Ten Personal Steps to Save the Planet

There are many things we need to do to move to sustainability and then beyond sustainability to once again being a productive part of the ecosystem.

I don't know how to make you want to take those steps, to simplify your life, reorient it to non physical goals, to embrace the wider world community of plants and animals, human and non human.

What I write here is for people who have decided they don't want to be part of the problem to start to turn that around. Help us turn our civilisation into something more positive and beautiful, here are my suggestions to get started. The order isn't important, an ethical life is a journey rather than a destination and the best place to start is anywhere.

Realise your power as an individual

Why people do not make those changes in their lives is a complicated issue, but I would like to speak briefly to one of them, our percieved powerlessness.

Our species is made up of individuals, so each of us as an individual has potentially as much power as any other. Money, force and wealth have for a long time ruled much of our world, but most of the people who have really changed the thinking of our civilisation have come from humble places. The power of ideas like democracy, equality, justice, have often proved greater than the forces which have tried to suppress them. No individual, however great has changed the world on their own, and if they had let that realisation stop them, much that is good in our world would have gone undone. Those we call "great" are individuals who often do no more than represent an idea whose time has come, their main power being as an emodiment of an ideal held by others. The true power to make change rested in the many they represented, individuals who in their schools, workplaces, families and other people they touched, showed a positive way forward. It is the sum total of individual actions, often small, that change the world, more powerfully than any speech or personal charisma.

Our every action, good or bad, ripples out into the world, in ways we cannot always easily perceive. Thinking otherwise may even be a convenient way to avoid the responsibility inherent in our powerful place in the world relative to every other creature who has ever lived, of the uncomfortable greatness that lies in each of us, that we try to suppress out of misguided self doubt. Releasing that which is within you is the only way, not only to save the world, but also to live true to ourselves. It is by taking that first conscious step, realising that you matter, that you become another being helping humanity to live out it's own potential as a positive, creative force in this world.

Understand the environmental history of our world

In these defeated urban environments and tamed agricultural lands in which the vast majority of humanity lives, it is easy to forget that most of our ancestors lived in what we now call wilderness, something they would not have needed a word for. The history which we are taught in our schools is usually the human story with anything beyond that being consigned to other disciplines. This is a history of great individuals and their supporting casts, without an understanding of the larger themes which shaped the cultures in which those individuals arose.

The setting for human evolution is obviously the evolutionary system in which we arose. Looking at our population rising and falling down through history, it is a direct consequence of our ability to grow food and the mass diseases which afflicted us, oh and there were also the Mongols. Not only our populations, but great civilisations have risen and fallen as they learnt to manipulate their environment to grow food, and then fell as their lack of understanding about that environment led them to degrade it to a point where it could no longer be sustained.

Moving into the modern era, we've learnt to manipulate the environment through technology, chemistry, biology etc.

Lower your private automobile and airplane usage

Burn fat not oil and use your own power where possible. Walk down to the shops and ride a bicycle on longer trips, its fun and helps tackle some of our others social problems, obesity and pollution. Basically you can look at the type of journey you need to take, short - walk, medium - bike/public transport/taxi, long - combination of public transport and bike. We can do without private transport, I've used public transport almost exclusively to get around for years, and it hasn't hampered my quality of life. If you need one you can also hire cars which will also save you the cost of a car, registration, maintenance and insurance, or of course you can borrow from/share with friends and family, perhaps working out a payment scheme. Then there is car sharing, work it out with your colleagues, a car with four people in it is close to four times as environmentally efficient as with one. The oil and automobile industries are also some of the largest corporations in the world, lobbying governments and supporting politicians obstructing a global response to climate change. Cut down the majority of your car usage and you've also made the world a little safer. Each year car accidents kill almost as many people as war and suicide combined. Pets and native animals are also killed in their millions. If you must have a car, don't become dependent on it, and the more fuel efficient the better. As for holidays, train journeys are amazing, I have good memories of my trips from London to Croatia, Barcelona and Munich for Octoberfest. You can take buses to all sorts of places and meet new people. Bike holidays can be great too, actually see places rather than hurtling past them. Finally if you need to fly or drive somewhere, set aside a small amount to offset the carbon emissions with one of the many schemes out there which buy forests and plant trees.

