On August 8, according to data from the Global Footprint Network (GFN) WWF partner association has been the day on which the inhabitants of the planet have consumed the total of what the Earth can regenerate in a year, although yes, we are almost missing Five months to end the year.
August 8 was the Earth Overcapacity Day, the point at which we have already consumed everything that is capable of regenerating this planet in a year and sadly, every year, this day is moving forward a little more but we can change our bad habits by gradually starting some of the nine simple gestures that we bring you so that children and adults, learn to take care of our planet. We live in it even if we don't want to realize it.
We are unconscious, very unconscious when it comes to consumption and therefore we are already in an ecological deficit. One more year.
We would need 1.6 planets to meet the demand for natural resources that we generate humans, especially those who live in richer or more developed societies.
Alone in Spain we already consume almost triple What this country is capable of regenerating in a year, we are not aware of what we do and it seems that we are not too convinced that we have to stop.
We have to change our way of life, we emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the oceans and forests can absorb and clean. We deplete the fishing banks. We burn and cut down forests and forests more quickly than nature is able to regenerate or maintain.
We are not aware that we are hurting ourselves and especially the generations that come behind, the generations of our own children.
To comply with the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015 for almost 200 countries, including Spain, we would have to reduce the CO2 footprint to zero something that it seems that we are not going to do and the Paris Agreement will be kept in the same drawer in which previous agreements are kept in which the governments of the world promised to take care of the planet of our children.
And what can we do at home?
The first: raise awareness and raise awareness of the importance of caring for and respecting the environment, the natural environment in which we live.
We have to vindicate and demand to our rulers that the commitments for the environment must be fulfilled, that the companies that pollute cannot see more profitable to pay a fine than to restructure their garbage or their spills. After all, adults are the voice of our children and the planet is more theirs than ours.
In addition, there are behaviors that it is good that we adopt as soon as possible if we have not already adopted them at home:
- We are going to use natural light more and better by opening the blinds and the curtains at home so that the light always enters taking into account what we are going to do in that room and now, on hot days, taking into account that we want light, no heat
- If we are not going to be in a room where the sun shines through the window, especially in the afternoon, closing the blind is one of the most effective methods so that the house does not get too hot.
- The windows sometimes if we open them with a certain logic, we can create air currents that cool the house and help pass the summer's own heat.
- Recycling glass, cardboard and paper, organic and plastic debris and packaging is something that we already do most but that is still essential to reduce energy consumption and therefore the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere.
- Something as simple as reducing the consumption of meat in the family also helps lower CO2 emissions. For example in China, it has been the government that has developed a plan for its citizens to reduce their consumption of meat products by 50% by 2030, a reduction that translates into a reduction in one billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, some figures to take into account.
- Regulate the heating or cooling of our homes if we do it artificially.
- Reduce the consumption of drinking water as much as possible both in the irrigation of house plants and for example, in the cistern we have in the bathroom.
- Is it unpredictable that we buy more clothes or a new appliance when the one we have is still working or when the clothes we have still work for us and feel great? Reducing consumption is also protecting our environment.
- Surely there is some environmental association to which you could subscribe and participate in their activities because in addition to knowing what they do, you will learn many aspects of nature that will surprise you and what is known, is what is best defended.
Among all, as a family, we can propose other measures or start implementing those that are easier for us to gradually reduce our ecological footprint on the planet that our children have lent us.
