Our planet is in a terrible condition. Natural resources are slinking, the polar caps are melting. All because of the human exploitation of nature. With the Copenhagen climate conference not reaching any agreement, it’s definetly up to us to make a chance and stop global warming now. What can we do?

1. Grow your own vegetables, potatoes and fruits
2. When you go to the supermarket, pick food that’s in season
3. Turn of the light when you leave a room
4. Take a show instead of a bath
5. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs
6. Sort your garbage
7. Choose reusable products
8. Buy a sustainable plastic bag

Grow a garden

It’s sound pretty lame, I must admit. But actually it’s a simple way to get ourselves back in balance with nature. The forces of globalisation and the demanding customer make for an unhealty manipulation of the natural growth of vegetables, potatoes and fruits. All driven by a capitalist structure that wants more all the time for less costs. These products travel an average of three to four thousand kilometers before they reach the shop. And when you know thirty percent of all traffic is food transport, we can easily cut down on CO2 emission by growing our own products.

If you’re not able to plant a garden, just pay attention to what you buy in the supermarket. Pick food that is in season or that is manifactured organically. This way you can be sure of what you eat and make a small step towards a responsible business model.

Watch your energy

A little tip, but nonetheless an important one. Mind your use of energy at home. Turn of the light when you leave a room, switch it back on when you enter one. As simple as that. And don’t forget to turn of all your appliances in the house. A lot of machines have a stand-by light, like a television and a computer, but why leave it on when you, for example, go to bed? If you connect them to one power strip, you can disconnect them all at once when they are not being used.

Other simple guidelines. When you wash clothes or do the dishes with a machine, only do so when they are fully loaded. Otherwise, you’re just wasting energy. Take a shower instead of a bath. You use less (heated) water when you shower. One full bath equals three showers! And to finish, when you buy light bulbs, buy compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs that last longer and use less energy.

Recycle without plastic

Don’t underestimate the impact of recycling. When you recycle half of your waste at home, you can save 1000 kgs CO2 emission annually. Make paper stacks and throw aliminium cans, glass and plastic in a seperate bag. That easy. Also buying items with minimal packaging when you go to the supermarktet, is a step forward. Choose reusable products instead of disposible ones.

An important polluter is plastic bags. Annually up to 1000 billion plastic bags are used globally. A major part of them end up in nature, most of all in the ocean. As a result more than a million birds and marine mammals die every year. Plastic bags do not only pollute, their production costs a lot of energy and the material at his base is oil. So, instead of throwing plastic bags away, buy a sustainable one that lasts for a long time and you can reuse.

And because we just can’t help it. Why buy water when the quality of water from the tap is, in most cases, more tested than mineral water in bottles? Why use the car when the shop is only some blocks away? We could go on and on, but the most important thing here is that we don’t have to wait to act until political steps will be taken. With some little changes in our daily routine we can already make a difference. The future of the planet lies in our hands.