Use less energy

Instead of turning on the heater, put on a jumper. Theres a chinese proverb that says "Cut your wood yourself and it will warm you twice". Whenever buying household appliances, look for the various energy ratings, you will save money in the long run and chances are the company will be of better quality if they are up to date with these sort of issues. Turn off the lights, buy energy efficient light bulbs, insulate your home, and if you own your own home consider alternative forms of energy or subscribe to one of the nationwide greenpower schemes now being offered, for a couple of dollars a month it's the equivalent to taking a car off the road. There are plenty of guides online to making your home more energy efficient, so get searching. Finally a huge amount of energy is embedded in the manufacture of the products we buy, consuming less is the best way to reduce your energy footprint.

Consume less

Perhaps the super environmental message, getting people to reject the fact that they are defined by what they consume. Everything which is produced uses resources and energy, produces pollution, and there is of course the human energy that would be better spent elsewhere making it. For holidays and special occasions buy your friends experiences or virtual gifts, donate some money to their favourite charity, or probably the best of all - make them something. Then there is buying second hand, hiring instead of purchasing, buying well made things that last longer, mending things instead of replacing them, and also don't hoard things, if you aren't going to use something again give it to someone who will via a charity shop for instance. Plastic is one of the main things we consume and discard thoughtlessly. They are often are made using petroleum, and have all sorts of negative effects in their production well before they become or are wrapped around your products. Natural reusable items are usually of better quality. String/resuable bags are superior for carrying your shopping anyway and people like me will admire you when they see you in the supermarket. I have seen people buying a bag, and then asking for a bag to put it in. This is not only stupidity, it is destroying pieces of our world. If you find yourself using plastic cups at work, buy a mug, if you get plastic cutlery to have your lunch with everyday keep a fork in your bag. It's not only the materials and energy used in manufacture, even once they are put into your garbage fossil fuels are used to transport them to landfill. Finally consuming less meat is one of the best things you can do environmentally, and also one of the easiest.

Recycle everything you can

If we have to use plastics and such the least we can do is try to buy recyclable and biodegradable products and dispose of them appropriately. Start by putting a cardboard box in your kitchen or office to put your recyclables in. Recycling saves a lot of energy and also natural resources that don't have to be redrawn from the environment for no reason. There's also the landfill they save. As well you should purchase products made from recycled materials, we need to make sure there is a market for all that stuff we thoughtfully put in the bins. Do all your paper products have to be lily white? Our local supermarket has paper towels, writing pads and toilet paper, if yours doesn't why not shop around a bit. If you work in an office, try suggesting that they implement recycled paper, there are pristine white brands around now days so there's no reason not to, you can fill a separate printer with the new partially recycled papers for special printing jobs. Get creative with recycling too, but always remember that maintaining our levels of consumption and recycling more is just recycling the problem.

Reduce your output of toxins

There are many chemicals found in the human body that weren't there a century ago. We don't know what the effect of each of these is in isolation, much less in combinations with each other. There is also the effect these are having on the rest of our environment. Reducing your personal contribution to toxic chemicals in our environment is an important step. Use environmentally responsible chemicals around your house. Most of our water waste is just pumped straight into the sea, where it pollutes our marine environment, with evaporation meaning it ends up all through our ecological system. When you are spraying pesticides on some bug, ask yourself if you and your family are more at risk of the bugs or the pesticide you are spraying on it. Use biodegradable cleaning products. If you use a biodegradable washing detergent you can get a shallow square bucket for your dishes and throw the water on your plants or the lawn afterwards instead of wasting water by hosing it later. Also be careful about what is in many of the products you buy, many chemicals are there for colour, odour, shelf life, so things don't settle and we don't really know what they might be doing to us. Stop this experiment with our bodies and our ecosystem, reduce toxic chemicals where you can.

