Tag: Environment

Food Waste: Healthy Ways to Help Our Planet

Food Waste: A Pressing Concern 

by Tigress 

When you think about conserving energy you usually just think to turn off your lights or drive your car less, don’t you? Well, there are a lot more waste factors that have been contributing huge amounts to the increase of global climate change. One of those things is wasted food. It’s not just the food itself, either: by wasting the food you are wasting the energy that went into making it. Consider that 30% of the world’s available energy goes into making food, and a lot of it is lost or wasted. This has become a problem due to the increasing demand for food products worldwide which is increasing the amount of food being splurged (using too much too quickly).

Out of all the food produced in a year, ⅓ of it is either thrown away, lost, or doesn’t even get transported to a store. According to WWF this is approximately 1.3 billion tons of food–and that’s per year. This is enough to feed millions of people deprived of proper amounts of food. Of course, that is not the only problem with food waste. The food left rotting away in landfills produces massive amounts of methane, or greenhouse gas emissions. These toxic gasses (along with others) are dangerous to the health of the planet, especially if they keep increasing. These chemicals are harmful to not only the environment but the atmosphere as well. When they damage the atmosphere it allows the invisible energy that comes from the sun––ultraviolet light, or UV rays––to heat up the planet, (basically the invisible energy that comes from the sun to keep us warm comes down from the sun and heats up the planet.)

The Food Production System 

The process people go through to make meat produces the biggest greenhouse gas emissions. In order to raise the animals that are to be used for meat it is necessary to clear away large patches of land by cutting down forests of trees. This increases the carbon dioxide levels in that area. Furthermore, the cattle and other animals they raise leave behind large amounts of methane and nitrous oxide (other forms of greenhouse gasses) that is produced from their waste and bowel functions!

illustration by Callisto 

     The same problems arise in the production of dairy products and certain oils which are in very high demand. On a side note, big industries like this don’t usually treat their animals well, and they live in confined living conditions until they are ready to be slaughtered for their meat.

It is not just animal products that use up a large energy footprint, but vegetables and fruit as well, however not as large. The space needed to grow large crops also requires lots of space which results in more forest clearing and increases carbon dioxide. In addition to that, the fertilizers and chemicals sprayed on the crops are high in nitrous oxide, which is harmful to not only the environment, but to the food as well. (Who wants to eat chemical food? Bleh!)

Graph of Greenhouse Emissions Produced From Food

Image Credit: United Nations: Climate action

Why This Waste is Not a Sustainable or Renewable Resource 

While it’s true that burning waste is a form of fuel and is also a way to get rid of the waste, it is not sustainable. This is because it produces a toxic gas which is hazardous to the health of nearby ecosystems. Not only that, but the CO2 emissions coming from wasted food are so large they are contributing to the overall effect of global warming, and if they keep increasing at their current rate (which would be up to 30% more due to predicted demand) then the earth’s temperatures could go up by 1.5% Fahrenheit in the years between 2030 and 2050.

From a business perspective, the amount of money that goes into food production as well is also unsustainable. The money is wasted along with the food and the energy, which is just as destructive to the economy (the amount of money our country has) as it is to the environment.

