Why take Small Steps?
WE KNOW ICE CAPS ARE MELTING
NASA say the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming 9% per decade and the thickness has decreased by 40% since the 1960s.
WE KNOW WE HAVE A PLASTIC CRISIS
According to a report by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025 and by 2050 more plastics than fish (by weight). It also states just 5% of plastics are recycled effectively.
WE KNOW OUR PLANET IS WARMING
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) provided the scientific input into the 2016 Paris Agreement where participating governments agreed to keep the global temperature increase below 2ᵒ above pre-industrial levels but to aim for below 1.5ᵒ.
WE KNOW IF WE DON’T REACH THE ABOVE PARIS AGREEMENT TARGETS BY 2025 WE WILL CROSS FUTURE TIPPING POINTS WHICH WILL CAUSE CRISIS AFTER CRISIS FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE AND SOCIETIES.
TO REACH THE 1.5ᵒ TARGET - we all need to consider our environmental impact. We have to hope there will be future technologies to help clean up the greenhouse gases and help reduce our emissions. We have to use our influence on the governments to encourage them to make good decisions for our planet.
Quoting the foreword to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ᵒ “Every bit of warming matters, every year matters, every choice matters”.
Anne Marie Bonneau is the author of The Zero-Waste Chef blog and famously stated “We don’t need a handful of people doing Zero-Waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly”.
I am researching plastic-free bathrooms, reduction in single-use plastics, carbon-footprints, environmentally friendly products, meat-free recipes, recycling tips and more. Following along will allow you to tread more lightly on the earth.
52 Small Steps is a way for you to consider your environmental impact without it becoming all encompassing. Taking 1 Small Step each week will mount to 52 Steps a year which becomes 1 very large step.