Use your consuming as a tool for change

Purchase ethical, renewable goods where possible, almost all the degradation of our environment is done for economic purposes. Hit them where it hurts, in their hip pocket, use the system to make your statement to people who might not understand any other appeals. Buy organic food where possible, they taste better and are better for you, they might cost more, but factor in the degradation of our world and they end up being a real bargain.

Use less animal products

People seem oblivious to the fact that animal farming is one of the top contributors to most of the major environmental problems we face. Land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution and the loss of biodiversity. Livestock such as cattle contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transport combined. The major cause of deforestation in places like the Amazon is cattle pasture, and much of the remaining is soy to feed cattle. For every kilo of meat a number of kilos of dung are produced which pollute water tables. The average meat eaters daily water footprint is over twice that of a vegan. To reduce the amount of meat you eat, start with learning how to make a really good veggie meal, then try a meat free day once a week, or commit to eating meat at only one meal each day, really once a week is about as much as the planet can sustain.

Be political

For a start vote green. Keep an eye out for ongoing environmental issues and lend your support, governments will always want their big projects to try to immortalise themselves and look important to their social groups, like dams and mines. We need flexible community support to pay attention to ongoing issues as they arise. When you become aware of issues that you find distressing, do something! Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper and to your local member of parliament, PM or anyone involved in the issue, you can bet the corporation making money out of destroying some piece of our natural heritage will be mobilising to do similar things. Also encourage others, friend, family, workmates. You don't have to badger people who aren't environmentally aware, just remind them of the ethical choice they don't want to think about. Make apathy something they have to work at and hopefully they will give up on it. Wear a t-shirt, put a sticker on your bike, say something kind to that person putting their shopping into a string bag, there are so many negative consumerist images around (thousands each day according to studies) we need to fill as much of the mental environment with positive messages as we can.

Grow your own

Start a compost heap or even grow a few organic herbs or vegies in the garden or in a pot on the windowsill, we don't need more landfill especially when it represents nutrients being leeched from soils in the countryside to end up as landfill in the cities. We don't need the packaging they represent, we don't need the fossil fuels burnt to bring you fruits in the middle of winter, we don't need the chemicals and genetic engineering to ensure they are presentable to you and we don't need water wasted on useless plants when you could plant something you will get many things from including aestethic pleasure. It has also been shown that growing food organically uses less greenhouse gas emissions due to those produced in the production of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, and if it's local there's less transport involved. Its part of being human to grow your own food it should be taught in schools in place of nationalism, I think you will be amazed by the pleasure you get out of such a simple thing.

Support environmental groups

Join a society, there are great societies doing positive things but they need the support of people like you and me. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Planet Ark, the World Wildlife Fund and Wilderness Societies around the world just to name a few (I have links to all of these). We need mass action to affect things like government legislation (most pollution and environmental damage is cause by corporations) and one of the best ways of doing this is to add support to organizations who are already in the front line. Although it may not seem much to you to pay a few dollars each month, at the very least you are one more person they can say they represent when they go into discussions with governments and corporations about environmental issues. Even better if you have time and inclination is to get involved yourself.

OK, so if you are someone who wants to be more environmentally conscious, but hasn't yet made any changes in their lifestyle, then the above list may seem daunting. So pick a couple and make it "just how you do things", recycling is a nice easy starting point, as is looking for ways you can cut down your consumption, or calling up your energy provider to enquire about green energy and the usually small cost involved (five minutes!). Ultimately the important thing is to add consideration for the environment to your thinking about your actions in life. Hopefully one day, this will be natural for everybody, and we will have a healthier, more beautiful world as a result. Hopefully you can help bring this evolutionary step for humanities future about sooner.