Guidelines for and importance of living sustainably
Are you ready to begin making a livable future?
◊ Start by taking time to think about your day-to-day activities in a new way by asking yourself how you can reduce, reuse, recycle, and use more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Reduce:
Only acquire what you need and as much as you will use.
Only use what you need to and as much as you need.
When possible, choose multiple use instead of single use products.
Use items for as long as you can.
Reuse:
Instead of buying something new, buy it used.
Use something you already have in a new way.
Recycle:
Recycle everything you can.
Buy products made from recycled materials.
◊ When possible, use earth-friendly alternatives that are:
- made of materials that come from renewable resources and/or can be recycled
- not made of plastic or other fossil fuel derived materials
- energy efficient
- less toxic (Just because something is labeled ‘organic’ or ‘all natural’ does not necessarily mean it is safe or environmentally friendly. When eaten, some mushrooms are lethal to humans; chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats; and avocados harmful to birds).
Adopt a planet friendly diet1
The planetary health diet below is flexitarian and was designed to be modified for use by different cultures. Quantities are per day, total calories (kcal) = 2,500:
|
Food category |
% total kcal or calories |
daily kcal or calories |
ounces (range) |
grams (range) |
|
Whole grains (rice, wheat, corn and other) |
32 |
811 |
8.2 |
232 |
|
Unsaturated oils |
14 |
354 |
1.4 (0.7 – 1.4) |
40 (20- 80) |
|
Nuts |
12 |
291 |
1.8 (0 - 2.6) |
50 (0 – 75) |
|
Legumes |
11 |
284 |
2.6 (0 - 3.5) |
74 (0 – 100) |
|
Dairy foods (whole milk or equivalents) |
6 |
153 |
8.8 (0 -17.6) |
250 (0 – 500) |
|
Fruits (all fruits) |
5 |
126 |
7.05 (3.5 – 10.7) |
200 (100 – 300) |
|
Added sugars (all sugars) |
5 |
120 |
1.1 (0 - 1.1) |
31 (0 – 31) |
|
Saturated oils |
4 |
96 |
0.42 (0 - 0.42) |
11.8 (0 – 11.8) |
|
Vegetables (all vegetables) |
3 |
78 |
10.7 (7.05 – 21.2) |
300 (200 – 600) |
|
Chicken and other poultry |
2 |
62 |
1 (0 - 2) |
29 (0 - 58) |
|
Fish |
2 |
40 |
0.99 (0 - 3.5) |
28 (0 – 100) |
|
Tubers or starchy vegetables (potatoes and cassava) |
2 |
39 |
1.8 (0 - 3.5)
|
50 (0 – 100) |
|
Beef, lamb and pork |
1 |
30 |
0.5 (0 - 0.99) |
14 (0 – 28) |
|
Eggs |
0.8 |
19 |
0.5 (0 - 0.9) |
13 (0 – 25) |
As consumers we have a great deal of power. If we ask for and buy items that are environmentally friendly, companies will pay attention and there will be increasingly more of such products made.
For information about saving specific resources click on the following links:
Why is it important to live sustainably?
It is very easy in our day-to-day lives to feel isolated from nature. This isolation gives us the sense that we are independent from nature when, in truth, just the opposite is the case. A term often used when discussing nature is ‘ecosystem’. An ecosystem is nature broken down into parts such as a forest or an ocean and is composed of everything in that particular environment (plants, animals, rocks, sources of water, etc.). Each of the organisms in an ecosystem has a function. Some of these functions are important to humans because we depend on them for our well being. Examples of important functions include purification of soil and water, recycling of organic wastes, and break down of pollutants as well as insect pollination, which is necessary for 1/3 of the world’s food supplies. In fact, there are over 10 million species that provide essential functions that cannot be duplicated by humans.2
Unfortunately, human actions have changed ecosystems thereby disrupting the ability of the organisms in them to provide those essential functions.3 In general, after contact with humans, ecosystems tend to be more at risk to further disruption, less complex, and have fewer species. This is a global problem - no place on earth will be unaffected. If no action is taken to correct these problems, ecosystems worldwide could become so damaged that they no longer will support humans resulting in our extinction and that of numerous other species as well.4
How have human actions altered the environment?
The impact people have on ecosystems as a whole (nature) comes from three sources:
- the number of people (current population numbers)
https://populationmatters.org/mythbusting
- the rate of consumption of natural resources (water, fossil fuels, land for growing food, etc.) to support the standard of living of those people
- the technologies used (drilling for oil, mining for coal, etc.) to achieve that rate of consumption5
The goal is to find ways to lessen these impacts. Because the harm is caused by humans, it is up to us to take action.
Links to the other website pages:
Home Climate Solutions Climate Problems Community
Literature cited
Image of earth from http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55418, photographs and other images are from https://pixabay.com.
1 https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission
2 Pimentel D., et al. 2010. Will limited land, water, and energy control human population numbers in the future? Human Ecology 38:599–611.
3 Folk et al. 2011. Reconnecting to the biosphere. Ambio 40: 719-738.
4 Hern, W.M. 1993. Is human culture carcinogenic for uncontrolled population growth and ecological destruction? BioScience 43: 768-773.
5 Harte, J. 2007. Human population as a dynamic factor in environmental degradation. Population and Environment 28: 223-236.