Ways You Can Help Food Waste and Food Waste Energy

  • Eat a Healthy and Sustainable Diet: Since animal products use the most energy, to help reduce your energy footprint you can eat a more plant, fruit and nut based diet. Still eating meat is fine, just in a way that is sustainable. You could even try eating more plant proteins rather than the meat itself to get the nutrition you need.
  • Attempt to Cut Down Your Food Waste: Instead of throwing out food at the first sign of spoiling you can find ways of reusing it. You can use softer fruit in things like smoothies and jams and you can use old leaves (vegetables) in things like soup stocks.
  • Be Conservative With the Food You Have: Try to use what you have at home before you go and get more food from the store. Conserve your food and eat your leftovers first so less goes bad since you didn’t eat it in time, requiring it to be thrown away.
  • Buy Local Products: Buying local food products can reduce the energy that is used in transportation and other methods used to produce out of season foods. Have you ever wondered how you could have strawberries in winter when it’s too cold to grow them? Well, it’s because those strawberries were grown and transported from a place where it’s warm enough! A lot more energy goes into out of season foods. Buying organic is also healthy because the food does not have dangerous pesticides and other chemicals sprayed on it. The process of organic farming also leaves a smaller carbon footprint because there are no unnatural fertilizers full of nitrous oxide.
  • Grow Your Own Food: Like buying local food, growing your own will also reduce your energy usage because you are not relying on the big industries that use all that energy.
  • If You Can, Donate to Charities Who Need Food: Part of the problem with wasting food is that the food that is wasted could have been used to feed those in need. So if we can find ways to use the large amounts of food we have and feed even more people, it can help reduce the food waste.

Wasted Energy in General 

Of course, it isn’t just food waste that is hurting the planet, there are many other resources that are wasted, such as oil, electricity, and waste. If we can be conservative in the use of all things, then energy can be reduced. But these types of goals only work if enough people are involved and want to make a difference. There is no Planet B for us to run off to after we have wasted all our planet’s resources, and it is not a sustainable way to live in general. If we are always relying on the big industries that use unsustainable methods to create their products then the problems at hand won’t get any better. If things are to change, the consumers (the people who use products – like us!) and the producers (the people who make them) have to be involved.


Works Cited: 

“Fight Climate Change by Reducing Food Waste.”  worldwildlife.org.  WWF.  Accessed 

     Dec 20, 2022.  https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/fight-climate-change-by-preventing-food-waste#:~:text=But%20wasted%20food%20isn't,more%20potent%20than%20carbon%20dioxide.

“Food and Climate Change: Healthy Diets for a Healthier Planet.”  un.org.  United 

     Nations: Climate Action.  Accessed Dec 20, 2022.  https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/food?gclid=CjwKCAiAy_CcBhBeEiwAcoMRHK90Sd285rxuFqmyj0RqNt_GA0qQY04NiLPllsxF6LYFu83sVabeURoCNugQAvD_BwE

Muznik, Sara.  “9 reasons why we better move away from waste-to-energy, and      embrace zero waste instead.”  zerowasteeurope.eu.  Zero Waste Europe.  Published 

     Feb 27, 2018.  Accessed Dec 20, 2022.   https://zerowasteeurope.eu/2018/02/9-reasons-why-we-better-move-away-from-waste-to-energy-and-embrace-zero-waste-instead/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWaste%2Dto%2Denergy%E2%80%9D%20is%20often%20described%20as%20a,without%20delivering%20what%20it%20promised.

“The Energy Loss.”  toogoodtoogo.com.  Save Food: Help the Planet.  Accessed Dec 

     20, 2022.  https://toogoodtogo.com/en-us/movement/knowledge/the-energy-loss

Tigress is a regular contributor to One Girl One Planet.

Books for Kids Who Love the Planet

Seekers by Erin Hunter

Book Series Review by SolarBear

The fantastical Seekers series by Erin Hunter––the author of the much-loved Warriors saga––is about three bears and their shape-shifting guide journeying to a place of legends, a peaceful home for all bears where the spirits dance in the sky: The Last Great Wilderness. I’ve done my best to offer a no-spoiler review of this magical series.

Toklo, a brown bear cub, is driven away by his mother when his sick brother dies and is left to find his own path in life. Lusa, a lively black bear, has lived her life in the Bear-Bowl where she is taken care of by humans until she comes across a reason (and a chance) to escape her confined life and live in the wild like a true black-bear. Kallik, a white bear cub, is separated from her brother and mother during an orca attack out on the unforgiving Melting Sea. Soon, the dispirited Toklo, bewildered Lusa, and lost Kallik manage to find each other. Meanwhile, Ujurak, a shape shifting brown bear that though younger than the others seems wiser than them all, joins them, and together, with a relentless determination and unwavering hope, they battle through nature’s obstacles and obstacles far worse, such as the unnatural cities, dangerous roads, human-hunters with guns or “firesticks,” and horribly deadly oil rigs. So the bears begin to seek, in a quest for the rare peace and wilderness which humans have almost destroyed.

