Examples of modern environmental protecting | Where to start.

1 Dec

environmentalist

noun

1. a person who is concerned about protecting the environment. "the environmentalist movement"

Being in nature

Understanding the natural world comes from experience and spending more time cultivating a relationship with our natural habitat. This is whats makes us more aware of the challenges and issues the different eco-systems are up against... just like we tidy our houses, its nice to clean up as we admire.

Taking care of our car and electronics

One day I would like to buy a car thats powered by the sun but until then, looking after our cars and making them last as long as we can is very good for the environment. I've had mine since I was 19 and I absolutely adore it, nearly ten years on. It's faded now but it does exactly what it should. By buying second hand cars and refurbished electronics we help to lesson the load heading (sometimes offshore) to landfill. I haven't bought a new phone since 2010 but have thrifted and opted for second hand ones instead, its also much cheaper.

Avoiding animal agriculture

(Seriously!?)...Animal agriculture is one of the leading cause to climate change...

My favourite two chefs are Pick Up Limes and The Minimalist Baker, as they make plant based options very simple and encouraging. You don't need to live by any guidelines and become strict about anything, a great place to start is meatless Monday :)

Also if you haven't tried tinned young green jackfruit as a meat replacement, i'd recommend.

Opting out of synthetic living

This isn't just avoiding single use plastics. Living naturally sounds weird but so many of the things we do are not natural anymore. Whenever we wash our synthetic clothes (that's nearly all our active wear), tiny micro plastics are being sent out to sea from our washing machines and endangering our marine life and oceans. If we stopped and compared our modern lives with to the likes of our great grand parents, I think we would be surprised at how removed we are from what is natural.

A note on permaculture, a few years ago i'd stopped long enough to have a place that I could grow my own veggie garden but something I hadn't considered happened...I formed a connection to the growing process itself. It felt instinctively natural to plant, grow and harvest my own veggies and it was a turning point in my zero-waste direction. If you still don't think you have the green thumb check out Indiara Naidoo's tiny balcony garden.

Living with Intention

So many of us say we love the environment but don't know how to match that with our actions. It comes down to intention. If we live with the intention to place less harm on the environment then we will. We will spend the time to research and become selective about what we purchase, knowing the true cost of our stuff. If we are living in harmony with our habitat (and understand the breadth of our impacts) then in my opinion we begin to live our lives rather than them living us. My story as an environmentalist began when I realised that if the life I wanted didn't exist yet then I would have to live it into existence.