Earth Day Health and Wellness

#EarthDay2015

Wednesday, April 22, 2015carly

From Carly, With Love

Today marks Earth Day Canada's 25th anniversary. That means for my entire life we've been celebrating Earth Day. And as long as I can remember, I've been doing my part to help protect our beautiful planet and prevent the effects of climate change.

There are so many ways that you can reduce your carbon footprint on a daily basis. And little changes add up and can have a big impact over time.

From Carly, With Love

From Carly, With Love

Transportation is one of the greatest contributors to a warming planet. It accounts for 24% of our carbon emissions. And yet there are so many cleaner alternatives out there to get you from point A to point B. 

Here are some carbon-free options:

  • Walk
  • Run
  • Bike (if you don't have one, rent one, or use a bike share program)
  • Skateboard
  • Scooter
  • Rollerblade
  • Some people may be able to canoe or kayak to their destination 
    • Or skate in the winter

Here are some less carbon-intensive alternatives:

  • Take public transportation
  • Carpool
  • Drive an electric vehicle (and charge it with renewable-sourced electricity)
  • Work from home
  • Use teleconference options for meetings
  • Instead of taking many shorter vacations, take one or two longer ones to reduce your amount of plane travel
  • If you do need to drive somewhere (as many of us do) consider buying carbon offsets, or use some of the other suggestions I've listed to offset your footprint
It's also important to make sure your vehicle is in good shape to increase the fuel efficiency of your car and reduce carbon emissions.

Make sure you:

  • Properly inflate your tires
  • Use the appropriate octane fuel for your vehicle
  • Drive the speed limit
  • Service your vehicle regularly
  • Don't idle! (It's so unnecessary)

From Carly, With Love

From Carly, With Love

There are so many other things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint and to help the environment.

  • Use reusable water bottles, dishware, and cutlery
  • Don't litter
  • Take short showers or turn the water off while you're not rinsing
  •  Eat more veggie or vegan meals
  • Recycle paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, cans (and remember to rinse out all your containers, otherwise they'll likely just end up in the landfill anyway)
  • Compost your green waste
  • Reuse your grey water
  • Take some bags along while you're out for a walk and pick up some garbage along your route (or organize a community clean-up - speak to your city, they'll usually supply you with gloves and garbage bags)
  • Turn the water off while you brush your teeth
  • Turn the lights off when you're not in the room
  • Unplug your appliances / electronics (even if they're off, they still use up energy when they're plugged in)
  • Think before printing
  • Read books / magazines via an e-reader
  • Only wash your clothes when they're actually dirty
  • Resort to a minimalist wardrobe
  • Don't use chemicals or pesticides (try making your own homemade, cleaner and greener versions)
  • Donate gently-used items instead of just throwing them away
  • Grow your own produce
  • Buy local

From Carly, With Love

From Carly, With Love

What I wore on my hike to Dewey's Island Nature Reserve...

Sunglasses - River Island (from England - old) // Buff - Buff // Tshirt - Forever 21 (old) // Pants - Old Navy (old) // Hiking Socks - Icebreaker from Algonquin Outfitters // Hiking Boots - Merrell from Threads Lifestyle

From Carly, With Love

From Carly, With Love

Climate change is a real issue. We live in an innovative, industrial society and although this has many benefits to us, it also causes many negative effects for our planet. Many of the actions we can take to reduce our carbon emissions are just as easy to do as if we didn't do them, so why not choose the greener alternative?

I'll leave you with something to consider - - - As I said, climate change is a real issue, with real effects, and "save the planet" is a term that you've no doubt heard numerous times. However, our planet has undergone at least 5 major ice ages in the Earth's history, species have become extinct and new species have developed, forests have burnt down only to have the land rejuvenate itself and learn to prosper again. Of course our activity has a large impact on the planet, of course this impact is mainly negative, however, the Earth has undergone many a disaster and despite all that, it continues to survive. Not everyone cares about climate issues, because not everyone cares about the planet (which is extremely unfortunate) but at the end of the day, I think our Earth will be alright, it's the human species we should be worried about. Our planet will live on, but because of the effects we have on this Earth, it is our species which will eventually become extinct.

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Earth Day Canada - "Earth Day Canada's mission is to foster and celebrate environmental respect, action and behaviour change that lessens our impact on the earth. Earth Day's international day of environmental action - April 22nd - touches the lives of millions of Canadians."

Learn more about Earth Day here.


What are your thoughts on climate change and global warming? Do you carbon offset your travels? What other things do you do to minimize the impact you have on our planet?


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