Simple Steps to STOP climate change
PART - 1
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JULY 2021
Let us get directly into the steps to STOP climate change. Humans have already passed the phase, seeking explanations and benefits of a healthy planet.
So if 2021 is NOT an evidence of climate change leading to destructive forces like flooding, wildfire, peak temperatures, storms, and earthquakes, what is?
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Climate change is an existential crisis!
Use cotton, woollen, jute, natural fibre garments instead of synthetics
To look good is important. It raises self-esteem and results in higher productivity. Follow the fashion – and it boosts creativity.
The downside is that we have taken fashion and garments to an exploitative level. Style is not seasonal anymore. It is instant and suffers from amnesia. Who remembers the spring collection of 2019?
The garment industry is suffering from the syndrome of plenty and new. The fabric is durable, colours don't fade, and they look new.
But the trend, which is replacing fashion, shifts. Stuffed wardrobes are a problem, with the majority of garments looking new.
Many clothing lines across the developed world, are cheap and they thrive on the concept of dumping on consumers for cheap.
The fashion trends smartly marketed are so enticing that buyers are left with little choice other than to add to their wardrobe.
Prior to manufacturing garments, these fibres are treated with water and toxic chemicals. As a result, denim (jeans) is the highest pollutant amongst the range of garments.
Two reasons account for this claim. First, they are the most used garment; they have become a universal human dress code for all sexes. Secondly, the treatment with water and chemicals is excessive.
In pursuing good looks and trends, we have lost track of the damage these new-age garments are doing to the planet.
Natural fibres are mixed with synthetic fibres to make the clothing durable with long-lasting colours. Sportswear is another sector that is going unregulated concerning the fibres used.
They are made to stretch with the necessary durability. When the consumers trash these, after use, they go into landfills or drift into the ocean.
The decomposing time of these synthetic fibres are as long as 20 years or longer. Often, these fibres enter the water bodies and into the food chain via fisheries.
The fibres and the raw material are sourced from different countries. Most of these garments are made in sweatshops of third world countries, obviously for reasons of cost.
They are then shipped again from manufacturing units to different parts of the world. The fossil fuel burnt for transportation accounts for global warming.
From fibre to factory to fashion store, every movement of goods is contributing to climate change.
The solution is simple. We need to reuse our clothing, promote natural fabrics and be local in manufacturing and consumption.
Repair your belongings than replacing -
Those items that are not repaired and discarded go to a landfill. Modernisation means having numerous household gadgets to make our lives comfortable.
They are primarily electronic and therefore more than a black box to an average user. Either they work, or they don't — nothing more than fixing it at home.
Since human resources are expensive in the west, no one is interested in repairing them. It is easier to dump and buy a new one.
If repaired, it could be as small as replacing a few cents worth of a fuse or resetting the thermostat. But, unfortunately, no government is encouraging the habit and practice of cheap repairs.
There are no incentives because a consumer-driven economy is good to report GDP numbers.
Only, for the sake of stopping climate change, if the governments make all repair businesses tax free, more and more experts will start the repair shop, and fewer pieces of equipment will go into landfills.
There needs to be regulation for manufacturers to design, such that parts can be easily replaceable. After all, we don't dump our vehicles just because a spark plug fails.
So why can't these mandatory design standards be imposed on gadget manufacturers? Mobile phones are other electronics that need a serious review.
Half of the world's population is using mobile. With a version upgrade and retention cycle of 4 years, we will be recycling approximately one billion mobiles each year.
Currently, there is no policy or standards for recycling mobiles by any government across the world.
The same is the case with laptops and tablets. The computing power is increasing, and no one can stop it. It is a need of the hour.
Consumers are helpless, and they have no choice but to procure the latest on offer. Buyback and reuse of these computing devices are not in practice.
How do we stop the electronic graveyard is a serious policy question that we have to formulate urgently?
Buy from farmers directly.
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Together, supermarkets are the world's largest food wasters
All those shapely, glowing fruits and vegetables that we see in the supermarkets are the culprit of global food waste. That perfect looking harvest is carefully picked and displayed to enhance customer experience.
They claimed to provide quality stuff, and it is but a myth. Fruits and vegetables come in all shapes, forms and colours.
Some of them are shaped differently from others because they are on the sunny side or under the leaf. It is ecology like not all humans are alike.
They, too, are found in all shapes, forms and colours. While the discrimination continues with the humans, so does with the produce.
The question is, what happens to the remaining produce which is not perfect to the supermarket standards?
Brutally, they are not procured from the farmers, which the farmers have to trash them away. Some farmers use it to convert them to manure, and some may burn it to ash. It depends on what is the crop.
There is another significant ethically wrong practice by these supermarkets. To drive a stable price and prevent significant fluctuation, they buy only a limited part of the produce.
An oversupply in the superstore will lower the price and the investor's profit. So tonnes of fresh food goes back into the ground because the supermarkets don't buy them.
The population is helpless and has no choice other than the use supermarkets, which are too big to be questioned. They have a strong lobby and can influence the policies.
Again, a million tonnes of food is wasted, because the supermarkets put a "Best Before" date. Nowhere do the government or the sellers educate the population that "best before" is not the same as "expiry date", as in medicines.
It is misinformation, which leads both the consumers and the supermarkets to bin it — in a way, manipulating the "best before" date results in shorter shelf life and a higher consumption cycle.
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Consumption means eating the food or dumping it; both mean the same in this case
Farmers should be allowed to sell their products to cut food waste and stop price manipulation of food. No one on the entire planet will go hungry if the supermarkets stop their contribution to food waste.
Stop using toilet rolls. You are cutting the tree just to wipe.
It was such a shame to see the world divided into two halves at the pandemic's beginning. Shoppers rushed to buy the essentials.
The population of the developing countries struggled to find food for the duration of lockdown. These were the majority of the countries on this planet.
The well-being of billions got challenged in those months. But, what were the essentials that the population of few developed and rich countries were after? It was the toilet rolls.
And when the supermarket shelves went empty, there were queues of dissatisfied customers, ranting and expressing their disgust.
The astonishing piece of this "essentials" divide is the mindset to find an alternative in an emergency.
The calcification of the reasoning has been created throughout modernisation. If people can have a shower, they can also have a substitute for toilet rolls.
Millions of trees are cut to provide pulp for the toilet paper. Though these companies claim to replant forests and the process is environmentally friendly, it is not.
The energy and pollution that goes into the paper making add to only global warming. To top it, one should also add to the transportation of those million tonnes of wood going into the paper mills.
Toilet paper rolling out of the mills and then transported to the stores is a double burden on the planet. Finally, just to let it go down the flush. Still, hygiene is not the same as washing.
Ethically, burdening the planet for non-essential usage is no less than criminality. There are perfect alternatives available.
The whole of east and far east is using those alternatives called jets and bidets. All it takes is to just observe the best practices and adapt to stop climate change.
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