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n recent years, the concepts of sustainability and environmentalism have become increasingly popular. With the looming threat of climate change, the need for sustainable living has never been more urgent. In order to address this issue, it is important to understand what sustainability entails. To help you out, we have compiled ten facts about sustainability that will arm you with knowledge about this pressing topic. These are 10 facts about sustainability you need to know:
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1. Reusing a single plastic bottle saves enough energy to charge an iPod for 80 minutes
2. A typical washing machine uses the same amount of energy to wash a full load of laundry as a half-hour session in a gym
3. A typical household’s electricity use can increase by up to 20% when household bills arrive
4. The carbon dioxide emitted from the production of a single plastic bag is enough to inflate over 400 plastic bags
5. Recycling 1 tonne of paper saves about 8 trees, 7,000 liters of water, 345 kWh of energy, and prevents the release of 900 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
6. It takes 1,841 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water
7. It takes 12% of the world’s oil to produce the plastic bags used in the USA alone.
8. It takes 300 years for a plastic bag to degrade
9. The average family uses over 13,000 plastic bags in a lifetime
10. Every hour the equivalent of a truckload of plastic bottles is dumped into a landfill.
What you can do to help the environment
There are many ways to help the environment and make sustainable living a reality. Here are some ideas:
- Plan Your Meals Ahead
One of the easiest ways to lower your environmental impact is by planning what you’re going to eat in advance. Meal planning can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, but the most effective meal plans focus on buying unpackaged food and cooking at home. You can find plenty of resources online, and there are even apps that will remind you what ingredients you need for each meal. Planning ahead not only saves money but also reduces plastic waste (since you won’t have to buy so much packaging).
- Use Alternative Transportation
Another easy way to reduce your carbon footprint is by using alternative transportation when possible. Whether you invest in a bike, use public transportation, walk, or carpool with friends and coworkers, this can make a big difference in terms of emissions created from transportation methods.
- Reduce Your Waste
Efficiently sorting your trash is another way to conserve resources and limit waste production. Recycling is one way to do this – if something like paper doesn’t belong in the recycling bin, look for recycling bins marked “recyclables.” Reducing the amount of food waste thrown away in landfills is also important – composting helps keep organic material out of landfills so it can be reused as fertilizer!
What is the future of sustainability?
It’s difficult to put a value on sustainability. If you look at the numbers, it’s clear that sustainable living has a future. However, some people don’t want to live that way. As the world continues to grow and climate change becomes more apparent, people need to understand how sustainability relates to them and their lives.
The word ‘sustainable’ has been thrown around for a while now. It’s often used to describe a product or service that is environmentally friendly, without any real definition behind it. It can be used to describe the production of goods or services. There are many ways that you can use a sustainable lifestyle. It can mean using fewer resources or using things in a better way. The most obvious example of this would be recycling.
The growth-based economic system
The global economic system has a lot to do with why sustainability is important. It requires constant growth and consumption which requires more natural resources to produce products and services. In the last decade alone, we have cut down so many trees that if they were all lined up in a row, they’d stretch around the world seven times. We are also running out of fresh water at an alarming rate because of contaminated water sources and drought.
All of this is happening because of the economic system we live in. If we truly want to solve the problems we face as a planet, we must create a new economic system that can work for everyone. The growth-based economic system The current economic system is based on growth. We have an economy where companies are making money by selling us things we don’t need. This system is broken because it requires more and more resources, which leads to pollution and waste. So instead of the economy is about helping people, it’s about how much money you can make. The growth-based economic system is based on making money.
What are the other facts about Sustainability?
* Dams, power plants, and other industrial projects have displaced more than 40 million people in the last decade alone.
* One-third of all carbon emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation which is the equivalent of adding another Japan or Russia to the planet every year.
* The average person in the US uses 300 gallons (1,136 liters) per day while the average person in India uses around 26 gallons (100 liters) per day.
* Americans use an average of 20 times more energy than people living in developing countries due to their large consumption of fossil fuels and electricity usage for heating and cooling buildings, appliances, and products.
*More than 50% of all waste globally ends up in landfills or pollutes our soil and water supply because recycling isn’t widely available or accessible in most areas around the world.
* Sustainability will be achieved when we create more jobs and provide more opportunities for people to live well.
* The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report identified climate change, water crises, natural disasters, and food crises as the four most critical global risks of 2018.
* Sustainability is about making changes now to ensure a better future for generations to come.
* Every day 3 billion tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere which causes extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves.
