The world currently has a whopping 7 billion people residing in it. With the planet falling back to accommodate everyone’s need for resources, a sustainable lifestyle is what everyone should ideally pick. By 2050, the world’s population may reach a whopping 10 billion. It will imply more demand for – food, housing, shelter, and other aspirations.
A large number of people in the present society are not able to meet their basic needs. Therefore the addition of another two-three billion might create a void that will be hard to fill.
Henceforth, in such a graving situation, choosing sustainable living might prove to be a good choice.
What is a sustainable lifestyle?
A sustainable lifestyle means opting for a living that only includes your basic requirements without harming the availability of natural resources for future generations. It weighs more on using renewable resources and less on earth’s natural resources.
According to the UN Environment Programme, if the global population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, we could need “the equivalent of almost three planets…to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles.”Therefore, sustainable living is the need of the hour!
Let us look at a few ways that one can adapt to live a sustainable life.
1.Shop Different
“Quality over quantity.” Try to go with this phrase. When you are in dire need of new clothes, only then choose to buy them. Also, when you decide to get new clothes, try choosing second-hand stuff or go to thrift stores. This will ensure a longer lifecycle for the pieces of clothes, hence, less waste production.
Even if you do not want some clothes any longer, do not just throw them away into waste. Either directly give them to someone whose style matches with yours and who is willing to take them. Or donate them to someone who is in need. Do not try to make this process through some company retailer.
Consume Less Energy
Some estimations reveal that household energy usage is leading to 21% of global C02 emissions. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has emphasized clean energy consumption and clean water for achieving a sustainable planet. This was highlighted in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Turning off lights when not required is no more the only necessary thing. A lot more needs to change as well. This includes bathing with cool (regular) water and using hot water only when extremely unavoidable. Try to cook without using an oven, gas, or a stove. Replace the bulbs in your house with energy-efficient ones. Use less of all the objects that emit CFCs, and instead focus on natural cooling and air.
Go Public
Try to choose public transports instead of traveling in your private vehicles always. It will ensure lesser carbon gas emissions and hence will be a contributor to de-cleansing the oxygen level of the world. Also, not only with vehicles but numerous other things can be done together as a whole mass.
For instance, a whole community living or society can decide a time when all of them will not switch on their lights or use any electric energy consuming product. Therefore, anything done publicly involves mass participation. In turn, this allows everyone to have the baggage of responsibility on themselves.
Re-use and Re-cycle
In times like ours, where everything is made available to us by multinational companies at just a hand’s distance, reusing and mending things might be a distant option for many.
According to Mattias Wallander, CEO of USAgain, a textile-recycling company, Americans now buy five times as much clothing as compared to what they did in 1980. When people tend to replace older things with newer items, the older products go to waste. This accounts for carbon footprint emissions.
Henceforth, if you use a product until it becomes severely unusable, it will allow you to create less waste for the environment in general.
Image by anncapictures from Pixabay
Waste Reduction
Opt for meal planning to avoid wastage of excess food. Replace paper objects or non-renewable goods with things that can be washed and re-used again. For instance, try avoiding paper towels or tissue papers that directly go to waste after one time use.
Hence, try to use things that can get reused again and again in place of one-time-use products. Also, for home food wastes that include vegetable peels, spoiled food, and other biodegradable products, try not to throw them away in the garbage. Instead, go for vermicomposting, which will serve the purpose of nourishing the soil and in turn, become a benefactor of the environment.
Photo by Eva Elijas from Pexels
Conclusion
The United States Environmental Protection Agency believes that to follow sustainability, creating and maintaining conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations is necessary.
Therefore, to create a perfect balance for, availability of resources for present and future generations, a sustainable lifestyle becomes a necessity. With the world population growing every minute, creating new resources each second is not possible. Henceforth, choosing the beneficial way to live and evolving for the betterment of the human race seems to be the best possible option!
For more articles, click here: The Need of Sustainable Shopping
SOURCES: 1.https://thehula.com/blog/10-easy-sustainable-lifestyle-habits-to-adopt/ 2.https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/resource-efficiency/what-we-do/sustainable-lifestyles 3.https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/sustainable-living-definition 4.https://www.sustainablefriends.com/sustainable-living/
