Small Thoughtful Actions

Photography by Calvin Cropley

I can’t remember when I first learned about the danger that we are in of permanently altering the biosphere of our planet. At primary school I was taught to pick up litter and later the importance of recycling and renewable energy sources. Even now, when I watch films like Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” and read articles like this one from National Geographic, I’m shocked by how our actions are changing our world.

It’s depressing sometimes, to contemplate the magnitude of the problem, but you have to remember that it was only small actions that caused it, and it will be the small actions we take every day that solve it.

Things like buying a cheap plastic toy or watering a field seem like harmless every-day activities until we become aware of their environmental cost. When we start to ask, how was it made, where did it come from. It’s through this awareness that we discover the hidden truth behind the calming super-market musak.

Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t hate super-markets. I don’t even begrudge the consumer economy that supports them, hell I’m a part of that economy! That’s where my dilemma begins, I accept that this rat-race is a necessary stage in our evolution, but I’m eager to move on to a greener, more sustainable future.

So I take small, thoughtful actions. I continue to pick up litter, recycle my paper, plastic and glass. I use some hyper-miling techniques to reduce my fuel consumption and monitor the results with a great little iPhone app called AccuFuel. And I dream of the day I’ll be able to take big actions, like buying a hybrid car, putting up solar panels on my roof, travelling to my holiday by sailing yacht or building a wireless Internet infrastructure in Africa and Asia to promote a knowledge economy.

This post is in honour of Blog Action Day 2009 and this years topic: Climate Change.

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Tags: climate change, environment

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