All of you have calculated your emissions and you have surely discovered the unexpectedly high impact of some of your behaviors (eating meat, flying to a sunny destination, etc.) on your total footprints.
Are there any behaviors that you are really willing to change or to improve for the sake of the environment? What challenges do you encounter or think you will encounter while trying to change these things? What help, support, and insights from others would make your life easier with these new behaviors?
Let's discuss these issues and make our pledges here!
Now It's Time for Action >
The keyword is 'recycling'!
There is no doubt that waste disposal is part of the carbon footprint problem. The amount of energy needed for this task is huge and this activity has a negative impact on the total balance of greenhouse gas.
Every time I go to a fast food and I see how much waste one single person produces just for one meal I'm shocked! Then I start asking myself: "are they recycling anything of this crazy amount of plastic and paper?", unfortunately
the answer is most probably "no"...
Generally speaking I think that the first motivation for recycling should be in people head.
Of course the town where you live should provide you all the necessary infrastructures to be able to recycle as much as possible; different containers for different type of waste, a well functioning collecting system and so on...
But at the end of this chain there is only your decision: recycling a newspaper or a beverage can or just burning it.
Unfortunately this often requires your effort, i.e sometimes you do not have any recycling bin just near you so you should store temporarily at home: paper, plastic, pet , alu, ...
In my country a large amount of the population is actively recycling since more than 20 years. Changing people mind and motivation was a long process and not easy at all. But the results start now to be evident to everybody. Sometimes good results are also an incentive for recycling even more and better.
Even if changing people mind and habits took one generation in Switzerland the achievements are encouraging and "now It's Time for Action": let's try to change people mind worldwide... [Recycling_bin_Lausanne_mp3h7756](//muut.com/u/footprint/s3/:footprint:9H9v:recycling_bin_lausanne_mp3h7756.jpg.jpg)
You are right. Recycling is so crucial in this world it is crazy how often it is not utilized. I go to Bishop O'Dowd High School, a high school located in Oakland California where we have our own Director of Sustainability! Crazy I know, but awesome. However, I work down the street at an Oakland Elementary School where they have no recycling what so ever. It is horrible how much waste I see around the school and how materials like paper and cardboard are just put into the landfill. I am working with the Leadership Committee (a group of 4-5th grade students) to start a Recycling Initiative at the School. It will be a huge task but I think it is something that MUST be as you say necessary.
I strongly agree with your point and I think that, in order to solve this problem, the government should do something to increase the public's awareness of the importance of this simple yet impactful act. In Zurich, where I lived as a child, all citizens were obliged by law to recycle paper.
http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-life/1 … rview.html
My mom was not used to this and found it irritating, but I grew up with the concept and thus had no difficulties adapting to it during a later stage in life. The change in mentality cannot - for the most part - be forced upon people (who tend by nature to be tied to tradition). However, in the short term this action can stir debate and, in the long term (in the course of generations), effective change.
Unfortunately, it it against our democratic logic for countries to impose something on society, as society itself chooses its politicians. So politicians (also for the votes) tend to do what the people want. What is a current possibility is to invest a lot of money in educa tion (because this is something which everyone recognises as necessary for development and as a human right), so as to challenge the status quo at least intellectually, and encourage the development of individuals who pay attention to the world they live in.. I hope that, in this way, they will elaborate the foresight to make collective decisions that are not only good for the economy, but also good for the planet and the global community.
Wow that is amazing! I think a law like that in the United States would do so much good to so many communities; however it seems difficult to enforce? You are right, the people do elect their own representatives but there are still many issues with the system becasue it is so difficult for those who lack power or means to get to the policy makers position. It is truly up to our generation.