so today's earth day in the u.s. & i'm really so excited like i put a reminder on my calendar so that i would remember. i consider this day to be a day of respect for the earth and also for my bby river phoenix because he was an environmentalist & cared so much abt the planet and actually spoke out about it.
i'm gonna give yall a few facts about what we are doing to destroy the earth everyday, and then i'm gonna tell you guys what you can do to save the earth rather than destroy it!
deforestation :
when i learned about this a while back, i was really angry that people would cut down trees in order to make a simple toothpick. not only were they destroying the natural beauty of the world, but they managed to cut down animals' homes, leaving them endangered and homeless. almost 4 million hectares of forest have been cut down and removed this year. in 100 years, there will be no rainforests. that means our children/grandchildren/ great grandchildren will be excluded of the gorgeous land animals have highly contributed to all because we are cutting down and burning land.
why do we cut down trees? these trees are used for money, or to make products like paper. though we get basic things we use daily in life, there are deadly cons to this. these planets and trees keep our world a habitat to live in. without these plants and trees which cut carbon dioxide gases out of the air and release oxygen, greenhouse gases build up. greenhouse gases trap heat in the air, making the earth warmer, which contributes to global warming.
we don't want that.
what can we do to reduce deforestation -
speak out. when we speak, corporations that contribute to this harming of the planet listen. buy recyclable / certified wood products, or support brands with zero deforestation policy. they're sure to notice an absence in the money they're making and may make a change.
get the government to tune in too. already, we have laws that prevent illegal wood products from entering the U.S. marketplace. when illegal logging happens, govts lose out several ways financially.
litter -
litter is simple - the act of disposing of something improperly. rather than putting waste items in the trash or recycling where they belong, people are throwing them on the streets and even in the ocean. kids at my school including my friends do this 24/7 and it pisses me off whenever i try to tell them that in the act of littering, they are killing themselves, the world and animals, more than theoretically speaking.
last year, U.S. taxpayers spent 11 billion dollars cleaning up litter across the U.S. in terms of neighborhoods, heavily littered neighborhoods are more vulnerable towards crime and violence. literally you can start making your neighborhood a safer place by putting on some gloves and picking up discarded items around your neighborhood and putting them in the trash. if they can be recycled, recycle those items! if you're already littering, the idea that people like my friends get is that it's okay to litter.
note - if something is in your car and it's a piece of trash, DO NOT THROW IT OUT YOUR WINDOW. my parents do this a lot and i always yell at them for it because even if it's "a little piece", it's still contributing to how gross the environment is becoming.
for example, the trash contains tons of bacteria and germs. if you pollute the water, you're putting that bacteria into the water. when the water evaporates, the germs and toxins in that trash go into the air that we so freely breathe in, which is really disgusting. also, you're killing animals who think the trash in the water is food and end up eating it. nice job.
just don't litter period.
wasting water -
1/3 of the world's population are living in countries who are experiencing water shortages, so if you aren't one of them you should already know the basic facts about wasting water.
