New year resolutions for the planet
By Pamela Okutoyi
It is that time of the year again: Time to start afresh with renewed energy and vision for the planet in 2021. This year we hope for more action and more love for our dear planet.
This time could not be better for us to make our priorities and goals known. We are all in the hustle of making new year resolutions and plans.
Solving the climate crisis is not going to be easy either. It is going to be a challenge and it is going to be uncomfortable. But hey, it is the New Year. If I cannot get you to make some changes when I have you at your most guilt, when can I?
Here is a chance for you to make real impact to save the planet.
- Eat a Plant-based meal (1-2 days a week)
Are you regretting your food choices over the holidays? Probably added some weight and wondering just what to do next. Skip the crash diet and try a plant based meal instead.
Animal agriculture has enormous impact on climate change, contributing as much greenhouse gas as every car, plane, train and ship on Earth. A day or two of eating a plant based meal is one of the most successful ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint. You do not have to go overboard if you are not ready. Just start with one meal; breakfast or lunch. Bon appetite!
- Skip the gym. Skip the car
You know you look great just as you are. But if you really still want to tone up and get those abs, skip the gym membership at least for a month (it’s kind of a New Year’s cliché, isn’t it?) by skipping the car.
I know this sounds so lame as it does not work for everyone, but where and when you can, skip the car and walk, bike or take public transportation instead.
A good example that works for me is walking home from work in the evening. To enjoy the walk, carry a pair of changing clothes and shoes to your office in the morning. If you cannot walk all the way home, at least cover half the distance then jump into a bus.
You will get some good (free) exercise, while taking a huge bite out of your carbon footprint. For every minute you do not drive, you reduce your carbon footprint by one pound. Bonus point if you are lugging bags of groceries home on your walk.
- Read more books
To act on climate change, we need to be well informed. If reading is on your resolution list for 2021, why not add some climate and environment books to the rotation? Here is a list of some of the books in my reading list that could interest you.
The Uninhabitable Earth | David Wallace
Losing Earth | Nathaniel Rich
Don't Even Think About It | George Marshall
The Climate Cure | Tim Flannery
Windfall: Unlocking A Fossil-Free Future | Ketan Joshi
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis | Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett
- Compost, compost, compost
Food waste is a menace to the planet my dear friend. Think about it this way – when you toss food in the trash, you are wasting all the resources that it took to grow, harvest and ship that food.
Food also sits in the landfill producing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is 34 times more potent over a 100-year period than carbon dioxide. If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest country after the US and China.
So serve yourself just as much as you can eat, salvage your leftovers and compost what’s truly bad.
I know for most people living in urban areas this might be almost impossible. However, consider having a balcony garden. Just cut some of your plastic water cans that you keep under the kitchen sink, get some soil and your favorite vegetable seedling; spinach, green pepper, kales and voila! You have a garden that can make use of your food waste.
- Recycle better
For the record, recycling is not a silver-bullet solution to our climate problems. It is way better if we just skip the single-use plastic altogether. But if you are going to recycle, at least do it right. Otherwise, you may end up doing more harm than good.
Here are a few tips for recycling better: https://www.earthday.org/youre-doing-it-wrong-7-tips-to-recycle-better/
What are some of your recycling sins? For me, I am still struggling with recycling. Mostly I find myself just throwing any and every recyclable material in the bin or just pile them up in my house because there was never a better channel to recycle them. Is this something you are also struggling with? Please share. Also if you know some place or someone who collects recyclable materials, kindly share here.
- Skip the single-use plastic bag
I am thankful for the Kenyan Government's efforts to curb plastic pollution by banning single use plastics. However, it goes without say that there are a couple of us who still find ourselves victims of the plastic grocery bags.
Did you know that these convenient plastic grocery bags are only used for an average of 15-20 minutes? Meanwhile they have a lifespan of 500-1000 years in the landfill.
Suddenly that convenience is looking very inconvenient for our planet… Just stick a reusable bag in your purse or backpack, or trash one in your desk. It’s that simple.
For the ‘Mama mboga’, how about carrying with you a dish to put your greens?
