by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
You can make a difference
All too often we hear people say: “I can't make a difference, I am only one person.” Yes, you can! You can make a difference, as can everyone of us. We all, where we are in our own small ways can achieve great changes if we but try.
Instead of buying any so-called green products it is much better to make use of what you have and reuse what you have and, especially, reuse waste products for things that you want and need.
All too often people who want to go green believe that they cannot do it because they are not in a high earning bracket and thus cannot afford to buy all those recycled and green products that we are being brainwashed often into believing we need to have in order to be environmentally friendly. However, the truth is that that is just another way type of consumption that has been termed as “greensumption”.
People go out and buy products, supposed green and eco-friendly products, that they could easily make themselves from stuff that we have been taught, or should I also rather called it brainwashed, into throwing into the recycling bin.
You do not have to go and buy a recycled steel pencil bin, for instance, when you can simply reuse a tin can, cleaned up, for the same purpose. Nor does anyone have to go and spend money on recycled glass storage jars when they can simple reuse glass jars from pickles or similar for the same use. And the same is true for many other things. Our ancestors did just that reusing packaging waste and in addition to that they used what they had until it could no longer be used. Each one of us should do the same instead of following the trend to buy new every few month just because we are told that the new products have more bells and whistles or because the government keeps harping on about us having to spend more in order to support the economy.
In your own small way you can make a difference and, when combined with all of us doing the same, the impact would and will be enormous. But, as long as everyone believes that they, as the individual person they are, cannot make an impact no impact will be made.
The Planet's resources are but limited and that applies to oil as much as to bauxite, from which aluminum is being produced, as well as to others. In fact, a great number of those resources have reached peak, that is to say they are on their way of running out and others are almost finished and therefore we must first of all make do with what we have as long as we can and also and especially demand that products are made in such a way, once again, that they can be repaired and that easily, and we must demand that those products are quality that will last, before ever needing repair even. This is something we all can get involved in buy voting with our wallets in that we buy only – where possible – such quality goods and in that way show the manufacturers what is important to us.
There are other steps too where you can make a difference. One of those is to invest in a reusable water bottle – or reuse a nice glass one for the purpose, such as an empty SnappleTM lemonade one – and use tap water instead of buying bottled water, which often is nothing else but repackaged tap water, filtered if you are lucky. It reduces the pressure on water reserves and saves you money.
Many steps are but little ones but over time, and combined with others – and you – when doing it can lead others too – the impact can and will be a large one.
I could be doing a long list of small steps that we all can do to make a difference right where we are to make a better Planet and a better community, a better society and create a better life for every inhabitant of the Planet, our animal cousins included, and the rest of life on the Earth but that would break the limits of an article and could turn into a book.
Consider everything on Earth, every other being, including animals, birds, fish and plants, as part of the sacred web, to which you and I also belong, and treat the Planet, the Earth, our Mother, with the respect that she deserves, regardless whether you are on your own or surrounded by millions engaged in the same steps. You can make a difference. You have to but do it.
© 2014
