“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

-Vincent Van Gogh

Getting involved doesn’t mean one has to take huge strides. Small acts build awareness and inspire compassion.

Impact Ideas:

Cruelty-Free Shopping

· Animals don’t wear makeup or use products like shampoo and soap, so why should they be subjected to testing products we use?

· Luckily, cruelty-free and vegan products are becoming more mainstream. But sometimes it’s tricky to know for sure which brands have not harmed animals or have animal by-products in their end product. Luckily, Ethical Elephant has a resource guide to find the beset cruelty-free and ethical brands. You can check it out here.

· Ethical Elephant also provides insight on how to know if the shoes you want to buy are not made from leather. According to Totally Vegan Buzz, every year the skin of a billion slaughtered animals is turned into leather for our wallets, jackets, handbags, shoes and furniture. Leather is not only sourced from cows but leather can also come from pigs, cats, horses, seals, snakes, lambs and the list goes on.

· More and more fashion brands are providing shoes that are vegan and not made from animal skin and to add to this point, more brands are not making clothes that contain wool, down, or fur. To learn more, you can check out Ethical Elephant’s blog here.

Eating Plant-Based:

· Try to eat plant-based at least once a week. According to OurWorldinData, half of the world’s wild habitats are used for agriculture. Three-quarters of this land is used to raise livestock. This means the wild places like the Amazon rainforest which provide us with fresh oxygen is being torn down to raise livestock.

· The global average to produce one pound of beef requires approximately 1800 gallons of water according to foodtank.com. As water is our most precious resource and is becoming scarcer globally, choosing a plant-based diet, even once a week is helping to reduce our water footprint.

· Did you know cattle are the top source of methane emissions in the United States? Although CO2 is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, methane gas is 80 times more potent at warming the earth than CO2 over a twenty year period.

· Putting the above data aside, did you know more than 70 billion land animals die each year for food?

Be aware of Fast Fashion:

· I love clothes. Period. Buying a cute top can lift my mood. But I am realizing that my impulse buy on that cute top could be causing more harm than good.

· Fast fashion is a global trend that is defined as readily available and inexpensive clothing. It is described as “fast” as it shows how quickly a clothing brand can move clothing from the catwalk to a store and keep up with the growing demand of new fashion.

· According to the article The global environmental injustice of fast fashion, nearly 80 billion pieces of clothing are purchased each year. The United States consumes most of the clothing purchased globally. 85% of clothes are purchased in the U.S., which translates to nearly 3.8 billion pounds that end up in landfills each year.

· We the consumers have a part to play! We can buy better pieces of clothing that last longer, shop at second-hand stores, and repair the clothes we already own.

· We can also recycle our clothing. The Council for Textile Recycling helps raise awareness of keeping our clothes and textiles out of landfills or incinerators. To learn more about how to recycle your clothes, shoes, and textiles, click here.

· Another solution is to buy from retailers that promote transparency of their supply chain and produce a finite amount of clothes so excess textiles and clothes do not go to waste or end up on a cargo flight to a secondhand store across the world. According to www.pebblemag.com, approximately 700,000 tons of clothes are sent to other countries each year, where oftentimes clothes end up on the street, in landfills, or in the oceans.

· To help reduce the amount of resources that go into creating new clothes, consider buying clothes from secondary markets like thredup or eBay.

· Learn how to become sustainably savvy with fashion, with Brooke Bowlin, a second-hand sustainability expert.

The Impact of Food:

· With nearly 8 billion people inhabiting the earth, food is a precious resource. According to the United Nations, it was estimated approximately between 711-820 million people were food insecure in 2020.

· Have unused food? Find a local food bank to donate it.

· Understand expiration dates on food before you throw it out. Expiration dates refer to the quality of the food, not it’s safety. There is a difference between the “use by” (when food starts to lose its flavor and quality) and “sell by” (the deadline for when a retailer needs to sell the product) dates.

· Try organic foods. Organic foods have many environmental benefits such as a lack of pesticides and fertilizers that produce less pollution and less harm to soil and pollinators.

