scale. And here are the little things that made sense for me to practice, as a small way to help maintain the give-and-take ritual of this universe:
- Use less detergent/soap/shampoo etc — start with half of what you use today and see if that materially alters the results — keep titrating till it makes sense.
- Stop using products with Micro-beads — god knows if they clean our faces better, but they surely leave tons of non-biodegradable plastic in the water systems — stuff so small that treatment systems fail to filter them out and fishes think its food.
- Grow a garden, or pots of flowers — any greenery added to the world, is greenery added to the world.
- Reuse, repair, recycle — our grandmothers and mothers were great at reuse, repair and recycle. Sadly that culture is disappearing — fashions change every season, new software isn’t supported on old phones and repair shops are hard to find. We must collectively question, why?
- Use more stored water than running water — in my experience, less water gets used this way — it is easier to quantify the use and we automatically become more mindful of it. For example, in the kitchen, store water in few 1 litre bottles for use during cooking, washing food, drinking etc.
- Forget to turn on the geyser at times! — Ok this is just for fun; but yeah, showers are super quick and conserve water if you forget to turn on the geyser.
- Rinse the dishes as you leave them in the sink to wash later — dried out dishes will need lot more water and scrubbing.
- And many more already in practice at our house —close taps while brushing, use energy efficient lighting, reuse one-sided prints/papers, print two-sided ALWAYS, recycle electronic waste (for those in Bangalore, try this place) and so on.
I also believe that ‘Consuming Less’ is key to sustainable living. But this is a topic in itself. So I will leave my readers with this extreme approach to show whats possible.
And my new mantra, of course:
Every action has an impact. Be aware. Stay informed. Don’t go crazy!
PS: If you have other suggestions that can help us all, I would love to hear from you in the comments section. Thank you!
This blog is part of a series of blogs/tweets titled “My Month of Mindfulness”. A challenge to myself; an attempt to touch lives.
If you’d like to touch lives too, please consider contributing to my fundraiser here: NudgeNow
You can access the full series by following my Twitter handle.
