The gold dust bought at Walmart may make your graduation photo pretty. But one blow and it’s forever cycling as microplastics that will get into our lungs.
You are probably bored to death with doom and gloom news about climate change. Nevertheless, the fate of the human race and the entire planet is reliant upon the way we treat the earth. Scientists have been warning us for around 50 years that humanity is likely to have a dangerous impact on the climate of the earth. Unfortunately, we may have heeded their warning too late to avert serious catastrophe. Here are four hidden sources of environmental damage that may have passed you by. Try not to feel too overwhelmed.
Water Waste
Water is not an infinite resource. Water scarcity is a major concern both for the welfare of humanity and the preservation of the environment. Climate change is having some seemingly contradictory effects. Sea levels are rising thanks to melting icecaps, but deserts are spreading thanks to groundwater droughts and deforestation. Without going into the science behind these occurrences, it is worth mentioning that global warming is responsible for both.
Water distribution is an absolutely huge polluter, and that pollution is contributing to the disappearance of water sources – it is a self-perpetuating cycle. California uses 20 percent of its electricity to distribute water.
What can an ordinary person or business owner do to avert this slow catastrophe? For starters, we should be reducing water waste on a large scale. The real change, however, will come when governments impose stricter environmental controls on water distribution companies.
Microplastics
Take any water sample from a river or coastal area and there is a very high chance that it contains microplastics. Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic waste less than 5mm in diameter. They are released into waterways during manufacturing processes or in solutions dumped down drains. Until recently, many hair products contained ‘microbeads’ – small plastic balls that took years to biodegrade and travelled into the water system via showers and baths. They might be small, but they are causing a huge amount of environmental damage. They clog up the gills of fish, and in turn make their way into the diet of creatures that feast upon said fish, including us.
Internet Shopping
In the internet age it is possible to receive imported products within days of making an order. This has been made possible by the proliferation of air freight. The problem is that aviation is a polluting industry on an absolutely massive scale. Jet fuel is very concentrated and burns off at a swift rate. Future generations are going to pay for our convenience.
Meat
Meat and dairy production is the cause of 14.5 percent of global greenhouse emissions. Cattle farming has an especially bad impact on the environment, as cows produce a huge quantity of methane. The transportation, feeding and slaughter of animals on an industrial scale has been a disaster for the planet. This is one of the reasons that veganism has become such a popular ethical choice for younger people, who are starting to feel the effects of climate change first-hand during their lives.
