Why we should love our planet
by Dustin Woods
Visionary Columnist
April 22 marks the 49th commemoration of Earth Day and, like every year, the holiday will most likely come and go without the fanfare it deserves.
The planet that gives us everything we need to live is having a rough time lately. If you don’t agree there is a rapidly growing and increasingly concerning problem facing the planet due to climate change, then you are not just a part of the problem. You are a part of the ongoing persistence of the problem.
Further, you are contributing to the exponentially increased cost to addressing climate change once we finally do so.
This Earth Day every living being on the planet needs every human being to make a conscious decision to lessen their impact on global warming and to follow that decision up with action. I know saving the planet is a daunting task far greater than any one person’s ability to achieve.
It’s true we can’t do it alone. But it won’t ever happen if each of us (including you) don’t take actions to reverse course on greenhouse gas emissions.
So, this year I’m going to give you three relatively easy things you can do to lessen your impact on global warming. I did not include recycling, because I hope at this point, everyone is already doing this simple task.
First: One day a week, don’t eat red meat. I know nobody really likes those braggadocios vegetarians or vegans who seem to only have chosen this diet so they can tell everyone about how great they are. Relax, I’m not asking you to be one of them.
What I do want you to know; producing beef is almost ten times more harmful to the climate than producing a similar amount of rice according to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit non-political organization providing information about the impacts we have on the environment.
I love meat and proudly proclaim my omnivore status, but I’d like to continue to go outside during the daytime over the summer and if it means I must eat vegetables for an entire meal at least one day a week to continue to enjoy summertime, I think it’s a small price to pay.
Second: Either sign up for wind power from your electric provider or install solar panels or a wind turbine. Electricity generation in 2017 accounted for 34 percent of the total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions and in 2016, 76 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions were caused by fossil fuel combustion according to the Energy Information Administration.
Yes, we can reduce this number by using less electricity through changing our habits or by taking measures to make our homes more energy efficient and those are substantive steps you can take to reduce your own bill.
But we need to send a message to the energy companies to let them know we don’t want to take part in their dirty solutions to our everyday problems and we are willing to pay slightly more now for electricity so we will have a habitable earth for humanity later in the future.
Third: I think the biggest ask I have of you is to consider an electric or hybrid vehicle for your next vehicle purchase. Yes, this is a little more expensive way for you to limit your impact on climate change, and I respect that fact. I know it’s not much of an option for the many of us who struggle to make it from paycheck to paycheck.
Consider buying a used hybrid or an electric vehicle for your next vehicle purchase. For those of you who live comfortably it’s time to consider how long such comfort will last when global temperature raise, the polar ice caps melt, sea levels rise and all those people who used to live on the coast now live in your backyard.
We can all take a million different actions to lessen our deleterious impacts on the climate we just need to pick some and stick to them. Please think long and hard about what you can do comfortably and make it not only a habit but a full-on life style change.
You can take comfort in knowing you are doing something to improve the lives of every human on the planet today and all the ones to be born. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step; take yours.
The Gayly. 4/22/2019 @ 4:44 p.m. CST.