Introducing you to... earth

Written by: Caroline Kim

Saturday October 9, 2021

Earth is many things, but the first thing I think of when I hear the word “earth”, is home. It's home to not only 7.9 billion humans, 8.7 million species of animals, and 391,000 species of vascular plants, but it’s also home to an annual human production of approximately 2.6 trillion pounds of trash. In fact, in 2018, the U.S. alone produced over 292.4 million municipal solid, and nearly 50% of it was left to be thrown into landfills. Additionally, the average American produces over 2,000 pounds of trash each year. Plastic waste by Americans increased 40% from 2000 to 2018, and it is the hardest waste to recycle: only 8.7% of all plastic waste was recycled in 2018. Fortunately, there are some practices that you can immediately start incorporating into your lifestyle: stop littering, pick up trash, and consider the use of reusable containers as a pose to plastic bags. When you go on hikes, be on the lookout for trash, and pick it up! Bring friends and family with you and make it an event. It costs nothing, and you get great exercise along with some quality time outdoors.

Excess waste and trash is only one of the many issues created by humans that harm the environment; Other harmful practices include overpopulation, pollution, the burning of fossil fuels, and deforestation, which has resulted in erosion, drastic climate change, and the deterioration of air quality. By harming the environment, we put all those living on earth in danger: sea creatures, plants, land animals, our pets, and our fellow humans. My goal is to promote alternative functions that would help decrease the damage done to earth. Some eco- friendly practices include biodegradable products, avoiding the use of bottled products, switching to reusable products, promoting ethically made fashion, and simply avoiding littering. In the upcoming posts, I will be talking more in depth about the individual concerns above, as well as the conscious practices.

Sources:

Dasgupta, Shreya. “How Many Plant Species Are There in the World? Scientists Now Have an Answer.” Mongabay Environmental News, 12 May 2016, news.mongabay.com/2016/05/many-plants-world-scientists-may-now-answer/#:~:text=Scientists%20now%20have%20an%20answer,-by%20Shreya%20Dasgupta&text=There%20are%20about%20391%2C000%20species,Kew%2C%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom.

Hallman, Carly. “The Trash One Person Produces in One Year.” TitleMax, 14 Apr. 2021, www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/lifestyle/trash-one-person-produces-year/.

Deer, Ryan. “Landfills: We're Running out of Space.” RoadRunner Recycling, 4 Mar. 2021, www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/landfills-were-running-out-of-space.

“What a Waste 2.0.” Trends in Solid Waste Management, datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html.

Society, National Geographic. “Human Impacts on the Environment.” National Geographic Society, www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-human-impacts-environment/?q=&page=1&per_page=25.