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Take a break, open a bottle, drink fresh water, throw away the bottle, kill one more grandchild, repeat. Shocking? Quite recently, even though the idea was swirling in my mind for quite a while already, I realized with all the pain that it brings - most of us - even those who don’t realize that - or maybe especially those - are killers of the future.
Each plastic bottle we use will be degraded to microplastic, washed down the ocean, consumed by fish…which will ultimately be consumed by our grandchildren, so by using tremendous amounts of plastic in bottles, packaging - everywhere - we are killing our future. Microplastic damages our microbiome, causes cancer and much more...ok, to put it simple, do you really want to feed your descendants with plastic?
Imagine this: your grandchild, you're giving her (or him) the spoon full of plastic parts. What would you think about such a person?
One of the main problems with all this is that most of the people build a concrete wall between consumption and future generations in their minds, trying to avoid cognitive dissonance between casual understanding and the bitter reality.
The thing is that it is true, and it will hit, it already does.
Plastic is boring, everyone talks about it, and I switched to the paper bags already!
What about CO2 emissions? We are burning thousands of ancient microorganisms which went through dozens of chemical reactions for millions of years under unique conditions. The climate changes caused by the emissions are here already, and it is not that easy to ignore the fire burning near your house as it was before, when people though it is a scam. It is here already, it is killing (actually yes) people now. It will get worse, because we are still pumping poisonous gas into the atmosphere. And for those who think they can offset the emissions by tree planting charities, there is a good calculation that each time you fill the tank you should plant 6-8 trees. Anyone actually does that?
All those emissions further decrease air quality all over the planet, which will lead to further health problems...for our grandchildren, not just us. So, not just feeding baby with the plastic, but also smoking in face. Disgusting and…treacherous, isn’t it?
It might be really hard to digest or even to allow that though in your minds now, but unless with all our actions, like continuing to pack things in plastic bags “just in case”, buying high-consumption car instead of going electric or at least below 1.6l for now will damage health of our kids and grandchildren...and further till there will be no one left on the poisoned damaged planet.
Those are just a few examples of the actions we take and should be fully held responsible for, explaining all those won’t fit into single post or maybe even into single blog. There are much more points that we should think about, actually we should think about all our daily actions from that angle and decide.
But make no mistake. When people are gone, the planet will heal itself anyway as it always did, so we are actually not even that important. We should not apologize to the Earth - but to next generations for the fact that we poison them, mistreat them and leave an unlivable planet behind us.
There is a solution, though, and each one make an impact.
- Understand that each decision and each action of every individual matters. One less plastic bag matters. One less liter of oil used matters.
- Stop using plastic whenever you can
- Always recycle as much as you can
- Tell others how to recycle
- Go electric, vote for those people who think about the future and work on emissions reduction through green energy sources and nuclear energy
- Aim not for the reduction, but for zero (otherwise the planet cycle won’t start the recovery)
- Always check the facts (e.g. usually organic products produce more emissions than non-organic). It is not always what it looks like at first glance
It is not the stones with inscriptions that we will be judged by, but the world we live behind - the world where people will be struggling to survive or the future full of exploration, recovering nature and biodiversity. Stop killing the future!
===Artem Kovalev===
Smth to read about that:
