‘And lastly, I just want to say this: Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.’
/Leonardo DiCaprio’s Academy Award acceptance speech from 2016/
I couldn’t agree more. We are all responsible for the things that are currently happening to our planet. Though we might consider ourselves small ants walking on Earth but all of our decisions has an affect.
Here are the things everybody can accomplish:
1. Don’t throw your used batteries into your dustbin, because they release chemicals into the soil. There are specific containers for them in schools or supermarkets.
2. Whenever your are going shopping, take a linen bag with yourself to pack your goodies and never ask for a plastic bag. They need 400 years to decompose.
3. Instead of buying multiple bottles of mineral water, have a permanent container that you can refill over and over again.
4. Use public transportation instead of driving cars.
5. Try to avoid wasting paper. You can buy your new novels as e-books or read your magazines online.
6. Go to the local market for shopping. This way you are supporting your national production and your fruit didn’t need to be transported through the world.
7. Participate in events like the Earth Hour. Click here for more information!
8. Whenever you get bored of your stuff, and they are still usable, give it to your friends or relatives who would be happy to have them for longer. Organise a swapping party with the girls and find treasures! Give the rest of the stuff to charity.
9. If you have clothes that can’t be used any longer, take them to h&m so they can have a new purpose. Click here for more information!
10. Surround yourself with plants. They are not only nice to look at but they produce oxygen with photosynthesis.
11. If you have the opportunity, collect your waste selectively.
12. Whenever you are on a journey, make sure not to destroy the place you went to. For example don’t bring a bit of sand with yourself from the beach and don’t buy edelweiss or ivory.
13. Use eco-friendly electric products (washing machine, light bulb etc.)
14. Make compost from your biodegradable waste (crusts, eggshells). You can later use it to make your soil more fertile.
15. And finally, it is very important who you are supporting on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and whom you trust with your vote. Remember that people possessing power or fame can easily make change, but you can as well. With every single decision you make.