To challenge yourself farther, try going without plastic a whole day. It is much harder than you might think, but it gives you an illuminating view at just how bad our plastic problem is, while identifying key places to cut plastic in your life.
- Pass it on: Recycling
The previous one was easy. This resolution will push you out of your comfort zone. The next time you see someone recycling wrong, let them know. Connect over your experience and how you learnt to recycle better.
Pass along tips for recycling better or just show them. It can be hard to correct people, especially loved ones who have been doing things one way (the wrong way) for years but when you pass on what you know, information can spread exponentially.
Also do not forget to remind them that recycling is not the be-all-end-all solution to our planet’s woes. In many ways recycling is an opportunity for industries to shunt the burden of responsibility onto consumers, when it should be squarely on producers who should be developing more suitable alternatives…or you can save that for another day.
- Travel with care
It’s clear that the pandemic has changed our travelling habits. I am hoping that we have at least seen some positive change when we do not travel that much. However, it does not always have to take a pandemic to force us to adapt better habits for the planet.
With the New Year, I know travelling to new places is always a top priority resolution, but air travel is, well, problematic. Just how problematic, you ask? As David Wallace Wells warns in his book “The inhabitable Earth,” every round trip flight from New York to London costs the Arctic three square meters of ice.
This new year, let’s resolve to travel smarter. For instance, you can choose to travel by train from Nairobi to Mombasa and explore locations near home. Thanks to the pandemic as it has taught us to appreciate our incredible local landmarks and national parks.
Also consider swapping a vacation for a staycation – you will greatly reduce your carbon footprint, as well as saving massive amounts of money (another top New Year’s Resolution).
- Stop buying crap
Now that we are talking about saving more money this year, one of the best ways to do that is by simply buying less. What I really mean is buy less crap.
Take fast fashion – we buy far more clothing than we need, often tossing clothes in the trash. Research shows that a garbage truck’s worth of clothing and textile is landfilled or incinerated every second.
Every. Second.
So do not buy it, and do not buy into it! You should never underestimate your power as a consumer. Try and use the power of social media to call for an end to unjust and wasteful practices.
Instead, try shopping secondhand. It’s a great way to give new life to old clothes while saving money and keeping perfectly good clothing out of the landfills.
Like with food waste, not only are these clothes sitting in the landfills to produce greenhouse gases as they break down, but the resources (including low-paying and dangerous labor for marginalized communities) used to create these textiles is also wasted as well.
Our current clothing industry is incredibly polluting, resource-intensive and wasteful not to mention unjust).
- Plant more trees
Of all the things on your to-do list, is planting more trees one of them? No? Not a problem-that is something that might change very soon.
Trees also provide us with essential greenery and shade in our day-to-day lives, a mental calm when we need a quiet escape from the city.
But why else do we need to plant even more trees? Is there a more global reason? An urgent reason to plant these environmental superheroes?
As it turns out, trees are essential for the wellbeing of just about every living being on our planet. If you do not believe that bold claim, then do not worry, here are some factors to prove that.
Trees naturally pull in carbon and water from the atmosphere to feed themselves. It is just a happy coincidence that, in doing so, that process produces a pretty handy by-product: oxygen.
It goes without saying that oxygen is important. But the crucial takeaway is that trees absorb carbon. One of the biggest aspects of global warming.
Asides trees tackling the rising temperatures around the world, planting trees can be a life-changing career for people as well.
Everybody has a favorite animal. Chances are, yours depends on trees to survive for one reason or another. Frankly, every single tree that is planted will go some way to providing a home – and a future – for critically endangered animal species.
Planting more trees helps to maintain healthy soils and humidity levels in the air around the world. It begins when trees regulate the water cycle. Trees absorb air and transpire it back into the atmosphere, effectively filtering and controlling the levels of humidity wherever they are.
Climate change will never be solved by one individual. It is going to require immense support of the public, political will and leadership to overhaul our cities, industries and economies to embrace the opportunities to combat the effects of climate change. If you really want to save the planet, do your part to reduce your carbon footprint this 2021.
