Do we have to go to the end of the earth for…the earth?

The world is facing a huge environmental pollution today causing great damage not only to our health but to the health of our planet too. Healing and maybe even saving our planet starts with each and every one of us. We can actually heal the planet by making small acts which have a huge impact. “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” - Robert Swan

Where are we and what we can actually do

Right now, according to the World Health Organization, there are approx. 4.2 million deaths per day due to the ambient air pollution and the most common diseases resulting from it are stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Just in 2019 the CO2 emissions were about 36.44 billion metric tons, making 2019 the 2nd-hottest year on record for earth.

Some of the simplest yet most important actions we can take as individuals in order to show some love to the planet are:

• reduce car emissions (source alternative means of transportation, reduce the miles you drive, or purchase a hybrid or fuel efficient vehicle);
• reduce batteries usage (use proper recycling techniques in order to prevent the volatile chemicals from polluting our natural resources);
• preserve energy;
• protect the ozone layer (don’t use cleaning products that are harmful to the environment and people, buy locally - you not only get fresh local products, but you also avoid consuming items that have traveled long distances);
• contribute to reducing industrial pollution;
• reduce climate change ;
• reduce air pollution levels (reduce your drive time, conserve energy, share with others the realities of air pollution, avoid burning foliage, grass, leaves and other materials that are harmful to the air, get energy-efficient appliances);

For us, some of the most important ways to help the planet are energy conservation, reduction of industrial pollution and reduction of climate change. Beside the fact that these are very fast methods to heal the Earth, they can also help you save money and improve the quality of peoples’ lives, even if we are talking about pupils or factory workers. Regarding the productivity of the pupils and the air quality in schools you can find more information here.

Energy conservation

One of the problems of our society nowadays is that we use energy for (more or less) everything. The demand of energy is constantly increasing, which creates some bad consequences like air and water pollution and climate change. It is important to take action and make some small changes that will help the planet.

• you can turn off the light when leaving a room and, even better, you can also turn off two additional lights in your home for an hour each day and happily save more than 5 million kilowatt-hours of energy nationwide each year;
• you can unplug or use power strips to shut off electronics when not in use (the power used by products in standby mode accounts for 10% of total electricity);

Contribute to reducing industrial pollution

Industrial pollution is the most significant form of pollution on the planet. One massive industrial container ship pollutes the equivalent of 50 million cars, and over 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water - partly because of industrial pollution. One of the most important things that we can do is to bring awareness to the very harmful environmental impacts caused by this type of pollution, in order to prevent more harm. What we can also do is reduce overconsumption, reuse and repurpose. This way, fewer products will need to be produced from scratch. We should also try to purchase polluting products and instead support companies that are working to preserve our planet.

Reduce climate change

A few years ago, climate change seemed so unlikely to happen. Unfortunately, humans started to cause shifts in temperature and weather since the 1800s. There is a 95% probability that, just in the last 50 years, humans’ activities warmed our planet. How can we make an impact now, after all these years? Well, we can reduce. Reduce consumption. Reduce gas emissions. Reduce energy consumption. In order to do that you can unplug electronics when not in use, switch to energy efficient appliances, and purchase energy efficient light bulbs. Even if these are just a few methods to reduce climate change, just think what would happen if humans cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050? About 74 million lives could be saved this century (more people than the population of the UK or Thailand).

And now?

Now you are aware of it. Act on it. This is the end of our blog post, so we can begin to heal the planet. You can find more ways on our series “Ways to heal the planet” on our Facebook page. We are here for you. If you need help or just some guidance in order to monitor the energy consumption and the quality of the air you can find us right here: https://sensix.io.