25 April 2015

VEDA Day 22 - Earth Day

Hello there happy little people,

Happy Earth Day!

Today is April 22nd which marks the anniversary of the start of the modern environmental movement. For anyone who has no clue what Earth Day is I am going to give a little brief history.

The founder of Earth Day is Gaylord Nelson. After seeing just how much damage the oil spill in Santa Barbara, California caused Nelson wanted to make a change. At the time there was a very large student anti-war movement which inspired Nelson. He thought if he could gain the same passion towards environmental issues he would surely be able to make a difference. After promoting his new idea, he managed to have a demonstration on the 22nd of April of 20 million Americans. And since then Earth Day campaigns have been very successful. It even lead to the creation of The Environmental Protection Agency which allowed for Clean Air, Endangered Species and Clean Water acts to be passed.

Now what really gets me is how some people don't care. They don't care about the magnificent planet we have been so lucky with having the chance to live on. They don't care about other species purely because "They aren't as intelligent". They don't care about the rainforest and trees that we need to be able to breathe. How can you not care about the main thing that is keeping us alive, giving us life and has supplied us with everything we needed since we were tiny little micro-organisms.

I hate when I drive past fields and the edges are lined with crisp packets and plastic bags and bottles that people were too lazy to hold onto. It makes me so upset when the pavement is littered with cigarette buts, sweet wrappers and chewing gum because people didn't care enough to walk a couple of feet to a bin. And I have got mad and had arguments with friends when they have dropped litter on purpose because it is just such a lazy and horrific thing to do. I may be a little too passionate about it but because it is such a little, simple thing to fix and not do, it drives me crazy when people do it.

For me, the Earth is so incredibly important. My main goal in life is to travel and see the world. I know that everyone says that when they are young and, lets face it, it is quite unlikely to happen, but that is all I want to do. I'm not one whose goal is to get married, have kids, settle down, work day in day out. Maybe one day that will happen but what I want to do is to live. And for me, that means travelling. I want to see all the wonders of this planet, the northern lights, the mountains, the rainforest, the diversity of the animal kingdom. I think this planet is such a wonderful and gorgeous planet and most people will never have the opportunity to see it for themselves. My biggest passion is the world we live in and I find it so difficult to understand who wouldn't want to save such a beautiful place and all the beautiful things on it.

So if you are like me and want to help the world be a little bit nicer and allow our generations to live on it a little longer, here are a few things you could do to help:

  • Eat a little less meat - Meat actually increases the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. In fact, it actually generates almost one fifth of greenhouses gases. This is increasing the rate of climate change (whether you believe its happening or not, it's certainly not helping the atmosphere) and it is actually more than what transport produces. Meat also uses a heck of a lot of water. It is estimated that the amount of water used is between 1,800 and 2,500 gallons of water just to go into a single pound of beef. And as if that wasn't enough, 50% of corn in America is used just on feeding the livestock. I know one campaign (not sure where or who it was started by) is Meatless Mondays. I know quite a few people who take part in this and it is pretty self explanatory. It is a great way to cut back on meat if you are fond of meat as it is only one day a week. Which doesn't sound a lot but when you add it up, it counts for a lot.  I, myself, don't eat red meat at all. This is partly due to its environmental issues, the slaughterhouse issues and the fact that actually, I don't like the taste very much. 
  • Compost - Composting can be a fun way for kids to get involved in helping the planet a little and, to be honest, I would find it quite fun too. If you compost regularly you could actually decrease your waste by 25%. And if you don't think just that is reason enough, you can also get rid of (most) smelly food waste into your compost bin immediately. The kinds of things you can put in are categorised in two ways, Green Stuff and Brown Stuff. Green Stuff can include weeds, green leaves, grass cuttings, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and tea leaves (which includes the tea bags they come in!). Brown Stuff can include dead leaves, dead plants or weeds, sawdust straw and hay (which is very useful if you own small animals like me) and old flowers. And at the end of it you have a fantasticly fertile compost you can use for growing pretty plants and maybe a tree or two around your garden.
  • Use Plastic Less - Now as I already mentioned I have a strong passion against litter. The worst thing about plastic however is that it is not biodegradable. Instead of degrading like paper, wood or any other organic materials, plastic just breaks into smaller pieces as the years go by. This is extremely dangerous as animals can mistake small pieces of plastic as food and die from choking or digestion problems. The biggest issue is when it gets into the ocean as transparent or shiny pieces of plastic can be far easier to mistake as a fish. Every single year over 1 million birds and 100,000 marine animals die from eating the plastic. The ways you can help with this is to not use plastic bags as much. This is quite easily done in Scotland as they have just introduced a law that you have to charge customers 5p to buy a bag. Which doesn't sound that much but having to stop and be asked if you need a bag and have to pay for it, allows you to stop and think long enough to think about whether you really need a bag for what you are buying. I certainly haven't bought nearly the same amount of plastic bags I would have taken if they were free since that law has passed. Another very easy way to help this is to use re-usable bags such as canvas bags. I certainly do this but also they are far more useful. How many times has your plastic bag split when you have been carrying heavy things? In a canvas bag that is far less likely to happen and you can easily smoosh them into your school bag, hand bag, rucksack or whatever.
So even though those things seem small and quite meaningless, they are helping. You don't have to protest or do some crazy campaign to help. Just like I was saying last time, every little piece of the puzzle will add up to help a lot in the long run. 

I hope I have given you a few ideas on what you can do and have encouraged you to go and find out a little bit more about what you can do to help. 

I hope you are having a wonderful day,

Hev xx


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XweA07JB8RM


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