Aren't we all just waiting for our resources and civilization to shrivel up, just like the alien conspiracy theories said they would? No man, not me, I'm trynna stay on this planet for a while, so my future generations of family and friends families are able to live long and healthy lives till we are crusty and old! With that being said how do we do that? With sustainability. Well being as sustainable as possible in every given moment!
What is sustainability, and how can we achieve it? Well a rough definition I'll provide here is that sustainability (in terms of the environment) is the ability to avoid depleting too many resources so we can maintain an ecological balance. Right now across the world, specifically in developing countries, our resource use (or carbon footprint) is about the size of the Las Vegas valley per person. Like literally there's not enough land to consumption ratio. That's crazy. Now with that being said how can we fix that? Well honestly it's a never ending search and development, this is where science is crucial! Of course we can all (ideally) consume less meat products, but what about the resources it takes to make so many other things like our clothes, differing food ingredients, electronics (not to mention the long history of labor abuse), travel, and etc..
For example, palm oil. It's found in lipsticks, cookies, butter, bread and snacks for preservation. The palm oil industry, besides the agricultural industry, sits at the top for contributors of deforestation and global warming. That means Oreos, although vegan, are not sustainable. Also clothes take up so much of our water for manufacturing, like seriously it takes like 700 gallons of water to make 1 shirt. That's like at least 50,000 gallons of water just in our wardrobes! There are however more and more brands popping up that offer eco-friendly and sustainable solutions to all of these issues, and there are more developing! Like zero waste companies offering reusable rags, make up wipes, dishes, containers, bags, produce bags, pads, mensural cups (those are actually great!), snacks, chocolates, and so many other goodies!
Here are some links:
It's our responsibility to educate ourselves on the nature of our own carbon foot prints and find ways that we can reduce it, or at the very least reduce our support to the industries that support the exploitation and mistreatment of our Earth's resources and the animals and people on it. Thanks for reading!