The Seekers series consists of: book one, The Quest Begins; book two, Great Bear Lake; book three, Smoke Mountain; book four, The Last Wilderness; book five, Fire in the Sky; and concludes with the sixth volume, Spirits in the Stars.

And if you want more, there’s also Seekers: Return to the Wild, a sequel series.

Recommended for ages 9 and up

Earthrise

EARTHRISE

The Power of Perspective — By Callisto

Over 50 years ago, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in battle.

It was a battle of power, each side trying to out-do the other with nuclear power…and rockets.

The USSR launched the first satellite (Sputnik I) into space on October 4th, 1957. Then the Soviets launched the first living animal into orbit on November 3rd, 1957, a former stray dog named Laika (who tragically died, partially due to the fact that they had no way to recover the dog’s capsule from space), yet again outdoing the United States who hadn’t launched anything into orbit yet.

Then the USSR launched the first person into space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on the 12th of April, 1961, yet again (as you may have guessed) leaving the USA behind in the space race.

But not for long.  In the States, a space program had begun: NACA (soon to be NASA) which grew, and from it came the Mercury Program, which sent the first American person, astronaut Alan Shepard, into space; then the Gemini Program; and next, the Apollo Program.

You may have heard of some of these programs, but I’m almost certain that you’ve heard of Apollo. You’ve heard of Apollo 11, most likely… Because, hey, that’s the program that sent us to the moon for the first time!

But there were many very important lesser-known Apollo missions previous to––and following––Apollo 11. Like Apollo 1, which, though it never sent its crew to space and ended tragically with the deaths of three astronauts, may have saved NASA before it had barely started due to the hard lessons learned from the tragedy. Or Apollo 7, when NASA was first able to test out a manned Saturn V rocket in orbit.

But most important to this post––and to the entire environmental movement––was Apollo 8. Apollo 8 was the first mission to reach lunar orbit. And astronauts James Lovell Jr., William Anders, and Frank Borman were along for the ride, which launched on December 21st, 1968, for a six-day mission. Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight to orbit an astronomical object: the Moon. Still, they never touched down on the Moon at all.

So why was this mission important, you may wonder, if they weren’t even landing on the Moon, and just flew around it for a bit?

You see, when Apollo 8 was launched into trans-lunar orbit, the astronauts were traveling farther away from our planet than any others before had traveled. The mission was not only important to the space program, because of all of the maneuvers, calculations, and theories they got to try in real life, and in preparation for a moon landing, but it was important in helping us realize something big…and very beautiful.

During the first-ever lunar orbit, when the Apollo 8 spacecraft came around to face Earth again, astronaut William Anders took one of the most famous photos in history: Earthrise.

Astronauts had looked back at Earth before, and taken photos of it, but what happened when Apollo 8 first went to the Moon was very special.

This photo was seen all over our world almost as soon as the astronaut photographer returned to Earth.

Nowadays this may not look that impressive. In fact, you’ve probably seen this very picture before.  But imagine you hadn’t. Imagine that you lived in a world where no one had ever looked at Earth like this; never seen what our planet looks like from the outside. That’s what it was like, when the world saw this photo. People weren’t just looking up at the Moon at night, and seeing another world that most can only ever dream of stepping upon, and at this point, no one had; now, they were looking at their world. Our world.

This was the world upon which their parents, and parents’ parents, and their ancestors, had lived…the world upon which they now lived. And they saw that the planet that they were looking at, rising above the lunar surface, was alive. They could tell it was alive. Even if they had not known what planet it was, they would have been able to tell that this planet harbored life. They could see that it was blue, and green, and that it was living and breathing. That was the first time we’d ever really laid eyes upon it, and had seen how small it really was, even just looking at it from our own Moon. Millions of people saw our planet, looking as small and insignificant as our Moon does from here.