* If sustainability is not achieved in time then it will threaten the planet’s capacity to support human life in the near future.
* One in nine people go hungry every day while one in three suffers from malnutrition.
Two-thirds of all food produced around the world goes uneaten each year while 800 million people are starving or malnourished globally, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
* The world population will increase by 2 billion people by 2050, requiring a 70% increase in food production to feed the additional mouths.
* The amount of water available per person has dropped by 25% since 1990 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
* The world’s population is expected to grow from 7 billion today to 9 billion by 2050 and demand for water is projected to almost double in developing countries by 2030.
Modern Challenges
A modern challenge that we face is that the population of the planet is rapidly outgrowing the finite resources available to meet its needs. Climate change threatens our communities and natural ecosystems and biodiversity loss has the potential to cause serious disruption to our lives.
A key question for the new millennium is how to ensure that people and societies can continue to grow socially, educationally, and economically whilst protecting the natural environment on which we and all other species depend.
The conservation solutions adopted in the past have also brought some undesirable consequences. For example, the large-scale fencing off of natural lands has restricted the movement of animals and provided a sanctuary for introduced predators, such as red foxes, feral cats, and rabbits.
In the face of such a challenge, the task of ensuring future generations can inherit a healthy planet is a daunting one. The challenge is not just for governments but for each and every one of us. We have a duty to ensure that we pass on a planet that is not poisoned, polluted, or damaged beyond repair.
Planning for a sustainable future is a challenge that crosses all sectors of society including business, governments, and civil society.
This Earth is our only home and by caring for it, we will secure our future, the future of current and future generations. The spiritual dimension of ecology encourages us to examine how we treat the Earth and to recognize that we are part of a greater whole. The way in which we relate to each other and to our environment is about interdependence. Our decisions and actions affect others.
The Environment and Your Health
We are all aware of the dangers to our environment and the health hazards that come from not taking care of it. But there are some things you can do that won’t require drastic lifestyle changes. For instance, if you’re in an apartment with a balcony, try growing herbs like mint or basil in pots. Aside from just looking nice, these plants can help clean the air inside your home and provide a more pleasant smell.
You should also be aware of how much energy you use in your home each day. The average American household uses about 40 gallons of water per person every day for showers, dishwashing, clothes washing, and flushing toilets.
You can lower your water usage by taking shorter showers, fixing leaks, and installing water-saving showerheads.
If you have a garden, use natural fertilizers instead of chemicals. These are easier on the environment, and they help the earth to replenish itself.
If you’re going to paint, don’t use oil-based paints. They emit toxic fumes when they dry, and they are not biodegradable.
If this sounds like a lot, it’s certainly much more efficient than the average, who uses about 158 gallons per day. This doesn’t mean you can’t shower every day, but it does mean you should turn off the water while you soap up and leave it off until you’re finished.
Environmental responsibility is important to think about, whether you’re trying to save money or the planet. Here are some useful tips to get you started.
Why You Should Be Sustainable
It’s easy to say that we should be sustainable – in fact, there are a ton of simple reasons why we should, like better air quality, less waste, or less environmental impact. The simple reason is that we need to keep the Earth healthy for the people who live here.
But there are other reasons as well, including the money reasons, the moral and environmental reasons.
The main thing that can make a sustainable business success is a company’s ability to maintain an acceptable balance between its costs and the amount of revenue they make. When there is a healthy balance between the two things it makes sense for the company to be able to stay in business as long as possible. This is because a business will make more money if it has sustainable revenue.
Final Thoughts on What are 10 facts about sustainability?
Sustainability is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of actions. In essence, it means looking ahead to see what needs to be done. The concept of sustainability is about protecting and improving the environment, ensuring that people have a sustainable and fulfilling life, and also about developing ways of living sustainably with each other and with the planet.
Sustainability is not just a good idea; it is a necessity. We cannot continue to live the way we are living if we want to keep a clean and healthy environment and avoid the destruction of our natural resources. We must change the way we live, consume energy, and produce food. We need to take responsibility for our actions and for the future. Sustainability is about understanding what needs to be done and taking action.
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Meet Maurice, a staff editor at Bigger Investing. He’s an accomplished entrepreneur who owns multiple successful websites and a thriving merch shop. When he’s not busy with work, Maurice indulges in his passion for kayaking, climbing, and his family. As a savvy investor, Maurice loves putting his money to work and seeking out new opportunities. With his expertise and passion for finance, he’s dedicated to helping readers achieve their financial goals through Bigger Investing.
