What Easy Everyday Steps can People take to Save our Planet?
The future of our planet is in danger. You’ve most probably heard this before, but our planet is getting hot… really hot, so hot that the earth’s atmosphere is being destroyed, which leads to heat waves, droughts, intense rainstorms, and dangerous floods. These changes in earth’s climate are directly caused by humans. When toxic greenhouse gases are released, they trap heat in the atmosphere. This leads to overheating of the planet and harmful long term changes in earth’s average weather patterns such as stronger storms. If we really want to decrease climate change by decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases being released into our atmosphere, we should find small and easy ways to decrease climate change by incorporating some easy solutions into our everyday lives.
That may sound easier said than done, but it’s actually very effective in the long run and even has some health benefits. For a while now, we’ve learned about the many causes of climate change and what makes it worse. While a lot of people disagree and most people are not aware, meat and dairy consumption plays a huge role in the increase of climate change. Meat and dairy accounts for around 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “The global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, planes, trains and ships combined” (Carrington 1). “More than half of food emissions come from animal products and half of all farmed animal emissions come from beef and lamb” (Harrabin 3). Imagine how soon we could save our planet if we took the right steps. Becoming Vegan or cutting down on your meat and dairy consumption could be one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. People should definitely reduce the amount of animal products they consume for the sake of our planet and the human race. We can all make this change for a better tomorrow.
Another effective and easy way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to stop wasting food. Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to waste your food? It’s time to listen to their advice. When food is wasted, all the energy and water it took to harvest, grow, transport and package it is wasted as well. When the wasted food gets thrown in the landfill and rots, it produces methane which is a greenhouse gas that is even more harmful than carbon dioxide. This eventually gets released into the atmosphere which contributes to global warming and climate change. “Educating consumers about food waste could prevent 2.3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.” (“Fight Climate Change”). Did you know that if our country reduced food waste by about 15 percent, that would feed 25 million more people every year and around 40 percent of our food is wasted? We need to find solutions to prevent food waste such as storing certain foods in the freezer so it can be kept longer instead of being thrown away. Keeping track of expiration dates on food is another easy and effective way to avoid food waste. People should definitely try to only buy what they need and start thinking wisely about how much to serve themselves so food doesn’t go to waste. They can start by planning their grocery lists ahead of time and avoiding unnecessary purchases. While many people would disagree, these are habits that will ultimately contribute to saving our planet and should be practiced every single day.
Look around, most of what you see is there because a human being once thought of it and made it a reality. We are very much capable of achieving great things such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately getting rid of climate change. There are small easy ways that people can make a difference everyday. The reality is that we have let climate change get out of control and we have been seeing the consequences for a while now. We need to take responsibility in our own lives and commit to making small daily changes to fix this issue. After all, we are the reason climate change has gotten so bad and we are destroying our own planet with our actions. It’s our responsibility to fix this.
Works Cited
Carrington, Damian. “Eating Less Meat Essential to Curb Climate Change, Says Report.”Ourworld.unu.edu, United Nations University, 5 Dec. 2014, ourworld.unu.edu/en/eating-less-meat-essential-to-curb-climate-change-says-report. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020
Harrabin, Roger. “Plant-based diet can fight climate change — UN.” Bbc.com, BBC News, 8 Aug. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49238749. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020
“Fight climate change by preventing food waste.” Worldwildlife.org, Worldwildlife fund, www.worldwildlife.org/stories/fight-climate-change-by-preventing-food-waste. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020