But the truth is that it’s not insignificant, and neither is our Moon. Every person I’ve ever met, every mountain I’ve ever climbed, every building I’ve ever sheltered in, every idea I’ve ever come up with, every friend I’ve ever made… is from that planet.  This is the only home we’ve ever known, was the thought of almost everyone who laid eyes on this simple photo. And now it looked as small as a marble, on the front page of almost every newspaper and magazine.

We realized how small and delicate our planet is, but also how powerful the life is that thrives on it is. And for a lot of people, the ones who paid attention, the ones who were smart enough to listen and learn, knew: that planet––our planet––is in danger.

For even then, we already had hints, serious hints, that our climate could collapse. We knew we were harming it, and in more ways than one. So, the few who were smart enough to listen and learn, but also care about our future, thought: I’ve got to do something to save it.

A lot of them did. And according to Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, that was when the environmental movement was born, really born. Environmentalists advocated for the stopping of littering and the drilling for oil,  for saving almost extinct creatures, and many more wonderful things, sometimes for the first time. They even helped the world stop whaling!

But unfortunately many of the things that they were fighting for have not yet been accomplished. People still litter. People still pollute. People still drill into that very world whose picture had been taken on that winter day in 1968, turning the oil that they find into fuel which we pump into our cars and planes and boats and factories and houses. And that, in turn, goes into our delicate atmosphere that has protected us and which harbors life, the very life of which we are a part.

And still we choke our planet in toxic gases and deadly waste which we throw carelessly into the earth and cover it with the ground as if, when we can’t see it, it’s not there. But it is. We know it is. We know what we’re doing, how we’re destroying our planet. We know it’s suicide and mass murder in the making. And…most importantly of all…We know how to stop it.

But not enough of us reach out of our own egocentric worlds to do enough about it. Not enough of us seem to care about what lies beyond our own daily lives and daily comings and daily goings. Not enough of us seem to be able to open our minds to what we really are: a species committing that suicide and that mass murder, and realize that, if we don’t do anything more to stop it, our presence on our planet may be as brief as the blink of an eye.

We all have intelligent minds, capable of doing what we did to get as far as we have gotten, and capable of saving us from our mistakes.  Many of us have convinced ourselves that we’re not doing anything wrong, and that everyone who tells us that it is are the ones that are wrong.  But they aren’t. Deep down, we all know that they aren’t. We know what we’re doing. But stopping doing it, and working out new solutions, isn’t convenient enough for many of us. It won’t make us any more money, will it? It won’t turn a profit. Many of us don’t seem to think that if you just have enough money, it will solve everything, and don’t realize that they can’t just buy a ticket out of here when our planet dies.

Maybe we all need to open our eyes again. Open them like so many people on this planet did all those years ago, when they blurred with tears as they gazed at the picture of their home world. Maybe, if those of us who never listened or believed, saw the world as everyone first saw it back in 1968…it would impact them just in the same way! Maybe it would help them to see the world as it really is. Because if none of us realize what a horrible end we’re creating for ourselves and the many other creatures of our planet, we never really have: we’ve never really seen our world.

Let’s glimpse our world again.

Happy New Year

yellow and red light streaks

New Year’s Resolutions for the Earth

What can YOU do for the earth this year?

Happy New Year!

In many cultures, the new year means making resolutions––that is, promising yourself that you will make some positive changes in the coming year. You might try to get rid of bad habits, throw yourself even more into your studies or special interests, or attempt something challenging. You might say, “I’m going to stop chewing my fingernails!” or “I’m going to train to run a marathon!” or “I’m going to read The Lord of the Rings trilogy!” (if you tackle that final one, be careful; I’m reading it now, and often find I get lost about midway into a paragraph when one of the characters begins recounting their history).  Or––and this is my challenge: “I’m going to publish blog posts more often!”

