Tread Lightly E-Course:
Transition to a Sustainable Lifestyle with the Earth Charter!
Session 3
Compiled by Jaana Laitinen Earth Charter International Youth Facilitator
• All of us leave traces wherever we go: some are large, others are small; some are ugly, and others are beautiful.
• Our ecological footprints depend on our lifestyles. In other words, they depend on how much water and energy we use and whether or not we acquire large quantities of unnecessary things.
• For example, if we consume a lot of styrofoam and plastic things, we leave a larger footprint than someone who consumes things made of paper or cloth. This is because making things out of plastic and styrofoam requires a lot more energy, and they have a much slower decomposition rate.
• What type of footprint do you want to leave?
• It is important to note that from the beginning of history until 1900, world population only reached 1.5 billion inhabitants. However, by 2000 this figure had drastically increased to 6 billion.
• In addition to the population increase over the past fifty years, global production and consumption have also excessively increased. Due to Earth’s limited capacity, this has drastically impacted our ecosystems. Therefore, we should be responsible and change our lifestyles.
• Latest official current world population estimate, for mid-year 2010, is estimated at 6,852,472,823.
• The greater the population of our planet becomes, the more products are required to fulfill our needs. This means that more resources need to be extracted.
• Furthermore, with the consumeristic lifestyles common to our society, the consequences also include an increase in solid waste.
The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems.
• Do you agree that environmental destruction and species extinctions are caused by overproduction and overconsumption?
The choice is ours: form a global society to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.Preamble of the Earth Charter
•In order to have a sustainable future and for all life forms to live well, human beings need to change their attitudes. If we all commit to contributing to the common wellbeing, not only for current generations but also for future generations, it will be easier to create a better world.
•We must understand that the way we care for our environment, as well as our daily attitudes, largely determine whether future generations will be able to enjoy our planet’s natural resources and all its beauty.
• Even though we cannot always control or change our life circumstances, we can still at least make changes in ourselves and in our attitudes. We can also choose actions which are based in values and principles that improve our relationship with the environment.
Changing our attitudes means modifying the way we think and the way we see and perceive things. This is achieved through increasing knowledge and raising awareness. Developing values implies practicing ethical actions which improve the relationship between and amongst individuals and their environment. This accomplishment requires a greater coherence between our values and attitudes.
Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being.
Principle 7
We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. Preamble
EnergyAct with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
Principle 7b
• Human beings need a large amount of energy to live: at home we use energy to cook, iron, watch television, listen to music, keep food fresh in the refrigerator, heat up the shower, light up our rooms…
• Everything we buy and use is related to energy, because energy is always needed in some form or another during fabrication. It is important to realize
that a large portion of our global energy consumption goes toward the production of cars, clothes, home artifacts, and buildings. These products also require energy to be transported from one country to another. Many of our products come from other countries!
• Society today depends more and more on energy that causes severe, and often irreversible, damage to natural resources. Generating energy is the single most polluting industry!
• The various types of energy include: solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, and biofuels, amongst others. Unfortunately, our excessive use some types of energy is destroying our planet at an alarming rate.
• In order to conserve our natural resources and benefit the planet, we must modify our lifestyles and save energy. This also results in financial savings, improving our household economic situations.
What can I do? • Try to wash in a cool or cold water, not hot. Wash only full loads.• Use energy saving setting.• Do not frequently open the refrigerator, because this wastes a lot of
energy and the food does not stay fresh as long. Make sure that fridge has tight seals and set on optimum temperatures.
• Turn off the lights, the radio, sound system, and television when you are not using them.
• Use 50, 60, and 70 watt lightbulbs, because they consume less energy.
• Iron all your clothes at one time, so that you do not turn the iron frequently on and off.
• Turn off the hot water showerhead when soaping up. This saves electricity and also potable water.
• Use your hair dryer as little as possible.
• assess your personal electricity needs
• turn it off!
Clothing
• Making clothes is a seriously polluting business. The clothing industry is energy intensive, requiring the transportation of raw materials and finished products around the world. Its natural-resource intensive, with the production of synthetic fibers from petroleum products, and environmentally impactful, with releases of toxic bleaches, dyes and finishes.
• All-cotton t-shirt -> cotton exhaust the soil, and uses 25% of the world's pesticides, making it the most pesticide-intensive crop?
• The production of man-made fibers is even more harmful to the environment.
• Hemp produces 250% more fiber than cotton, using virtually no pesticides. At the same time the crop leaves the soil rich in nitrogen deposits, increasing yields on rotational crops such as soybeans and corn.
• Sweatshops - any workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation. This includes hazardous working conditions, benefits, dignity and basic human rights.
What can I do?
• Vote with your pocketbook! Choose clothing made from natural fibers.
• Join with groups working to change the way fibers are grown • Ask around! Consumers will create awareness of organic fabrics
simply by inquiring if they are available. • Don’t buy sweatshop clothes
Home
• We spend lots of time in home. Unfortunately many conventional home products may be hurting our health rather than improving our quality of life.
• Many conventional cleaning products leave indoor air polluted with a toxic smog and the synthetic fragrances used to mask them. These are dangerous to health.
• The chemicals used can cause headaches, dizziness, watery eyes, repiratory problems, rashes, sneezing, other allergic reactions... – A Spanish study 2003 surveyed more than 4000 women and found that 25% of asthma cases in the
group were attributable to domestic cleaning work.
• Small is greener!– uses fewer raw materials – requires less energy to cool or heat– consumes fewer natural resources– produces less waste– green homes provide healthier indoor air quality– buy used furniture
Food
The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air.Preamble
• Chemical pesticide use continues to rise - they have been implicated in cancers, lowered fertility, and other reproductive changes in humans and wildlife.
• A Swedish study considered the ingredients of a typical Swedish breakfast - apple, bread, butter, cheese, coffee, cream, orange juice, and sugar - and determined that to reach a breakfast table, these foods travel a mighty long way. The mileage estimated for the meal was equivalent to the circumference of the Earth.
• More than 90% of the world swordfish, marlin, giant tuna, and other large predatory fishes have been caught by far-roaming industrial fishing fleets - making a collapse of those stocks possible.
• The most contaminated conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, strawberries, butter, cantaloupe, cucumbers/pickles, meatloaf, peanuts, popcorn, radishes, summer squash, and winter squash. Buy these organic!
• Perhaps you don’t eat these often -> what ever you eat most, try to get that organic.
• Shoppers need to be armed with knowledge, especially about the terminology used on labels and ingredients.
• Organic agriculture is a cultivation system that seeks to maintain plant health by naturally nourishing the plants and not using contaminants or other chemical substances (herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, etc).
• At the same time, it promotes conservation and the appropriate use of soil, water and energy. Using our natural resources in this way ensures an efficient and harmless economic model. However, to achieve these goals, perseverance, patience and a commitment to producing highly nutritious food is needed. In this way, a healthier world can be created despite the competition that exists in our current economic system.
Benefits of Organic Agriculture •Applying organic compost replenishes soil fertility. For this reason, healthy food is produced. •It uses practices and technology that benefit human and environmental health, as no agrochemicals are used. •Earth is accurately valued, protected and sustainably used. •Consuming healthy products improves our health as well as our environment and our families’ quality of life. •It encourages family and community participation, which encourages solidarity in rural areas. •It protect the health of groundwater.•It improves biological diversity .
• Its clear that eating is voting. Every purchase at the supermarket, drive-through window, vending machine, food co-op, restaurant and natural foods market amounts to a vote for or against genetic engineering, for or against organic agriculture, for or against regional farms.
• Buy local food! Support local produce, local farms. Farmers markets - a good chance of having been grown with minimal pesticide, if any.
• Global warming -> the food travels only 20km from the field to your kitchen, not 2000km.
• Buy fresh local produce in season, whether they are organic or not. Avoid transcontinental strawberry. Eat what comes off a tree or off the ground.
• Clear alien invasive and plant indigenous • Even with organic food it’s better to be careful: – Not all "organic" labels are created equal.
• How will you vote?
• "Every time we pull out our walled to buy something, we are casting a vote for the kind of society and economy we want. Whether we fully realize it or not, we vote with our dollars every single day, either for or against sustainability, for or against our health, for or against justice,“ Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association in Little Marais, Minnesota
• "There is only one reason for buying organic food, clothing, and other products; for supporting Fair Trade; and giving preference to independently owned local and regional businesses - because its the best way to live.“
• Yet, consumers often vote against organics and often un-wittingly in favor of GE foods at the checkout line. It is that disconnect that is helping fuel the growth of the biotech food industry.
Urban community Gardens • not simply window dressing!
• Hong Kong, the most densely populated city in the world, produces two-thirds of its own poultry and about half of its vegetables from urban gardens.
• In Moscow, nearly 65 % of families engage in some kind of food production.
• UNDP reports that urban gardens provide 15% of the world's food supply.
Water
• Three-quarters of Earth’s water is found in the oceans and seas: this is saltwater. The water in rivers, lakes, gullies and springs is called freshwater, and this is the scarcest type of water. Water can be purified through various types of treatment, and this is called potable water. This water is used for various activities, and once it is discarded it is called wastewater.
• Today many countries are found in deserts and have a severe scarcity of freshwater. The amount of water we have on this planet is very small considering the billions of humans that use it for all their activities, and especially considering humans that use it for drinking, cleaning up, preparing food, agriculture, recreation and more.
• Water is essential for the subsistence of all forms or life. Seventy percent of our planet’s surface is covered by water, and 97.2% of this is saltwater found in the oceans and seas. Another significant percentage (2%) is the ice of the polar icecaps. This means that the amount of water available for human consumption is relatively small. Of the total amount of water consumed by human beings, 70% is used in agriculture, and 22% is used for energy production. Only 8% is used by the millions of people living on this planet for consumption and hygiene.
Water Resource Problems a. Deforestation causes soil erosion and decreases the flow of rivers. b. Disproportionate population growth and urbanization results in greater water consumption and contamination. Furthermore, the construction of bridges, highways, etc. decreases soil absorption. c. The improper handling of wastewater and black water, as well as fertilizers, industry and agricultural and livestock waste, produces water contamination. d. The extraction of river materials, like sand and rocks, deteriorates river beds and banks.
• turn off the water while soaping up in the shower. • turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. • only use the amount of water you actually need to wash your
hands. • When cleaning the dishes, soap them up and rinse them at the
same time. • When cooking vegetables, only use a little bit of water. • When washing the car, use a bucket of water instead of the hose,
as the hose wastes a lot of water. • Water the plants at the evening time.
• Use Water Wisely– Immediate Choice: Report and repair leaks– Tougher Choice: Use water sparingly / capture rain water – Change Choice: Try other sanitation practices e.g. dry toilets, urine diversion
Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.Principle 9a
WasteReduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems. Principle 7a
• The millions of people living on Earth have created one of the Earth’s most serious problems: TRASH. Acquiring unnecessary things, buying items with excessive packaging or of very poor quality, and many other activities produce tons of trash each day, and this is causing irreversible damage to our world.
• The trash we produce as human beings contains various materials; some are biodegradable (plants and animals), and others are not biodegradable, such as the plastics, glass, cans and styrofoam. These materials make up solid waste. People want to throw these substances and materials away. However, around the world, neither communities nor governments have found a true solution.
Trash is simply used nature that has lost its dignity. Mario Pezzotti
• Trash is a mixture of all the products we throw away after using them in our various activities. However, if we separate these products we can reuse them, and our problem of trash can be turned into a source of work and money for many people.
• The waste from plants and animals is organic, because it is decomposed by microorganisms. This is why it is called biodegradable. On the other hand, plastic, aluminum, batteries, glass, among other materials, remain on the planet for many years. These materials are inorganic, or not biodegradable.
• Trash is one of our countries’ biggest problems. Much of it comes from buying products we do not need, or from excessive packaging (bags, boxes, etc.) that generate unnecessary trash that does not easily decompose. This is why it is very important to reduce the amount of trash we make.
• The problems around solid waste include two aspects: the large amount of waste we produce and our poor handling of waste. This is serious, because: – The amount of trash we produce is increasing each day,
because people are acquiring more, often unnecessary, items and equipment.
– We continue to place our trash in the ground, which causes the release of gaseous vapors with damaging consequences.
– People continue dirtying public and private areas with trash that could be recycled or reused.
The solution to this problem begins with becoming conscious of the 4 R’s and incorporating them into our daily activities:
Refuse-Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.
Refuse
This means not accepting products, because of the material they are made of, their packaging, or the contamination they create when thrown away (like batteries, disposable dishware or plastic packaging).
Reduce
Only buy things which we absolutely need. We should also reduce the amount of energy and water we use.
Reduce waste Immediate Choice: Buy less packingTougher Choice: Recycle Change Choice: Buy goods that can be repaired
Reuse
Use packaging which is returnable or reusable. Donate clothes, games and kitchenware you no longer use, as well as books and magazines.
Recycle
When solid waste is sorted, its value increases. Therefore, if we separate our trash and send it to a collection center, it can then be sold to businesses that recycle cans, plastic, paper and glass.
What can be reused or recycled?
• Newspapers, phonebooks, magazines, printing cartridges, carpet, manuals, books, aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic…
• Recycling reduces environmental destruction and improves our health. Furthermore, it decreases the need for new land for dumps and sanitary landfills. It economizes energy by reusing items whose production would imply a high energy cost; finally, it eliminates the air and water contamination that would be generated if this item were newly produced.
Interesting Fact• For about 3,500 years, human beings have been making glass from
materials like sand. These materials are warmed to very high temperatures, until they melt and become transparent. To reach these high temperatures a lot of energy is needed. However, the energy saved by recycling one glass bottle could light a light bulb for four hours.
• Recycling is dirty business - for the workers that deal with it, the staff contains toxic components, they go back to the consumers, trucks and factories use lots of energy and create more waste… Much of waste is exported overseas!
• It is not recycling, its down-cycling! -> lower-grade material and secondary product. Reduces the need for virgin ingredients – but does not make a replacement for the original item.
• It is not that recycling is BAD but overemphasis of it is! Recycling is the last R! Unfortunately recycling is usually seen as a primary environmental duty of an engaged citizen…!
• Recycling is easy, it can be done without ever raising questions about the inherent problems with current system of production and consumption, about the long-term sustainability of growth-obsessed economic model or about equitable distribution of the Earth’s resources.
• A good first step into broader awareness and activism on sustainability issue? A gateway experience to get people interested ad then guide them along to taking more strategic and effective action?
• Recycling can lull us into believing we have done our part while nothing really has changed. It can be inspiring, people are proud of it.
• Environmental benefits are obvious. It keeps materials in use, thus reducing the demand for extracting and producing new materials and avoiding- or delaying – the point at which the materials become waste.
• Yes – recycling is increasing, but so is total waste produced! Our goal is not to RECYCLE MORE BUT TO WASTE LESS!! Focusing on the wrong end of the question can point our effort in the wrong direction. Just because its called recycling, it does not mean its green!
• Lets just get a new one! It is easier and cheaper – or only possibility. Impossible to fix anything!
• Nearly three-quarters of the weight is products including containers and packaging, nondurable goods and durable goods. 60 years ago most of the waste was coal ashes and food scraps. Now the waste is toxic! e-waste, medical waste (mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium, brominated flame retardants…)
We don’t throw garbage AWAY. There is no AWAY! We either burry it or we burn it. Recycling is as close to ‘away’ as its possible. Landfills leak, they are toxic and contribute to the clime chaos!
• Incinerators pollute, don’t eliminate the landfills, wastes lots of energy and money
Composting
Main source of methane is rotting organics. By keeping the organics out of landfills we could virtually eliminate the methane released from them, significantly reduce leachate and keep our climate cooler.
• Organics make 1/3 of the municipal waste!
Zero waste – seeks to eliminate the waste, not to manage it
• Reducing consumption and discards• Reusing discards• Extended producer responsibility• Comprehensive recycling• Comprehensive composting or bio-digestion of organic materials• Citizen participation• A ban on waste incineration • Improving product design upstream to eliminate toxic and instead
design for durability and repair• Effective policies, regulations, incentives, and financing structures to
support these systems.
Consuming
• Everyone needs to consume to live! Food to eat, roof over our head, medicine when we are sick, clothes to keep us warm and dry… And additional consumption to make life nicer: music, sharing bottle of wine with friends…
• What it is to question is consumerism or overconsumption.
Consumption: acquiring and using good and services to meet one’s needConsumerism: particular relationship to consumption in which we seek to meet our emotional and social needs through shopping , and we demonstrate and define our self-worth through the stuff we own. Overconsumption: when we take far more resources than we need and the planet can sustain.
• We need to chart a different course. Challenging the fundamental assumption that producing and consuming stuff is the central purpose and engine of our economy. We need to understand that the drive to over-consume is neither human nature nor a birthright.
• We need to recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights. The world is complex and interconnected and that each act and purchase has consequences. Being a powerful, free individual actually means being able to demand an economic system that respects, rather than exploits, workers and the environment.
• We hear constantly how much we urgently need to reduce CO2 emissions to stabilize the climate. CO2 is produced at every stage of creating stuff! The more stuff we consume, the more CO2 we will keep pumping out!
• Dilemma: levels of CO2 are already over the threshold beyond which catastrophic climate change will occur, yet lot of people need to increase their consumption in order to meet even basic human needs.
• Around the world current consumption patterns are destroying remaining environmental resources and the services that the earth provides and exacerbating inequalities. The crises of poverty, inequality, and the environment are all related – and they are all related to the consumption. It is simply not an option to refuse to reevaluate our consumption patterns: the Earth is on crises, we are not sharing fairly and it is not even making us happy!! We have to rethink and redesign how we are living in order to produce and consume less stuff and throw a whole lot less of those precious resources away.
• According to Knox College professor of psychology Tim Kasser, who has written extensively about materialism, it’s not just that money cannot buy us love and stuff doesn’t make us happy. According to his vast studies, materialism actually makes us unhappy!
• “The studies document that strong materialistic values are associated with a pervasive undermining of people’s well-being, from low life satisfaction and happiness, to depression and anxiety, to physical problems such as headaches, and to personal disorders, narcissism, and antisocial behavior.” Kasser goes even further to document how these affections (low satisfaction, physical and mental health problems and antisocial tendencies) then fuel MORE consumption.
• The New Economics Foundation (Happy Planet Index) states that it is possible to live long, happy lives with a smaller ecological footprint than found in the highest consuming nations!
• While the highest rates of consumption have historically happened in wealthy regions, such as USA and Europe, most developing countries now have a rising ‘consumer class’ that is increasingly adopting patterns of hyper-consumption! India’s consumer class 1million households!!
• The global consumer class in 2002 included 1.7 billion people, a number that is expected to rise to 2 billion by 2015 – with almost half the increase occurring in developing counties.
• The first year when we used more than planet can sustain was 1986 – and today millions of people actually need to consume more to meet even basic needs: food, shelter, health, education… This IS unsustainable.
• Now, for the first time in history, more than 1 billion people, 1/6 of all people, are living in serious hunger. This is 100 million people more than previous year!
Conclusions • reduce your waste
– avoid single-use what ever! They are wasteful and easy to eliminate!– compost
• get organic – in food - in garden - cleaning products
• power down– drive, fly less. get a bike. Turn down the heat, put on a sweater.
• unplug your TV. Do something instead.• invest in economy you want. Local, union made, fair trade, second hand.
Or buy nothing at all. • Talk abt these matters in the groups that you are naturally already part
of. Get the group / institution to adapt a sustainability policy that confirms its commitment to environmental and social sustainability!
• Why to do any or all of these things even when we know they aren’t enough to turn things around?
• it demonstrates potential and alternative ways to live. Each time we visibly choose quality of life over quantity of stuff , each time we ignore those consumer messages telling us we must have the latest gadget, we demonstrate the possibility of another way.
• conscious consuming includes buying the least toxic, least exploitative products available or sometimes not buying something at all. Avoiding toxic-containing products reduces exposure to toxics for ourselves and our families and if it gets enough traction sends messages upsteam to producers to phase toxics out. Buying locally, keeps your money in the local economy, support local jobs, reduces miles travelled for your stuff…
…we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.
Tread Lightly Teacher Toolkithttp://treadlightly.tigweb.org/
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Teaching a Sustainable Lifestyle with the Earth Charter Mirian Vilela de Araujo, Elizabeth Ramirez Ramirez, Lidia Hernandez Rojas, Cristina Briceño Lobohttp://www.earthcharterinaction.org/invent/details.php?id=802
The Story of Stuff Annie Leonard
Green Living – The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth E/The Environmental Magazine
My Carbon FootprintWessa, http://www.wessa.org.za/
Global Footprint Networkhttp://www.footprintnetwork.org/
