10 Ways To Save The Environment
Photo of Save the Earth sign on green background by Artem Podrez on Pexels
Updated 2024.07.24. This post contains affiliate links and Useful Roots will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.
Right now, the planet is going through what some experts call the sixth mass extinction event of Earth’s history. According to the World Wildlife Fund, a mass extinction event is:
“a short period of geological time in which a high percentage of biodiversity, or distinct species—bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates—dies out.”
Currently, experts’ estimate that extinction is 3-80% too high and caused by human activities - economic, technological, agricultural.
Mass extinction matters because no species exists alone. We are part of their environment. We depend on other species to thrive and they depend on us. We are interconnected with and interdependent on all living things.
The good news is there are many things we can do to slow down human activities causing detriment to other species and the environment they live in. We can create healthier environments for the species left to protect.
Below are 10 tips you can use to save the environment and those within it:
Photo of Save the Earth and love the Earth signs on rocky outcropping by Ron Lach from Pexels with text overlay 10 Ways To Save The Environment
1. Choose Non-Toxic
Using COSDNA.com or EWG’s chemical checker as tools, analyze the ingredients for the health and personal care products you need, then choose the most non toxic product available.
For example, if one of the ingredient analyzers above shows the product or an ingredient in it is “level 7” toxicity, see if you can find an equivalent one with a lower toxicity level. With a bit of cross comparison, you can.
2. Save Water
3. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Whenever you’re about to consume something, ask:
Do I already have something like it that’s still usable?
Can I reuse a similar item I already have to solve the same problem?
Can I repurpose something for the task?
By reducing your consumption of goods, you reduce the amount of environmental destruction from harvesting the raw materials required to create what you’re consuming and the waste the Earth must absorb.
4. Buy Local
Buying locally saves fuel, packaging, time and money. With lower fuel consumption, less packaging used, lower transportation cost to deliver items, the product you consume uses less of Earth’s resources than it does to produce the same goods, but from farther away.
5. Shop Secondhand
Check out your local thrift store. Shopping secondhand reuses goods, saves items from the landfill and prevents the use of raw materials needed to create new things.
6. Share Items
Rather than creating demand for a new product for a rare project, consider asking those you know if they have the item for you to borrow. Sharing items decreases the demand for raw materials and resources being harvested from the environment to create something new.
7. Decide Your Travel Routes And Methods Mindfully
What is the most eco-friendly way to get from point A to B? Is it a bike? Is it bundling trips? Is it switching up your route to be more fuel efficient?
Think about how you get to places. As fuel consumption is part of your carbon emissions budget, monitoring your travel can decrease your carbon footprint.
8. Make Your Purchases Count
Overall, needing and buying fewer things helps conserve the habitats where raw materials are harvested. When you do buy something, research the company. Notice if they are using environmentally friendly processes and ingredients that are healthier for the environment.
Use your money to vote by buying more eco-friendly products from companies whose goals are making the positive changes you seek.
9. Create Some Wildlife Habitat
The environment and all within it, depend on a diverse habitat. The more ecosystem diversity you have, the more robust your local environment tends to be.
Set aside some outdoor space for nature. Plant bee-friendly plants. Leave dead trees in a log pile for insects to break down and small creatures to hide in. Consider berry-producing bushes for your winter cover.
10. Minimize Your Need For Single Use Plastics
More than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year. Plastics don’t decompose and they can end up in waterways, where they negatively affect water bird populations via entanglement and consumption.
Drink from reusable water bottles. Pack your snacks in reusable containers.
Photo of love the Earth and Save the Earth (image) signs on sandy beach by Ron Lach on Pexels
All in all, you can’t always control the actions of large industries or agriculture, but you can control the actions you take. Individual actions taken by one person, repeated many times over, do add up.
These are some of the ways you can benefit the environment and protect the vitality of other species living in it.
So, scroll back through the tips above. Which one will you implement?
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