So I haven't written on here for a while but the last few weeks something has been frustrating me more than usual. Climate change, the polar bears, they way we use plastic, and well the list could go on but you probably get the point.
Then to top this, last night I watched blue planet II on BBC, it was the final episode of the season and I have to admit I haven't watched any other episodes because well, we just don't watch much TV in my house. You have probably heard of this, especially if you live in England, with the 13 million viewers in the UK, smashing X-factor viewings over the past few weeks.
So it is obviously about the planet, mostly about our oceans. The one I watched last night was called 'Our Blue Planet' and it was the 7th and last episode of the series. David Attenborough takes us through a journey to uncover the impact our modern lives are having on our waters, home to all our friendly (or not so friendly creatures).
The message you take home from this is obvious: we are ruining our marine ecosystems, we are killing our corals, polluting our waters and eliminating creatures that have been on earth for centuries. We are the ones doing that. Us. And the solution to stop it is pretty simple in fact. Climate change, despite what Trump may say, exists, it is also a phenomenon that can be easily reversed by reducing our carbon footprint, that's right, just by reducing our CO2 emissions we would help protect this wonderful world only a few have had the opportunity to experiment themselves to come back and tell us the story about what is down there. I guarantee you though that if you watch it, you will go the sleep wanting to save the world, more than you might already.
Did you know we produce around 300 million tons of plastics a year? Did you know half of that is used for single use purposes? Maybe not. But I bet you did know that more than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year. Of course you did. But what if you think about that number as the equivalent in numbers of elephants. That's about 1.777.777 elephants. (I say elephants but it could also be 8 million small cars). It's a big number and yet we all seem to be aware of how much plastic we use and how little we do to stop it.
Ask yourselves: Do you buy plastic bags when your at the supermarket? Do you often purchase a plastic bottle of water from a supermarket? Do you often check how much extra packaging something you bought at the shops has? Do you recycle this?
Plastic is cheap, it's convenient and incredibly versatile. It is ideal for many applications and super useful for many things but this also means that it is a problem for the environment. I'm not here to tell you what to do or not to do. Just simply ranting on about how this is frustrating me.
Even in the most remote parts of the world, there is plastic waste. There is no escaping it. The animals have no escaping it.
Another major threat all this brings is the melting of the ice caps. Some scientists predict the Artic could be ice free by as early as 2020 if we do not change our habits fast. So maybe this year when you're thinking of your new years resolution, it could just be something simple you commit to doing to prevent this from happening and helping one of the most endangered species in the North Pole, the polar bear. It is thought there are just 26.000 of them left. (estimation of course). The polar bear had no other animal predator than the human (and the odd act of cannibalism where one attacks the other). We are doing this to them. We are melting their homes. Two thirds of the polar bear population could be gone within the next 30 years. You can visit polarbearinternational.org to get real life images of how much ice we have melted over the years.
What can you do to reduce the impact your life is having on these ecosystems? There are so many things we can do that take us less than a minute to do and if we all did this together we can rebuild the natural beauty of our waters, reduce the acidity that is killing off the corals and prevent further pollution to our planet.
You can greatly reduce your energy consumption by turning off the lights, using wood instead of coal, walk, bike or carpool, buy local or try growing your own foods, use renewable energy, buy a good water bottle and refill it as much as you want, eat less meat (at least red meat to reduce the produce of methane), walk along the beach or the park and pick up a few bits of plastic you see. Also, learn from where your food is coming from, whether or not it is sustainable fishing or farming. Choose organic.
And most importantly; recycle, reduce and reuse. 
Source: abc.net.au
Source: Francis Pérez
Source: green-mom.com
Source: Google sites
Comments
Post a Comment