(all photos in this post are not my own)Today is Blog Action Day. Over 15,000 bloggers from around the web are uniting to help bring the environment to the forefront of people's minds. Every blogger taking part has posted about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic with the aim being to get everyone talking towards a better future. You can view the list of blogs *here*.
So what am I going to post about? I gave this much thought. I considered posting about the Antarctic or about how our oil reserves are rapidly drying up, about carbon emissions, about some little animal somewhere that is about to pop out of existence without most of the world knwoing or caring, or how about the fact that many of us live in a throw-away society, or how about posting about Al Gore? I decided against all of these because quite frankly I'm not an expert in any of these. So, I thought I would write something from me, about how I believe we can all help the environment and why I think it is worth doing. My thoughts about this are very simple:
- We have one planet with a finite amount of resources available.
- Whatever we do, modern life means we will have an impact on the planet. It is up to us to minimise this.
- We can all do something. Even the smallest thing done by everyone can have a massive impact collectively.
- If we don't act more responsibly now, we may not be able to undo the harm we are causing.
This leaves me with an easy philosophy for anyone who might be interested:
- Try to re-use what you can or recycle. Think before you bin. Producing new things takes energy and resources.
- Carbon emissions are a fact of modern life. See what you can do to lessen them though, such as turning the heating down one degree, washing on a cooler cycle, turning the air con down, switching off a light when not in use, putting on a jumper before turning on the heating, insulating your home, insulating your hot water tank, thinking about the type of car you drive and it's mpg etc.
- If we all turn down our heating by one degree then collectively we save a lot of energy and perhaps even a bit of cash ourselves.
- I live on an island. If we don't all do something across the world, then I may need armbands and a rubber ring. The pretty photos you see on this post may not exist any more and many more animals and plants will be extinct.
My question is this: Is this really what we want? If the answer is 'no' then do something. I don't need to patronise you (and I hope I haven't) as I know you are all intelligent and caring people. Like the rain drop that jumped from the cloud to earth and ended a drought because the other rain drops followed, each one of us can make a difference. I really do believe it's the small things that can count. This is what I think of as a convenient truth. We can all do it and it really doesn't put us out that much.I have finished now. You can take my soap box away and I promise to be quiet for a bit.
