Sustainability
Thrift Booking and the Environmental Impact of Print Books
For as long as I can remember, I have never had an issue with “hand-me-down” clothes or clothes bought at a thrift shop. Not because I was thinking about the environment, but because I hate shopping. If someone gave me clothes that they no longer wanted or needed, I was ecstatic. They were new to me and free and I didn’t even have to leave my house to get them. As I entered my 20’s though, I started to be more environmentally conscious. I started recycling and began to want to live a more minimalist lifestyle, but I wasn’t to the point that I was researching anything or realizing just how big of an impact I had on this earth. I knew about carbon emissions and our carbon footprint and climate change, but I never looked into just how much of our things end up in landfills or in the ocean and how those affect ecosystems, our water, the air, etc. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that I started researching these things and I’ve never been more grateful that I never cared much about whether my clothes were brand new or not. However, although I thought about writing an article on thrift shopping and the environment, I decided that I wanted to dive into a part of thrift shopping that we don’t often hear about, and that is thrift booking and the environmental impact of print books.
By Hannah Stanton3 years ago in Earth
YOLO but like, Save the Earth. Top Story - May 2021.
As I lay in bed this morning, gratitude fills my being; for the gift of another day of life has been granted. I pause, as my senses take in the beaming 6am sunrise, the chorus of local birds chirping as they awaken from their nests. Buried underneath the weighted comforter, I look over and listen to the quiet hum of the humidifier, contrasting with the bang! of the garbage truck emptying the community dumpster, just outside my apartment window.
By Darian Jackson3 years ago in Earth
My Laptop Lifestyle
For as long as I can remember I have always loved to travel. When I was in Elementry School I lived with my brother who is two years younger than me and my mother. My father worked for Continental Airlines and was always traveling with my stepmother. He had a habit of bringing me home weird-looking money from different countries and islands. Looking at his cool scuba diving pictures and hearing stories about how he learned to hula dance in Hawaii made me dream of traveling when I got older. My Dad finally retired and bought himself a boat to live on which made me start thinking if he can fulfill his dream at the age of 74 there is no reason why I cannot at the age of 49.
By Greer Collins3 years ago in Earth
How Saving the Oceans Starts at Home
It is quite common that when we’re made to think about sustainability and pollution, our attention is misdirected to minor factors to distract us from the more pertinent issues. The plastic straw debacle for instance is a good example of this. Getting people to stop using single use plastic straws was an easy way to convince people that they were making a positive impact when the reality is that that straws are only one of hundreds of single use plastic items that we use everyday which damage our oceans and the sea life within in. To have made that action meaningful people should have asked how they could rid themselves of all single plastics in their lives, not just straws.
By Marianna Felfoldi3 years ago in Earth
Dandelion Gathering
We only have one Earth, astronomers have looked! Earth is the only planet that can sustain life as we know it and need it to be. Clean water, clean air, clean soil is what we need to survive. In order to do my part for future generations, I became an herbalist a few years ago. I enjoy practicing herbalism because it is one small way to make a big impact! You can actually forage for medicine! You don’t have to buy from a store which used up more of Earth’s resources, as well as, emitting more pollution into our atmosphere. Herbalism is so simple to learn, there are SO many herbalists out there willing to share their knowledge. Once you have created a foundation of learning about your local plants and their properties, you can go for a nature walk and collect an amount of each to take home to use in a tea or as an infusion!
By Kelly Fontaine3 years ago in Earth
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚆𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎
The travel route in which garbage takes after human consumption really worries me. Throwing out my plastic drink cup from a coffee shop doesn't seem like a big deal, until I really think about where its final resting place lies. The cup could end up virtually anywhere, and I was mindlessly going about my days very oblivious to this bad habit. That same cup could float out of the public trash in a bad wind gust, end up being tossed around in the street, or even find itself in Lake Michigan. I had NO IDEA where my trash was actually going, or how it was affecting my environment.
By Kyra Lopez3 years ago in Earth
Dr. Matthew Primous, Horn Fellows' Climate Change Invitational
Since the beginning of droughts, nations have risen to the occasion of finding sources of water. They thought of numerous ways to replenished their source. Ancient Egypt used an efficient concept, they irrigated their land to cause it to flourish. They dug deep trenches into the ground and leveled them to flow water to their crops. Today, we have much more complicated technologies. Why can't we simply change the oceans' water into freshwaters that we can use? This world is made up of two-thirds of water and it is about time we use the technology to sustain our life on this planet. It just does not make any sense that children are dehydrated and nations are still trying to figure out how to end droughts? Nations would even consider buying water to sustain their nation. Water is chemical anyways, made of oxygen and hydrogen. I believe we should try to irrigate the land but also in a way that preserves the territories. We cannot simply destroy beautiful forests and leave homeless millions of animals in exchange for our self-sufficiency. We must think of all the world. We got to think bigger than our matters even national interests. And then we can fight for harmony among living beings when all our needs and wants are considered. Each animal brings to the table, necessities to balance an ecosystem. Humans are a part of the ecosystem and we must play the role of custodian of the ecosystem. We cannot simply force an animal out of the ecosystem because that instability will wreck the culture of the system. We must find our place and every animal place. I believe, in theory, that water is also a filter, it can catch other elements and we should develop it to catch and remove our carbon print. Nothing clears a smug more than the rain that pours down, we must understand nature's strategic courses to plan our technological advancements. The more we rely on nature's tests, the more we avoid making the mistakes of the past. Nature has been managing the world for many years, way before our time and our ancestors' time. There are lessons that we have not understood and have not completely fathom. It is necessary to study them again and again to prevent future ignorance. The minds of the future must understand that the knowledge of science, that science's highest and greatest purpose goes beyond biological, and chemical science. We can no longer blind ourselves in the utopia of previous acclaimed science, we have to venture out and test those hypotheses. We must do the work if we want a sustainable future. It requires like Socrates said, "Question and question and when in doubt question again until you find your answer." It is not enough to gain knowledge, we have to use it appropriately. We don't have to start from scratch, we can build on others' successes to succeed in the universal space of intelligence. Even the Ancient Romans' complicated others' discoveries, they used salt water to make salt by creating salt wells in Africa and used it for currency. We cannot give up on tough discoveries. We must be willing to flex our opinion and flex our experiment. We have to consider others' opinions and filter for reasonable ones. Our reasoning is what makes us different than the animals. Human beings can figure out what they want to do and do it to the best of their knowledge. We must not be mean all and end to all. We must be the preserver and protector of all living beings now and further on
By Matthew Primous3 years ago in Earth
Trash Art
Reusable period panties, remembering our reusable bags at the grocery store, shutting off water between soaping and rinsing, keeping unnecessary lights off, wearing pants a few extra times before washes, buying sustainable products, walking the extra few steps to the recycling, unplugging electronics in disuse, swapping out for energy saving appliances, and on and on and on. There are many ways to slash our carbon footprint. Some methods fulfilling while others can feel downright nerve wracking especially here in the U.S. where recycling and consumption reduction is not a social precedent. It can even be disheartening when you have gone that extra mile and news still tells you it's not enough. We are still burying ourselves in trash and suffocating ourselves in carbon. Hope and change always start on the smallest of levels, though. It starts with the individual and spreads like an idea until it becomes a movement. So how do we turn a ripple into a wave? I think the simple answer is Trash Art.
By E. J. Strange3 years ago in Earth