I’ve heard several people
speak about the futility of their participation because the issues on this
earth are just too large for one person’s small actions to make a difference.
Interestingly their communication of this frustration led to my wanting to
address this on our blog today – which ironically shows that they do
make a difference after all.
The Earth is a finite planet
and we are learning now that the human population is indeed having a negative
impact on the health of the planet and that we can indeed reverse that trend in
a variety of ways. But rather than address the entire population and all the
problematic issues facing the planet, I’m going to focus on the individual for
one moment.
There are lots of easily
accomplished actions we can make every day… in fact we’ve done lots of posts on
our blog and discussions on our radio show highlighting many small actions that
have a large impact that you might want to scroll back and view or listen to.
Let’s start with just having
too much stuff – consumption is draining the earth’s resources and causing all
kinds of pollution, it is a wasteful habit and has a negative impact on the
individual’s budget. So let’s start by facing our negative impact simply by
reducing shopping habits. Transportation, for instance, as it relates to
shopping means that we chose to buy things produced, manufactured, or grown
closer to our home and office thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuels associated
with the products and services we buy. We choose to support companies that are
making efforts to be more sustainable and socially responsible… and so on.
We can look at other ways of
reducing shopping habits through repairing, renting and sharing options. We can
look at buying used items from second hand stores, and repurpose or reuse items
– finding another use for them instead of just tossing them away.
Recycling too has a positive
impact on the health of the planet.
Reducing how much we put on
the curb by composting can have a huge impact in a wide range of ways – which
we won’t get into here but to learn more about the benefits of composting just
scroll through the archives on our radio show.
We may have a limited budget
but over time we can still invest in alternatives such as water and energy
saving toilets, kitchen and laundry machines, cars, office equipment and so on.
We can give time and share
skills with worthy causes and events, groups and schools.
We can donate small amounts of
cash to wildlife, forestry, animal rescue and seed saving organizations that
work to protect and rejuvenate nature and sustainable agriculture.
Clean out the clutter and
storage areas in our home or office, freeing up that storage space for other
uses and releasing those items back into the community helping to create jobs,
extend budgets and reduce waste associated with people buying new items instead
(i.e. packaging, transportation, etc.)
We can simply clean up the
litter that we spotted somewhere along the route to work, or while out jogging,
walking the dogs or taking the kids to school. Simply come back another day and
spend an hour picking up that litter.
There are literally thousands
of small acts we can all do – way too many to list here in detail but you can
learn more through our book series – Trash Talk It’s Easy To Be Green.
So one might look at these
kinds of activities and say “big deal” what real impact does this have? Well
actually the impact is huge. For one thing you are showing neighbors, children,
friends, other shoppers and co-workers your actions because they witness it in
a variety of ways… and they will become inspired to do some small act as well.
You are inspiring companies to stock more sustainable eco-savvy products, which
in turn inspires manufacturers to produce more products in this genre. You are
creating jobs locally by shopping locally. You are reducing and preventing
pollution… and encouraging local growers to green even more space to feed the
growing demand. These are just a few of the results we have seen happen when
people get involved and become more conscious, more proactive in seemingly
small ways.
So let’s now picture just 10,000
adults in one community… each person opting to do one single green, proactive,
conscious act per day. One act per day by one person doesn’t seem like a lot,
but collectively we are now looking at 10,000 of these acts being done every
single day – that’s 300,000 per month! …nearly 2 million individual actions
every 6 months! But what if those 10,000 adults each influence just 5 children,
youth or adults in their circles either online or in their community to also
get involved, and they do this repeatedly each month… and those 50,000
individuals each month go on to influence 5 people… and so on – So now we can
only imagine what those numbers would look like then! Instead of 2 million
proactive green and conscious living actions being done every 6 months we are
now looking at 10 times that amount or maybe more!
This is the power of the
individual who inspires others around them and inevitably causes a concentric
ripple effect that keeps growing and growing. This is what is so exciting about
the grass roots efforts by individuals.
So my friends communicating their frustration made a difference because I am not creating this post that hundreds of others are reading. That is a great example of this idea in practice. As such changing over the light bulbs, signing up for e-billing, recycling more, upgrading our toilets to dual flush
So my friends communicating their frustration made a difference because I am not creating this post that hundreds of others are reading. That is a great example of this idea in practice. As such changing over the light bulbs, signing up for e-billing, recycling more, upgrading our toilets to dual flush
flush – your choosing
to share this information on your social networking circles via the social
networking buttons here or emailing this URL to friends ...and so on - it all
really does add up to a huge impact.
Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!
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