Things You Can Do

World’s Environment Day’s theme of year 2021 is “Ecosystem Restoration”. Now is the right time to move step forward and save our planet Earth by changing our life styles a bit. United Nations dedicated next 10 years to save species and reduce the loss of biodiversity by launching the program as “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration”. You can follow simple tips to help restoring the ecosystem.

We have compiled a list of 25 simple and easy ways you can help restore the ecosystem:

1. Use Renewable Energy Sources

Fossil fuels are degrading at a high rate as time passes, we need to switch towards renewable energy sources like Wind mills and Solar energy. They generate electricity at low cost and are environmental friendly. Hydropower also provide certain other benefits which includes fish farming in dams and tourism attraction.

2. Plantation of Native Species

If you are into gardening then plant your backyard with native species, it will help restore the biodiversity and also provide habitat for pollinators (bees and butterflies). Native plants are naturally occurring in specific regions that’s why they support wildlife more than exotic plants.

3. Use Environment Friendly Products

You can use your purchasing power in a right way to save environment. Whenever you go for shopping, check the ingredients and brand and make sure they are using sustainable sources. Cut off the products having palm oil.

4. Liberation from Chemicals

You can easily reframe your lawn by changing some simple techniques. Use organic fertilizer like urea instead of chemical fertilizers, use compost and plant crops in wide beds and always be there for your garden as the best fertilizer is the shadow of gardener. Educate the students and guide them to make a compost, as it is free and does not use energy in production hence it is good for school gardening.

5. Social Media Awareness

Earth is our only homeland. Use any social platform like Instagram and face-book to spread awareness among the locals regarding biodiversity importance. If any brand is threatening environment, then tweet about it and held them accountable. You can plan a trip to national park and stream it live with your followers showing the biodiversity (plants and animals).

6. Taking Good Care of Migratory Birds

When you are up to saving environment, you need to take good care of seasonal migratory birds. Install and build bird houses so migratory birds have a home to come. They stay in the cozy nests and lay eggs, it will definitely increase their declining number.

7. Volunteer for Environment

When it comes to saving Mother Earth, everybody should participate in restoration projects. Now is the time to make a difference and take part in group activities like cleaning the beach, coastal area or home town, planting the trees, educating the local people. You can also host a clean-up by removing the litter and physical waste from your neighborhood. You can volunteer to help out the wildlife by participating in rescuing and rehabilitation programs.

8. Invest in Environment

We need to make peace with our nature and in order to do so, you can donate money to organizations working for the restoration of environment. If you are a businessman, you can invest your money in environment friendly companies. A huge number of investors are looking in to “Green Investing”. It focuses on the sustainable development to fulfill the needs of the present generation and saving the resources for future generation. Green finance will make the investors more socially responsible individuals.

9. Don’t Take Forests for Granted

There are number of cities near forests like Tonto National Forest near Portland, Arizona and Osceola National Forest near Jacksonville Florida. Forests provide huge area for wildlife and keep the environment clean. Avoid deforestation and spread awareness regarding “Urban Forests”. Urban forestry helps in maintaining ecology of human habitats, reduction in air pollution, tourism attraction and escape from city life.

10. Our Choices Matter

Our daily lifestyle has an impact on our planet. When we throw leftovers of our food, we definitely waste the energy that we use to grow and produce, the leftover stays in the landfills and produce carbon monoxide in the environment which is a poisonous gas. Make a compost of your leftovers and again invest in the environment.

11. Changing Eating Habits

When you are trying to restore the damage that you have done to your ecosystem, some changes in eating habits can easily make a huge positive impact on environment. Consuming vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds will be helpful for environment as they need less energy, land and water and more importantly they emit few greenhouse gases. The production of red meat is a major contributor in GHG’s mainly carbon dioxide and methane. Hence less consumption of beef and mutton will be eco-friendlier habit.

Try to focus on the products that are locally available. You need to consume seasonal foods and choose products which are based on natural ingredients. Foods grown in your own country has no or low cost of transportation and contributes less in carbon foot printing.

12. Use Less Energy

Replace the old appliances with new ones which are energy efficient. Switch towards energy savers or LED light bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs. Hang your clothes in sun for drying instead of using washing dryer. Turn off all the appliances when you are not using them as there will be no stand by power consumption.

