What world are we leaving for the next generation?

We are in the middle of a pandemic. Many people are getting sick and more and more are dying each and every day. This is a time where it is OK to get a soda delivered in a plastic cup or to order groceries which come in plastic bags.

We are in a crisis, and it is OK to do what you can to survive. So don’t feel bad about splurging a little bit during this time.

That said, this does not mean that we cannot still be working to mae the world a cleaner place.

What to do

 - Now is the perfect time to start a garden if you have the time or space. Or to set up a compost bin in your yard if you are able.

 - It is a great opportunity to learn a new craft, like sewing or knitting. Be able to make your own clothing so that you do not have to fret over fast fashion. Maybe take this time to start mending your clothes, patching holes and sewing tears.

 - Buy movies and games digitally, that way you lower the waste of making the disk and plastic case, or cartridge.

 - Try to buy more natural fiber clothing if you are shopping for clothes, and getting them secondhand at places like Poshmark and Thredup would be best. Fibers like Cotton, Hemp, and Linen are best, but animal fibers like wool will biodegrade as well (although would be less ethical).

 - Continue to rinse off and recycle glass, metals, and paper.

 - But most important of all, do not buy something if you do not need it. A lot of people are buying things for the sake of buying things, and that can be extremely wasteful. A couple of things is fine, but don’t go overboard.

What do you think would be more eco friendly things to do during this pandemic?

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Originally, the plan was to build a “4,000-mile-long wall of trees” that would stop the “spread” of the Sahara desert.

This plan proved to be impractical for a number of reasons, but the process of failing to create a “great green wall” led to the discovery of a far more practical method of preventing desertification. 

“Slowly, the idea of a Great Green Wall has changed into a program centered around indigenous land use techniques…the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization now refer to it as ‘Africa’s flagship initiative to combat land degradation, desertification, and drought’“

And the new plan appears to be working! Areas that were nothing but dry, brown sand that blew away in the wind are now lush with trees and productive land. 

Here is the same area between 1975 and 2003. It’s a little hard to see in black and white, but the change in groundcover and numbers of trees is staggering. 

“The fact that human behavior and activity are undergoing climate-beneficial changes in the crucible of Covid-19 suggests that ‘business as usual’ can be altered, and quickly. … There are four identifiable pandemic-driven upheavals of social consciousness that should give us hope of instituting the transformations necessary for civilization not to commit collective climate suicide.

One is that science’s prestige and value are being restored. … Second, the crisis is helping us see just how much our well-being depends on muscular, proactive governance. Government of the people and for the people is literally the thing that’s now needed more than ever. …

Third, we may be shaking loose the defeatism that nothing can be done quickly. … We are learning, overnight, that simplicity isn’t necessarily austerity, frugality need not be privation, and that we can forgo quite a lot of our leisure and consumer entitlements if it serves some higher purpose. …

Brazil’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles has dismissed a government analyst who opposed relaxing environmental review of wood exports, an official notice said on Monday, after thousands of shipments from the Amazon bypassed required approvals over the past year. 

Reuters reported last month that Brazil had exported thousands of shipments of wood from an Amazonian port over the past year without authorization from the federal environment agency Ibama.

After the issue was discovered, amid heightened controversy over deforestation of the Amazon rainforest under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, Ibama’s chief rescinded a rule requiring the agency authorize all wood cargoes.  

Lifting the rule flew in the face of a group of analysts led by Andre Socrates de Almeida Teixeira, coordinator-general for monitoring biodiversity use and foreign trade, who had pushed for it to be upheld.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Teixeira’s firing was in retaliation for his dissent.

“It was more of a political change to appoint someone who is more flexible … to ease controls and facilitate wood exports,” the source said.