Of course, these are all worthwhile choices.  But what if you did something not just to nurture yourself, but to nurture the whole planet?

Actually, it would be nurturing to you, too…but in a different way. Like flossing your teeth (even when you’re too tired), but your dentist compliments you at your next dental check-up to see how healthy your gums and teeth are. Or like studying (even when you’d rather be doing anything else), but then when you take a test, you realize you really do understand the subject and receive a better grade. Or like you make your bed (even though you don’t want to), but that night, as you climb into bed, you find it’s sooo much more comfortable to slide under smoothed-out sheets and flop your head onto a fluffed-up pillow…This year, make some resolutions to do something really nurturing for the earth. And while planting a tree or going on a trash-pickup are great, I challenge you to try something you can do year round, like using a recycling bin (see this post if you haven’t got one yet), composting, or growing a garden.

Here are some examples:

Learn! Start researching climate change online or at the library. Remember: knowledge is power! Can’t participate in Fridays for Future, in which kids strike for climate justice? Then use Friday to do something else healthy for the planet, and think up new Earth-friendly habits for you and your family to try. For example…

Stop! One of the best things to do for the planet, weirdly enough, is to stop. Stop littering…it may seems like a little bit, but if everyone does it, it really adds up to a big mess. Stop using single-use items like plastic cutlery, plastic water-bottles, plastic straws, plastic containers, plastic wraps and bags… basically, all that plastic stuff, whenever you can. Stop shopping for things you don’t actually need.  Stop wasting…which leads me to the next one…

Save! Save water…don’t run it while you brush your teeth, make sure the dishwasher has all the dishes you can realistically fit in it, and don’t leave faucets dripping. Save electricity…don’t keep your lights on when you don’t need them, only use your heating and cooling systems when you have to, and don’t leave doors open when the heating or air conditioning is on. Save food…here in North America, especially in the United States, we have a real issue with food waste. A seemingly innocent habit of tossing out a little more food than we should leads to 40% of food being wasted in the United States––nearly half of our food! That huge amount of wasted food increases the sizes of landfills, emitting greenhouse gasses, and meanwhile, eleven million kids are wondering when or whether they will have their next meal.

Think, now. 

Think about the things you can do.

Think about how wonderful this earth is.

Think about how easy––yet unimaginably useful!––one little good habit can be.

Think about ways you might stop, save, and/or learn.

Think.

Consider.
I’ll leave you to it.

Underwater Perspective

by Callisto

You step into the warm sand and wiggle your toes. Then you run towards the ocean, and you can hear the laughter of kids building sand castles and splashing in the salty water. When you reach the water, a smile comes to your face; it seems like an endless expanse of swimming pool. You step deeper into the water and waves lap around your knees; then you step in even deeper, and the sea is up to your waist; next, you bend down, and let the water slip around your shoulders. You let out a cry, because the water is cold; your bathing suit won’t protect you much from that. Then you leap forward and start swimming.

Your arms and legs paddle the water, and propel you farther into the ocean. You take a deep breath and close your mouth, then dive into the blue sea. You had put on goggles to protect your eyes, so you are able to see through the water. You swim downward, and touch the sand that has settled at the bottom with your hands. The sand slips through your fingers and makes a cloud around your arms, before drifting back down––or being carried away––by the ocean current. By this time you need air again, and swim back up to the surface.

Once your head breaks through the surface of the water, you gasp in lungs full of air, but once you catch your breath you don’t hesitate to dive under again. This time you see pieces of shells mixed amongst the sand below. You see a conch shell, and your heart soars with delight; it is whole, not a chip of it is missing. You reach down to grab it, but it moves just beyond your grasp, so you swim closer to it…but again it seems to move further away. You try to grasp it a few more times, but just as before, it never lets you touch it. You look around to see if any of the other shells are affected by the waves, but they haven’t moved a bit. When you look back down at the conch, you realize that it is ten feet below you now. How did it do that? you wonder. You swim toward it, hoping to just grab it…

Suddenly, you realize that you’ve been underwater for almost a minute, and your lungs are screaming for air. You look up, and see the surface far above you. You didn’t notice that you’d swum that far down! A strong current comes out of nowhere, and drags you farther out to sea. You kick and fight the water around you, but it does nothing. The current is too strong. Panic flares through your body. Are you going to drown down here? What are your parents and friends thinking, back up on the beach? Did they see you go under, and are they calling the lifeguard? Or are they all too busy chatting, and have no idea that you are sinking into the ocean’s depths?

