I am sure you saw it too. You might have stopped for a second at that story and thought to yourself 'ugh so sad' and moved on to see the party selfies of your friends. Maybe you skipped it when you saw it wasn't a personal photo.
I did too initially and then went back. After that, I could not get the image of the polar bear on the road in between traffic hunting for food in Russia out of my mind. I kept thinking about it the whole of the next day. In fact, I couldn't sleep so I woke up, opened my laptop and started writing this blog post hoping it would give my restlessness some peace and the Earth some rest.
Did you see the face? Why do you think it would walk all those miles and come closer to the human population? In search of food? I saw another image where another polar bear is eating its own cub for food and I am not going to share that with you.
One thing is clear. Global warming is starting at the poles, and the habitat of the polar region is suffering. Don't you think it will trickle down? Don't you think there will be a time when we humans, like the polar bear, would have to eat each other for survival? That would be messy right? We wouldn't want to eat our own babies.
But what are we doing about it? We are just good at playing politics; we are good at this blame game.
This Earth is bursting and is full of crap. What can we do?
Some obvious thoughts? Zero waste living? Eradicating plastic from your life? Turning vegan? Planting more trees?
But here's something you definitely can adapt. Make small changes. So minute that they would make no difference to your life. No. I am not asking you to live a plastic-free life. That would be fantastic though.
Maybe you can avoid that straw and drink out of the glass directly? Or get your own metal straw? Maybe skip the sanitary pads and try to move to menstrual cups?
Here are a few more thing you can adopt.
Skip cling wrap and use plates/banana leaf or anything else to pack/cover your food?
Carry your own bottles and refill water instead of buying new plastic bottles.
Bring back ink pens (even if you use one in this digital era) or a pencil and skip the usage of ball pens.
Do not print anything unless it's absolutely necessary.
Take cloth bags to shop for veggies.
Say no to use-and-throw razor. Or use and throw anything.
Stop using travel-sized products. The smaller it is, the more plastic gets used in the packaging.
Even if you end up buying a chips packet/water bottles during a trek or when you travel, please make sure do not throw it there! It's ruining a beautiful place and spoiling someone else's home. Do you love seeing lays packets in the middle of beautiful scenery? Even better, pick em up from where others left them on the trails.
Eat less meat when you can.
Avoid take away as much as you can.
Work from home one day a week or carpool when you can.
Switch to rechargeable batteries for your remotes and clocks at home
Use a water saving adapters for taps.
Use Eco friendly- cruelty free cosmetics like Juicy chemistry- Soul tree.
Keep a timer before you get into a shower. at least on weekdays.
Say no to fast fashion.
Fifty of us following these small steps will matter so much more than 3-4 people following a complete no waste life. Every little plastic piece we don't use helps nature. It helps the polar bear because trickle effect. We are still in the process of making these changes in our life and here's a tip: Give yourself some credit every time you take an Eco friendly route. :)
Comment below if you have more suggestions. We would LOVE to incorporate it into this article and our life.
Shall we save the world and make it livable? What say?
We very rarely say this 'share-subscribe-like' stuff. But please share this post with people you know — small change. Great effect. Better world.