· Buy local. Buying local helps reduce the need for plastic packaging that is polluting our waterways, but also reduces fossil fuel use to transport goods, fresher food does not contain ingredients like palm oil that is taken from tropical rainforests where huge amounts of CO2 are stored and endangered wildlife call home.

Avoid Palm Oil

· The rainforests in places like Borneo and Sumatra store 300 billion tons of carbon, which is approximately 40 times the annual greenhouse gases emissions from fossil fuels. These regions however are a hot spot to grow palm oil. Every hour 300 soccer fields of rainforests are removed to make palm oil plantations.

· These rainforests and habitats of endangered wildlife are being destroyed faster than what can truly be considered sustainable. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature(IUCN), 193 different species are currently endangered or threatened because of the palm oil industry, including the orangutan, some species of Asian elephant, and the already endangered tiger.

· Palm oil is sneaky. It is a ubiquitous ingredient that can be found in soaps, lipstick, shampoos, chocolate, ice cream, and processed foods because it is cheap and versatile. Whether you are buying personal beauty products or food, please check the labels of the products you buy. Alternatives to the products that contain palm oil are available. These alternative products are generally less processed and contain less ingredients. Each time, we as consumers say no to palm oil, we are incentivizing companies to adopt more sustainable ways to produce the products we buy and use. It is like voting with our wallets.

Get involved to take quick action with text or email alerts from nature and animal welfare organizations:

· If you sign up for text alerts from organizations who are working hard to make a difference for the lives of animals or nature conservation, these organizations will send you text alerts on ways to help. Maybe it is to sign a petition to protect wild horses in the American west or an automated email to your federal representative or senator asking for their support on a bill for protecting our natural areas. Your voice can go a long way with one click of a button;

Here are some organizations you can sign up for alerts with;

· Humane Society

· In Defense of Animals

· Center for Biological Diversity

· National Resource Defense Council

· Earthjustice

· Greenpeace

· Ocean Conservancy

Want to see federal and state legislation get passed for animal and nature conservation or support for nature and wildlife in your town?

· Contacting your state and federal legislators can go a long way for animal or environmental advocacy. Our legislators are the key to creating changes at the state and federal level to improve the quality of life for animals and improving environmental conditions.

· To contact your legislator, go to www.openstates.org, type in your zip code and you will get a listing of all of your state and federal legislators.

· If you are looking for improvement for nature or wildlife in the area where you live, it can be as simple as contacting your village. Near where I live, wildlife are always crossing a street in search of food. I am always concerned the wildlife may get hit by a car and asked my village if a wildlife crossing sign could be put up and within a couple of weeks, a sign was posted! If you see ways there could be improvement, it can never hurt to ask or get your local community involved.

Pick Up Trash

· Approximately 80% of our trash ends up in waterways that eventually flows into our ocean water where marine life ingest it. Even picking up one plastic bottle on a walk is one plastic bottle that can be recycled and not harming marine life.

· Pick up trash and track it with the Clean Swell App from Ocean Conservancy. Using the app helps scientists and advocates learn more how to tackle ocean pollution; Clean Swell App

Plant Native Plants:

· We know a lot of our wild spaces are becoming few and far between which means we are losing the biodiversity in all areas of earth that support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators that in turn help feed us, and manage water.

· When we plant native plants to our own region, we support that biodiversity that is needed to help maintain the health of the planet, us, and other beings.

· You can learn more about the why and the how to plant native plants by checking out Homegrown National Park.

· Please be mindful when gardening, to avoid using the weed killer Roundup which contains glyphosate that has harmful health risks to humans, animals, and pollinators.

· Wild birds are also needing our help as the native plants they can feed from are not as abundant as they once were. The National Audubon Society provides information to which native plants you can plant to attract wild birds in your area. To learn more on what to plant for wild birds, click here.

Reduce, reuse, recycle:

· Globally, we produce about 400 million tons of plastic each year and only 10-13% of it gets recycled worldwide. The environmental lifetimes of common products such as plastic bags, Styrofoam cups and other single-use items remain largely unknown. What we do know is that plastics never actually go away- they break up into smaller and smaller pieces but persist in the environment indefinitely.

