Mother Daughter Earth’s Journey to Promoting Environmental Change
Guest post by Mother Daughter Earth
A few years ago, my daughter and I decided to investigate how we and other people could make changes in our lives that would decrease our daily carbon footprint and help reverse global warming and climate change.
We thought we already knew a lot about this topic, since we had been living what we thought was pretty eco-consciously for years. My daughter was a Harvard educated Environmental Engineer, but it quickly became abundantly obvious that we had put ourselves onto an amazing path of learning and development that neither of us could have expected.
Our journey
Our journey started in 2019 when we decided to write a blog for 100 consecutive days with different tips and ideas on how to live a sustainable lifestyle. We read books and did research and learned so much about the complexities and sometimes the simplicity of our environment and how we all fit into this perfect natural web that humans have significantly affected and altered. Then, in 2020, we started a weekly podcast program where we interview industry leaders and cover a wide range of thought-provoking topics. This, too, has been a tremendous learning opportunity for us, and the people we have interviewed have significantly changed the way we view the world and lead our lives.
At the beginning of 2021, we decided to distill all the wide range of ideas we had explored into three main topics to help inspire people to a more vibrant, joyful and eco-friendly lifestyle. After much thought and a muddy nine-mile hike, we finally came up with our winners:
- Connect with the joy of nature
- Celebrate all your wins (even the small ones)
- Never stop learning
- Connect with the joy of nature
People are spending more and more time indoors in front of electronic devices and less time outside exploring the treasures that nature has to offer and experiencing the daily changes and subtleties.
Go for a walk or hike, plant a garden, put out a bird feeder and sit on your porch and marvel at the movement and characteristics of the birds. The list goes on! Find something outside that sparks interest, curiosity and joy, and watch how your love, passion, and observations of nature develop. It seems too simple to be true, but as your love for nature increases you may find that you want to do more to take care of it. That’s when you will start a life-long journey of mindful and eco-conscious decisions.
- Celebrate all your wins (even the small ones)
Each small change you make will lead to others. At the end of each of our podcasts, we always ask our guests, “What is the most important thing each person can do to reverse global warming and climate change?”
We have had a wide range of thought-provoking answers, but the consistent theme is that people should start making small changes in their lives. If each person on our planet starts making small, daily changes in their routines over their lifespan, then that will add up to huge, impactful changes for our planet. It is much better to have 8 billion people making small, daily changes, than a few people making huge changes.
This isn’t to say that large-scale change isn’t critical as well, of course it is! We should be doing everything we can to pressure large companies and governments to get with the program, because they have a huge responsibility in this fight. However, we still think that at the root of this lies personal habit shifts. Companies and governments respond to popular demand; everything from the type of food you buy to how you source your home’s energy to where you choose to vacation is a reflection of personal choice and plays a role in moving the larger needle. By all means, write letters to your governmental officials, attend large-scale rallies, and tell large companies that you’re not buying their product because it’s not recyclable. But to our point, it all comes down to personal choice and action.
- Never stop learning
Now that you’re developing your love for nature and making daily changes in your life, it’s time to start learning and deepening your knowledge of the environment. Take a class on composting, birdwatching or gardening. Join your Native Plant Society, visit your local seed library, or go to a farmer’s market and visit with some of the people who are growing your food. Sign up for weekly environmental newsletters such as “Happy Eco News”, read a book such as Drawdown, which offers solutions to reverse global warming, or listen to informative podcasts such as the one offered by Mother Daughter Earth. Whatever it is that sparks your interest, go with it! You’ll be amazed by how one eco topic will lead to the next; following your passions means you’ll enjoy the process and sustain a new habit of learning how to take better care of the earth.
Time and time again we have found that what is best for nature is best for people. Eating organic food, walking or riding your bike to the grocery store, or reducing the amount of food you buy in packaging improves both your personal health and the health of the planet! We have seen that as you incorporate more of these ideas into your life, it will lead to a fuller, more abundant, and joyful life surrounded by the wonders of nature.
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