13. Try to be More Active

Its’s obviously healthy to be active in daily life and more importantly it has good impact on our environment. When you need to travel longer distances, take a train or bus instead of your own personal car. For shorter distances, be more physically active and go by walking or riding a bicycle. Walking or riding a bike has no greenhouse gas emission while burning diesel and gasoline in vehicle’s engines puts restoring of environment in danger.

14. Prefer an Electric based Vehicle

Whenever you plan to purchase a car, you should prefer electric car. Electric cars also use fossil fuels but it emits fewer amount of greenhouse gases so there will be less air pollution. Electric cars are now available in cheaper rates in market.

15. Sustainable Beauty Products

We use skin care and beauty products in our daily life. You can make a huge difference by switching to sustainable eco-friendly products. Some perfumes and sprays contains aerosol and hydrocarbons which takes part in the depletion of ozone layer. They end up in the landfill and pollute the environment. Packaging of cosmetics takes hundreds of years to degrade in landfill and cosmetic products also contain toxic chemicals, eventually they end up in soil and oceans and destroys the wildlife.

16. Follow the 3R’s

In order to protect ecosystem, its best to follow the 3R strategy; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Reduce means to cut down the waste generation, Reuse means use the products again and again and the last one is Recycle, it means conversion of old useful thing in to something useful. This strategy will overall improve the environment.

17. Download the app “A World in Support of Act Now”

Act Now is an application available at Google Play Store and Apple Play Store and can be downloaded in smart phone. This is the help developed under UN campaign, it helps the user to understand sustainability. As everyone has a role to play against climate change, this app guides an individual to take steps to live a sustainable life.

18. Speak to Government

There are certain policies made in favor of environment. Speak up when there is a threat to environment. You can talk to your friends and family and make a group, it is the quickest way of communication. Raise your voice whenever its required and join a movement #GenerationRestoration, it is a global movement for the good of people and nature. You can easily make environment group for your family and aware them to follow the slogan “go Green”.

19. Consider Your Travel

Airplanes consumes large amount of fossil fuels and produces high levels of Greenhouse gases. It is better to take less number of flights and meet virtually. If the trip taken is necessary, then take a train as it has less emission of harmful gases than airplanes. If you must travel through airplane then take a non-stop flight, because mostly emissions occur during take-off and landing.

20. Reduce Carbon foot printing

As a responsible individual, keep in check with your carbon foot print and make sure to contribute less in global warming. Because of global warming, earth temperature is rising and causes climate change. Climate change means long term shifts in weather patterns and temperature. Human activities mainly burning of fossil fuels have produced the greenhouse gases, which acts as heat trapping gases eventually rising the temperature.

21. Fashion

You can always rethink your fashion choices. You should prefer clothes made from linen and cotton instead of synthetic material like polyester. Organic clothes are much better for environment. Whenever buying new clothes, check the brand to be sure that they are eco-friendly. You can also buy second-hand clothes or join a clothing swap group. Some of the popular shopping sites like Depop, Asos Marketplace and Poshmark, provide trendy second hand clothes and you can easily sell your own clothes.

22. Green Banking

You know some of the banks invest your hard earned money in fossil fuel industry. You can check the status of your bank on the site bank.green. if the bank is investing in environmental destruction then take a step back from your bank and invest in sustainable bank. Bank.green provides the information about the sustainable banks.

23. Turn down the Air conditioning

Save energy at homes and offices by avoid using air conditioners all the time. Air conditioning will cause more emission of greenhouse gases especially hydrofluorocarbon (HCF) which will damage the restoring process of environment. Use a ceiling fan more frequently to avoid high bills. Invest your money in insulation of house rather than air conditioning. Insulation system will keep the warm air inside the house during winters and hot air outside during the warmer months.

24. Replace Your Utensils

Replenishing an ecosystem is not an easy task. You need to take all the necessary steps to restore the damage. You can replace your daily kitchen metal utensils with biodegradable utensils. Biodegradable utensils are available in the market; they are made from natural materials like wood, cornstarch or potato starch. For metal Stainless steel is a top choice as eco-friendly utensil because it is resistant to corrosion and recycle able.

25. Go Digital

We are living in 21st century and now is the time to go digital. The Covid-19 Pandemic was a wake-up call for human beings and people worked from their homes. The waste generated by paper consuming industries is very high. It is better to try promoting the digital skills in workplace. Store the documents on clouds and websites and avoid the old trend of printing documents.

Digital technologies can help predict the environmental patterns by studying the data regarding environmental conditions. This can be used to make better policies for environment. Environmental decisions can be made through digital technology.