· Approximately 11 million metric tons of plastic ends up in our oceans each year. Since plastic is ending up in our waters, marine life is ingesting it. Plastic has been found in 60% of sea birds and 100% of sea turtles studied because they mistake plastics for food. We now know that nearly 1,300 marine species ingest plastics, and that number continues to climb as scientists pursue new research avenues.

· Use reusable beverage containers instead of single use plastic bottles. Humans use about 1.2 million plastic bottles per minute!!!

· Want to stop using polyethylene-based traditional plastic that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions for your garbage bags, dog poop bags, and more? Check out beyOndGREEN

· Want to ditch the plastic laundry bottles? Try Earthbreeze. Earthbreeze are eco-friendly liquidless laundry sheets that come in paper packaging that can be recycled.

· Use reusable bags when shopping and even smaller reusable bags for produce like these.

· Want to recycle plastic but not sure which plastics are recyclable by number? Check out the Almanac to learn more.

How to save on resources:

· Being mindful of our energy use helps to reduce fossil fuel usage which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions emitted into our atmosphere.

· Save electricity by using energy efficient light bulbs and adjusting your heat and air conditioning when necessary.

· Turn off lights in areas you are not using whether indoors or outdoors. Turning off outdoor lights is especially helpful because the night atmosphere cleans up nitrogen oxide, and is unable to do so with nighttime light pollution. Use dimmers, timers, or motion lights to reduce the need for excessive lighting. Also using warm color lighting is thought to be less disruptive.

· Save water by turning on the shower when you’re ready to jump in and turn off the tap when brushing your teeth.

· Carpool when possible.

· If looking to purchase a car, check for fuel efficiency.

· Run larger appliances like your dishwasher or dryer later in the evening as energy usage is at its highest during the earlier part of the day.

· When using a washing machine, using cold or warm water is more energy efficient than using hot water and running a fuller load than washing many smaller loads will also save water. If possible, upgrade to an energy efficient washing machine.

· If you have a dishwasher, run a full load so you are not running the dishwasher all the time and use an energy saving setting if available.

· Unplug devices that are not being actively used. According to Save On Energy, 75% of the energy devices use are when they are plugged into an outlet but not on or in active use.

· When looking into buying new appliances, look for energy efficient appliances. Energy efficient appliances help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Travel

· Air travel alone can be the biggest carbon footprint a person can have. In 2019, Americans took 1.1 billion flights.

· Being aware of our carbon footprint, especially with travel whether by air, car, or a cruise, is particularly helpful in the midst of our dramatic climate change.

· One way we can truly help offset our carbon footprint is to purchase carbon offset flights from Cool Effect. When you purchase a travel offset, you are compensating for the carbon output of your travel by helping to fund an environmental project that is offsetting carbon. It will not break your bank and you will be doing the planet a huge favor.

Volunteer:

· Volunteering your time, even once a month can go a long way in supporting a nature conservation or animal welfare.

· I help my local forest preserve once a month to help support the local plant biodiversity which in turns helps pollinators and wildlife in the area. Even if I only have time to help once a month, the work that gets done goes a long way.

Ideas for places to volunteer:

Supporting nature with Nature Conservancy;

https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/volunteer-and-attend-events/

https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/international-coastal-cleanup/

Help a local animal shelter and rescues:

https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/ten-ways-help-your-local-shelter-or-rescue

Volunteer with the Animal Rescue Teams at Humane Society or ASPCA (The Animal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals):

https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/volunteer-our-animal-rescue-team

https://www.aspca.org/get-involved/volunteer

Some of my favorite reads:

#BeMoreMosquito by Dr. Marc Abraham - How to campaign to create change.

Gaia by James Lovelock - Explains how life on Earth functions as a single organism.

Half-Earth by Edward O. Wilson - Saving half of the earth to stay wild can provide us with a viable future.

Justice for Animals - Our Collective Responsibility by Martha C. Nussbaum

Less is More - How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel -How degrowth from constant expansion of over-using our land, and resources and chasing after the bottom line will help save the earth.