Living greener isn’t just some political stance you take to brag to all your friends. Living greener is a complete lifestyle! It’s something you have to be aware of all the time, otherwise, you may simply just be doing certain things in a greener way, but not actually living a greener life.
Let’s take an example of an average person who works a standard office job. They get up nice and early to get ready for the day. Get dressed in their ethically made clothes, and don’t leave the sink on while brushing their teeth! All is looking great so far.
Maybe they even finish getting ready a bit early and have a round of poker on Grande Vegas casino login before they head out for work. Everything is going swell, and one could feel rather good about themselves so far.
Now this person has to commute to work. They can either walk, ride a bike, take a bus, or drive. In this case, let us say it wouldn’t be to big a deal for any of the options, but walking would take the longest.
However, this person decides to drive. Every single day. To and from work. This, of course, burns gasoline. And the more people who choose to drive rather than bus or bike only multiplies the amount of gasoline they burn. No matter how we slice it, cars do have an environmental impact.
Think about it, one bus can hold, say, thirty people in it. Now imagine if all those thirty people were driving their own cars rather than taking the bus together. Not only does it increase car emissions, it increases the amount of traffic and congestion on the road, meaning more cars are running for long, burning more fuel.
Sure, some of these issues can be mitigated depending on what kind of car you have, but I think my general point still stands. Little choices we make in our lives can have really big impacts on how good we are for the planet. Maybe not on a personal level, but once you start scaling that up to a whole city full of people, it can be humongous differences.
With all of that said, without further ado, here are some tips, tricks, and pointers to help you live a cleaner, greener lifestyle!
Turn off the shower
Water waste is a big problem even in modern and wealthy countries. As many might know, there have been lots of drought issues in places such as California.
Having habits to conserve water are a great place to start your journey of living more environmentally friendly. Not only is it easy, it literally costs you nothing! More than that, you could actually save some money! (According to some sources, it could be tens of dollars a year depending on water and electricity costs!)
So, one big thing you can do to save water is to turn it off when you aren’t using it. This means, when you aren’t actually using the shower’s water to rinse yourself off, just turn the faucet off.
When you are soaping yourself up, or if you shave in the shower, or whatever else, you aren’t using the water for anything other than it feels nice to be under the warm (Or suppose cool in the summer) water.
So, turn it off for a bit! Every minute the shower is on uses 2.5 gallons of water or about 9.5 liters! So, taking that shaving example, if it takes you 5 minutes to shave, you just sent about 10 gallons of water straight down the drain.
On the flip side, by simply turning the shower off, you just saved 10 gallons of water. If we say that the average person needs 2 liters of water per day, you just saved enough water to stay hydrated for nearly a week.
Bus ain’t so bad
Yeah, I know. Riding public transport, pardon my french, sucks. It can be crowded, and noisy, it usually won’t bring you exactly where you need to go, and it’s overall not as comfortable as being alone, or close to alone, in your own car.
However, as I mentioned above in the introduction, riding the bus will simply always be better from a technical standpoint than driving a car. It means there are fewer vehicles on the road, which theoretically should mean that there is less pollution and less traffic.
However, this can only be a reality if everyone decides to pitch in and do their own share. This would mean a significant amount of people switching from a car to public transport. Now, I doubt this is ever going to happen, but I feel I have to put the word out. Personal vehicles are worse for everyone except in specific situations. They increase pollution and traffic meaning everyone just gets to go nowhere faster and they can’t even enjoy some fresh air while they wait.
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Take what you need
I can’t describe how sad it is to see whole plates of food dumped in the garbage. Entire bagels full of cream cheese and veggies. Meats, snacks, pieces of bread, or whatever other dishes you can think of. In modern society, the amount of food we throw away is insane.
Needless to say, in our modern lifestyles, we are used to excessive consumption. Even before we get to the side of wasting food, how many times have you sat down to eat a meal, and left feeling like you are going to explode?
Have you ever really felt like you ate just the right amount, and you were satisfied? Not hungry, but not bursting? Okay, probably. But that doesn’t change the fact that many people when given the option will eat way more than they should.
These two habits, overeating and wasting food, are bad from many directions. Not only are you hurting the environment by participating in an ever-growing system that has been known to be a major cause of deforestation and the general shrinking of habitats globally, but you are also just hurting yourself.
And even if we want to put aside the negative health effects of obesity such as heart disease and cancer, you just feel really icky! Full, and generally like you want nothing more than to have not just eaten a double cheeseburger with fries and a drink.
Now, don’t think I am just ragging on people who eat meat. Vegans and vegetarians or whatever other diet you subscribe to can also lead to overeating.
Environmental effects can also be linked to just about everyone. Deforestation can be linked to making pasture land for cow grazing, and there are those who would argue that droughts in California can be linked to the increased demand for alternative milks, especially, almond milk.
However, I digress from my main point. At the end of the day, the only thing we can all do to help is our little bit that adds up. If that means even just making sure we eat all our veggies and try our best not to throw away food, that is already a huge step towards a greener life. Remember, you don’t have to fix the world all by yourself. We have a lot of hands to pitch in.