By Nikki Florio |
While some of us have mild intentions of joke about what we want our resolutions to be for the New Year, a few take hold and create positive change.
Why Green Resolutions?
The Earth is currently experiencing the sixth great mass extinction. While our five previous mass extinctions have been triggered from natural occurrences – i.e. geologic/meteorological events – this is the first mass extinction in history to be caused by a single species: humans.
It’s not just that we’re losing anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 or so plant and animal species each year; it’s that we’re disrupting entire ecosystems needed to sustain all life.
What Benefits The Planet Benefits Ourselves
If you are asking yourself if we can stop extinction, the answer is yes.
In fact, the problem does not lie in the question, “Is there anything we can do to help stop this extinction?” because change of consumptive habit would nullify the problem, but rather, “Will we do anything to stop environmental degradation and mass extinction?”
These questions can be answered and acted upon with our personal resolutions. Every decision we make – from the cereal we eat for breakfast, to how long we sit idle in our car, talking on the cell phone with the engine running, has an effect on the planet.
The greatest change will occur if we are active in our resolutions. Start today. Decide what is truly important and modify consumptive habits to ensure the best outcome.
For example, pay attention to what you eat.
When we go to the store and purchase industrialized foods from Post, Frito-Lay, etc., we are getting products that are made primarily (unless it is an organic line) from genetically modified ingredients (corn, soya, canola, potatoes, rice, oats, etc.) or even eating animals who have only been fed GM feed.
These foods are produced, processed and packaged in a manner which is made to deliver the highest yield at the lowest cost, regardless of quality. Genetically modified foods are designed by biotechnology companies whose prime concern is financial gain, not human or environmental health. GM foods have a median nutritional value, they degrade the soil, and they are physiologically damaging to insects and animals that feed on them. (Sows, fed a diet of 100 percent GM corn, have progressively produced smaller litters and their milk production has dried up earlier, and rats fed a heavy diet of GM corn developed smaller kidneys and changes in the composition of their blood. See news.independent.co.uk.)
While sows and rats are certainly not human beings, there is not much difference between one mammal eating 100 percent GM foods and another, mainstream Americans, eating 70 percent. While the UK and New Zealand have extensive GM labeling mandates, our government has declined labeling for GM foods.
Other ways to modify our lives include:
• Being attentive to what, where and how we drive
• How we choose to recreate, our home/business living habits
• Our carbon habits
• How we live as families
Why Go Green?
It is important for us to understand that products that we purchase and businesses we support have a direct effect on the environment, the economy and ourselves. We are the last generation which has the opportunity to save thousands of species from being wiped clean, unnaturally, from the face of the Earth.
We need to make a stand.
Lifestyle Modification
When we modify our lifestyles and shop more sustainably, we ensure, for all living beings on the planet, a healthy place to exist and flourish.
Live well.
References:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3667300.stm
www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update35.htm
www.stopextinction.org/
www.organicconsumers.org/gelink.cfm
