i love you montreal protocol, i love you reducing cfcs in our atmosphere to reduce depletion of stratospheric ozone (“good ozone”), i love you people who choose more sustainable ways to travel (such as carpooling, public transport, biking, walking, etc) (ofc not everyone can do this, or do this all the time, this is not to shame people who drive) in order to reduce NOx emissions (which lead to tropospheric ozone (“bad ozone”) i love you planting native plants in yards to promote healthy local ecosystems and reducing invasive plants and animals (rather than grass monoculture) i love you cooling towers which reduce heat pollution in water bodies like the ocean (which harms organisms (like coral!!) i love you no till agriculture i love you integrated pest management i love you using organic fertilizer that returns nutrients to soils rather than chemical which strips it and leads to erosion i love you nuclear energy i love you air pollutant scrubbers i love you water treatment plant workers i love you all the windmills i see in illinois i love you compost programs and people who compost at home i love you upcycling i love you reusing things that would otherwise make it to a landfill i love you liners and leachate removal systems in municipal solid waste landfills that prevent toxic things from entering ground water in trash i love you EPA i love you national parks and conservatories i love you thrifting and second hand stores i love you ecosia (search engine alternative to google that doesn’t force ai upon you and plants trees with every search)
i love you things that aren’t perfect but are a step in the right direction toward environmental sustainability
reminder that while there are many things that individuals can do to make their lives more environmentally sustainable, it’s not all up to us.
the damage done to the planet by humans is not an individual person thing. it’s a global industrialization, government, corporation thing. so while yes!! please make the changes you can to your lifestyle to help the environment! know that it’s not all up to you either. you’re just a piece in the puzzle. making changes is incredible and should absolutely be done, but corporations and governments don’t step in to make changes too, because they are the biggest contributors.
but! some things that can be done in your every day life to be more sustainable!
- don’t use ai (this is the easiest one.)
- don’t leave lights on when you’re not using them
- take shorter showers (i’m bad at this 😭)
- reduce meat in your diet (i’m not saying go vegan or vegetarian if you don’t want to (im not) but meat offers less energy than plants for the same volume of food as its higher on the trophic pyramid (food chain) which divides by 10 at every level. eating more vegetables, fruits, & plants with less meat is more energy efficient)
- use more energy efficient transportation (some examples are walking, biking, using public transport (bus, train, etc), or carpooling (even though it’s still driving a private car, there’s less cars on the road if you’re driving together))
- reduce, reuse, recycle (in that order. they’re in that order because that’s the order most to least energy efficient)
- plant native plants in your yard (this is both much prettier than grass lawns and requires far less maintenance because the plants are meant to grow there (do research on native plants in your area) it also has the benefit of reducing non native insects in your yard which can carry diseases (like ticks)
i have so much more i could say but i won’t say it here. i think i might create a blog dedicated to environmental science and sustainability :)
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