All of a sudden, you realize that you are now being carried into a reef. Had you not been in life-or-death danger, you would have been star-struck by the beauty of the diverse corals and other aquatic life around you. You thrash in the water, and notice that you’ve caught the attention of a creature, but you don’t know what it is, because you only see it out of the corner of your eye. Then, you see the conch in front of you, and nearly gasp with surprise. You grab out for it, and to your shock and delight, your hand wraps around it. Suddenly you feel rejuvenated, as if your lungs are full of air again. How did that happen? You don’t care; you’re just glad that it did.

Now, you notice your surroundings. You gaze at the reef in awe. The vibrant colors around you dazzle you, and with the hand that isn’t clutching the conch, you can’t help but reach out and touch a orange brain-coral you drift by. A school of blue fish swim around you and tickle you with their soft fins. A large smile spreads across your face; this feels like a dream. You let the current drag you along, although it’s not nearly as strong as before, and you could easily swim against it if you wanted to.

A sea turtle swims by, but when she sees you, she turns her head away from you defensively. Why would she do that? You’re a human, not a shark; you don’t mean it any harm. The reef suddenly disappears below you, and you find that you are now floating above an underwater cliff. You gaze down it, and stare deep into the fathoms of the ocean and the darkness beneath you. Your curiosity calls you to swim down, and see what lies in the world beneath you. You follow its command, and slip downward, still clutching the magical conch. As you swim leagues beneath the surface, you almost forget that you are a land creature, instead of one of the sea.

When the chill of the deep water creeps into you, you look around, and for a second, you wonder if you have swum into outer space. The only light around you now is the twinkling stars. Or are they stars? They are stars––the stars of the deep sea. They are the light that the creatures down here give off to communicate or lure in lunch. They are stars of bioluminescence. You reach forward to an especially bright star, and find that it is a dragonfish. The small creature looks somewhat like something out of your nightmares, but it also brings a sense of calm to you. It is welcoming you to its home. You follow it as it swims through the abyss, and it shows you the grandeur of its habitat.

You would have followed it forever, if something had not told you to go up. But which way is up? You don’t know for sure, now, but your legs and arms direct you that way. When you go up, you squint, as you are wrapped in warmth and light. The dragonfish cannot follow you, so you say goodbye. When you reach the top of the cliff again, you look around you.

Your heart fills with horror. Everything is lifeless. At first, you think that you are in the wrong place, but recognize the shapes of the coral…or what used to be coral. The skeletons of the coral are pale and brown. A plastic bag drifts by. A plastic bottle lies in the sand. Oil, darker than night, slides around you. How did this happen? How long were you gone? You swim sorrowfully through the dead reef. Even the current seems dead. The sea turtle you saw before swims by, one of her flippers wounded. Now you know why she had turned away from you: she knew what humans could do.

Now, she just looks at you with deep sadness in her eyes. She knows that you, as an individual, are not to blame; it is your kind that are to blame. Your tears mix with the salt water as you think, “It doesn’t have to be this way…it doesn’t!” The turtle turns her gaze away from you. You feel shame for your kind. Having arrived on the beach once again, you sink to your knees in the sand. “It doesn’t!” you exclaim again.

Suddenly your eyes open. You are lying in your bed in your house.

It may have been a dream, but you know that what you saw in the dream is true. “It doesn’t have to be that way,” you say aloud, and with all your heart you know that this is so. But will you do anything to prevent it?

That’s up to you.