The end of life as we know it?

A UN report published today is warning that we are facing an unprecedented ecological disaster. Flora and fauna are increasingly having their habit destroyed and diminished. We need an ecosystem that accommodates all plant and animal life including us as humans.
What are you doing personally to help save what is the only planet we have?

 

Humans are the worst

 

Absolutely! The apathy and don't give a fuck attitude is embarrassing to say the least. If everyone made some very small changes it would make a difference e.g. sort rubbish for recycling, walking on small journeys, use less power etc. It's not rocket science!

 

I dont know that it is that simple though.
Recycling, for example - a lot of items we recycle end up in a landfill anyways, and the things that are recycled require energy for the recycling process

So i've been making an effort lately to cut out plastic entirely instead, but that's a really, really difficult thing. Everything at the grocery store comes packaged in plastic. That is something that has to change at the systemic level, governments either need to ban plastic packaging and require grocery stores to find another way to package things, or grocery stores need to do this voluntarily (well,not the stores exactly but at the manufacturing/packaging level)

Thats just one example, people should do as much as they can at an individual level but I really think its going to require broad, sweeping action at a government level and cooperation between all the world's governments at this point. Drastic measures for drastic times

 

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I rarely use plastic bags, limit AC usage, often walk or take public transportation when I can and recycle.

Just answering the question though, certainly not a model for enviornmentalism. I'm pretty voracious when it comes to food and electronic consumption.

 

Do not believe everything the UN tries to tell you. Do your own research on the subject.

 

Shame on you !
You are make my a difference though!
Meliai, I know governments and corporations need to be held to account but collectively we must do what we can. It truly makes me sick that supermarkets are encouraging us to buy bags for life but are quite happy to only supply us with food that is packaged to within an inch of its life!

 

Research done! I have long been aware of the disasterous path that we are on re the earth am doing all I can to bring the problem to others. Frankly, anyone who does not believe that we .the human race, have blown it from an ecological standpoint is clearly delusional!

 

I'm also busy eliminating plastic from my life. Even if its only half the amount its already a big change on a years basis (you can actually see it easily on a weekly or monthly basis already though. Like how much slower your trashbin fills). And clearly a gigantic change if you look at everyones waste combined.
If you look at all the disposable plastic bottles and bags alone already and how regularly many people keep buying that shit... One person produces so much and unneccesary amounts of non degradable garbage that way. Inexcusable if one knows better.

This is why people who are convincingly arguing to not bother making individual changes are a big part of the problem. They're worse than the poor and/or oblivious slob stuck in a routine and with no possibility or choice to change.
It's obviously a combined effort of industry, governments AND (last but not least) consumers.

 

I just posted this in the plastic pollution thread but it seems worth mentioning here. I'm using these things for washing up now:



The scrubby things are very good and durable. No plastic. Loofah is cheap.

 

Parliament seals ban on throwaway plastics by 2021 | News | European Parliament

 

You mean for the dishes?

I noticed many people leave the tab running during that, instead of using that sink plug (what's that called in english anyway).

 

Yeah, the dishes.

 

I'm a polyester girl
Bombombom
A polyester girl

 

Why is everyone so surprised?

If the choice is man vs animal, man will prevail every time

If the choice is new home construction vs a series of rolling hills which can easily be flattened by a bulldozer, seaside encroachment on dune grass, or land-filling a bird sanctuary, the choice is clear.

 

I've thought many times there should be more than just a "like" option for a person's post.

There needs to be a laughing one, a love one, a mad one - and for this "terrible truth" post, Hotwater, I agree 100% and would choose a crying or sad option.

 

For some reason. no matter where you go on the internet to look for future projections of human population, there will always be some rationale, some excuse why humans wont follow similar growth patterns to every other living thing, including humans themselves in the past

And the human growth rate has always been around 0.8 - 1.1 % a year.

Means roughly we are headed for 50 billion people on the planet in 2500.......90 billion by the year 3000.....heading towards a trillion people within 12 thousand years

And its not just the trillion people on the planet in the year 14,019 a similar number would have lived and died and left garbage

Its likely most of what you put in your recycle bin now doesnt actually get recycled, and its not like everything can be recycled

You say don't give a fuck attitude is embarrasing, but can you name 5 everyday things you use that can never be recycled without googling?, I bet the answer is no. Tinfoil is one of those things. Most plastics will never fully biodegrade. Glass takes 100s of millions of years. Most paper cups and paper straws have plastic coatings. Its not like everything that ends up in landfill just magically goes away after time, the offrun from landfill has to be stored in drums for thousands of years

Whatever the 7.6 billion people on the planet throw away now that can never be recycled will just end up representing 0.3% of all the stuff that cant be recycled by the year 14,019

 

Offset by this, 96 million plastic balls to cover a reservoir in LA to protect human drinking water, so no one has to bother with the cost of an underground one....and has the added side effect of getting rid of all the birds that used to inhabit the area.....in a cement landscape that had already destroyed most of the other wildlife.....and this science guy gets excited about it

 

I'm not dismayed because I never felt for a minute that my choices would change anything.
But it still just feels good to be doing the "right" thing, even if it is totally pointless in the big picture.

I didn't watch the whole video, but based on what I did watch and what you said... yes, that sucks. Humans. What can ya do.