Climate Change is Negatively Impacting Our Health: Here’s What You Can Do to Help

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As climate change causes environmental destruction all around the world, our health is being impacted in hazardous ways. The rising annual temperatures and incessant droughts in the west are causing wildfires to occur earlier and last longer than ever before. The fires result in poor air quality, which affects our respiratory health and restricts our time spent outdoors. The increase in temperatures in the summer impacts those sensitive to extreme heat, such as the elderly and children, causing heat stroke and dehydration.

Due to warmer temperatures in the winter seasons, insects which carry infectious diseases that should lay dormant during the colder months have a shorter hibernation period. With more infrequent days hitting freezing temperatures, areas that once saw snow in the winter are experiencing wetter, rainy winters — causing pest population numbers to increase. This has led to widespread infections across the globe, circulated by mosquitos, ticks, fleas, and other pests.

Although the impact of climate change can seem daunting, feel empowered in your ability to initiate positive change by focusing on what you are able to do within your own life. Reducing our environmental impact occurs at a personal level — our consumption habits, our day-to-day practices, and overall lifestyle choices.

Bringing it Home

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Being faced with the negative effects of climate change, you may feel compelled to seek out solutions. We only have so much control as to how far our efforts can reach. Take the time to evaluate your own home and integrate positive practices to reduce your environmental impact.

Heating and cooling our homes can be a significant source of our individual carbon emissions. As the weather outside becomes colder, installing an eco-friendly fireplace can be a great way to keep yourself warm while staying environmentally conscious. You can still feel nice and cozy next to a fire, however, you will not be burning firewood, therefore reducing the amount of toxic particulate matter that you are emitting into the atmosphere.

There are many common occurrences in our life where we generate an unnecessary amount of waste. Moving into a new place is one of them — try your best to avoid plastic packing materials, rent an eco-friendly moving truck, and donate unwanted items rather than send them to the landfill.

Another is the annual gift giving of holidays — between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, Americans’ waste generation increases by 25 percent. Mailed packages and wrapping paper generates a significant amount of waste that can be reduced by either reusing last year’s wrapping paper or simply reusing last week’s newspaper. You can guarantee the outward appearance of the package won’t ruin the surprise.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

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It may sound obvious, but attempt to look at your everyday life when applying the 3 R’s. It seems as though reducing plastic waste and recycling are done mostly in our home kitchens and our food purchasing habits.

Our consumption habits have a negative impact on marine life, where a large amount of our plastic waste has found its way into their digestive tracts. Small plastic particles moving in the ocean look and smell like potential food that attract sea birds and aquatic animals.

On your next trip to the grocery store, try one of the following:

• If shopping at a small grocery store, such as your local co-op, bring your own storage jars to purchase bulk items as a means of avoiding using plastic bags. Have your containers weighed by the clerk before filling them so the container’s weight can be subtracted from your food purchase.
• Skip the plastic produce bags when buying your fruits and veggies. Simply put them in your cart or basket and make sure to wash them before consuming. For smaller items, like green beans or brussel sprouts, bring reusable produce bags or reuse ones that you have brought home before.
• Rinse and reuse ziploc bags. These are not meant to be a single-use item. You can make or purchase a drying rack specifically for plastic bags of all kinds. The longer you use them, the longer they stay out of the landfill.
• If you haven’t already, purchase reusable grocery bags and get in the habit of keeping them in your car. Just do it.

Plant-based Diet

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Just one person making changes in their own personal life is capable of making dramatic changes to climate change. A recent study has shown that at humanity’s current consumption rate of meat, greenhouse gases caused by livestock could grow by 32 percent over the next 30 years.

If the masses made the transition to a plant-based diet, that number could be curtailed dramatically. It is important to identify that plant-based and vegetarian diets are not the same. Try implementing an “80/20” rule. Attempt to have 80 percent of the food you consume to be meat-free. That change alone could have dramatic impacts on the environment and your health.

Plant-based diets are proven to increase the health of your digestional tract, increase your metabolism, and even help regulate your sleep cycle. To break yourself in gradually, try switching to vegetarian meals twice a day, with the third meal of your choice including a meat of your choice. Gradually, you may even start to cut meat out of your diet entirely. We may not have a choice in the matter, naturally, as unstable growing conditions for soy and barley occur due to increased CO2 levels cause food shortages, leading to the need to shut down livestock farming due to lack of feed.

Don’t feel discouraged when you read about the detrimental state of the environment. Focus on what it is that you can control in your own life and make the choices that will help you to sleep better at night. Encourage your loved ones to join in your personal war on climate change and feel the power in numbers.