10 LOCAL AND GLOBAL ACTIONS TO PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENT - ENVIRONMENT - 2024

Among the main local and global actions to preserve the environment we can mention reducing water consumption, promoting recycling, reducing the consumption of fossil fuels or preserving tropical forests.

The current economic model has promoted accelerated development, with the voracious and irrational use of natural resources, at speeds much greater than those of their possible replacement. Not only are resources depleted, but large amounts of toxic pollutants are also released into the environment, affecting all forms of life.

Figure 1. Emblematic image of environmental preservation. Source: Pixabay.com

This economic model has generated serious environmental problems, some of them already irreversible. As harmful effects of human activity on the planet, we can cite:

-Global warming.

-The acidification of the oceans.

-Pollution by non-biodegradable plastics.

-The destruction of the ozone layer.

-The destruction of the world's forests.

-The degradation of soils.

-Water pollution (surface and underground).

It is evident that sustainability strategies are required for the management of natural resources to preserve the planet's environment, the only home of the human species and known forms of life.

The measures to be implemented must be global in scope, and executed by the governments of the countries, but also each citizen can exercise individual personal actions in favor of the environment.

5 Local actions to preserve the environment

Below we mention 5 actions that can be implemented individually in order to collaborate with the preservation of the environment:

Reduce water consumption

To use water efficiently, you should take short showers, avoid the use of bathtubs, use dry toilets, optimize the process of washing dishes and clothes, among others.

Save electricity

This can be achieved by incorporating solar panels or another type of clean energy generation system in the home and workplace. In turn, energy consumption must be reduced by consciously using household appliances and energy-saving light bulbs that are not polluting.

Reduce our carbon footprint

Reduce those activities in which CO ₂ emissions are generated . For example, we can avoid the unnecessary and polluting procedure of “heating up car engines” and try to move in a non-polluting way, be it by bicycle or walking.

The use of public transport instead of the private car, is the best option to travel important routes.

Protect trees

The use of paper and wooden objects should be reduced to the bare minimum, since this is how we reduce deforestation for their production. On the other hand, as citizens we must organize and participate in reforestation actions and protect nearby forests, guaranteeing their conservation.

Inform us about responsible consumption

Currently there is a lot of information available on the processes of generation of the goods and services that we enjoy and their environmental impacts. There is also information on the final disposal of consumed goods and the toxic and polluting substances that they release into the environment.

Each citizen is also a consumer and with their choices they support specific systems, companies and processes. For this reason, we must be informed about the environmental consequences of our consumer choices.

For example, if we increase the consumption of local products, we decrease our carbon footprint, generated by the transport (in vehicles, airplanes or boats) of those products from remote places.

If we increase the consumption of natural products, as less processed and packaged as possible, we reduce our generation of plastic waste into the environment and we favor the reduction of these packaging in the market in the medium and long term.

To explore these issues and alternative actions that we can implement to take care of the environment, it is recommended to investigate the global movement called Zero Waste (in English: Zero Waste), agroecology and permaculture.

5 Global actions to preserve the environment

Below are some actions necessary for environmental preservation:

Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

The reduction of GHGs and the preservation of their natural sinks would reestablish the natural atmospheric balance and stop the devastating environmental effects of global warming.

A measure to mitigate the greenhouse effect generated by GHGs would be to substitute the use of carbonated fuels as an energy source with other non-polluting renewable sources such as solar, wind, tidal, wave and geothermal energy.

This measure is urgent, but its implementation is difficult, as it would affect global economic interests. Therefore, a general understanding of the sources and effects of GHGs is essential.

Where do GHGs come from?

The accelerated industrial development that began with the so-called Industrial Revolution and the replacement of the steam engine by the use of carbonated fossil fuels (coal, oil derivatives and natural gas), has altered the balance between sinks and sources of CO ₂ of the planet.

The immense amounts of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere (CO ₂, SO ₂, NO, NO ₂), produced in various human activities (industrial, transport and trade, domestic), cannot be assimilated by the planet and have generated a serious problem such as global warming of the troposphere.

Natural CO2 sinks

The surface water bodies of the terrestrial hydrosphere and vegetation are the only natural sinks of CO ₂, the main greenhouse gas. Surface water has the ability to absorb CO ₂ to be used by aquatic plants, macroalgae and photosynthesizing microorganisms.

Terrestrial plants and especially the large forested areas of the planet, also function as sinks for CO ₂ through photosynthesis. However, the increasing emissions of CO ₂ can no longer be assimilated through natural sinks, and their excess stores the infrared radiation that produces heating.

Most obvious effects of GHGs

Global warming is melting the ice off the Earth's polar caps at astonishing speed. This fact is not only an extinction threat to life forms in polar environments, but the resulting volume of liquid water is increasing the level of the sea, causing flooding in islands and coastal cities.

The excess CO ₂ in the atmosphere has also caused the acidification of the planet's water bodies, with the threat of extinction of all marine and lake life.

Eliminate the manufacture and use of non-biodegradable or non-recyclable products

Non-biodegradable products contain compounds called xenobiotics or chemical compounds foreign to nature, and therefore no decomposing life form (fungi or bacteria) can degrade to simple substances, assimilable by the rest of the organisms in the trophic chains.

At present there is the great problem generated by the accumulation of plastics in large "islands" that have been formed in the terrestrial ocean. These plastics are mistaken for food by birds and fish and die from ingestion, suffocation and digestive obstructions.

Additionally, plastics, when they suffer mechanical fragmentation, emit toxic volatile organic compounds and greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere.

Research is currently being carried out on new biodegradable materials to replace non-degradable plastics.

Elimination of the use of polluting agrochemicals and fertilizers

There is a need to adopt agricultural practices that are not toxic to humans and all other forms of life and do not pollute soils and waters.

It is necessary to promote the use of organic fertilizers instead of petrochemical fertilizers and to replace toxic agrochemicals such as herbicides and biocides (pesticides and fungicides) with substances of proven safety.

The implementation of agroecological and permaculture practices are alternatives that allow the support of human needs with the production of a minimum environmental impact.

Total elimination of the use of chlorofluorocarbon compounds (CFC's)

CFC's compounds undergo photochemical decomposition in the stratosphere, mediated by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This decomposition generates chlorine in atomic form, which is very reactive and causes the destruction of ozone (O ₃).

The ozone layer of the stratosphere functions as a protective shield against high-energy ultraviolet radiation, which causes cellular damage in all forms of life and particularly cancer in humans.

CFC's compounds are used as aerosol propellants and as cooling gases. In 1987, a large part of the industrialized countries was a signatory to the Montreal Protocol, where goals were established to reduce their production and their total elimination by the year 2000. This global commitment has not been fulfilled for economic reasons.

Preserve the great tropical forests

Tropical rainforests are the great sinks of CO _{2 on} the planet, as they absorb this gas, and through photosynthesis return oxygen to the atmosphere.

Every second large areas of the Amazon rainforest are cut down by logging, thus reducing in an accelerated and irrational way the so-called "plant lung" of the planet, whose protection is a priority for the survival of life.

References

1. Arrow, KJ and Fisher, AC (1974). Environmental Preservation, Uncertainty and Irreversibility. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 88 (2): 312-319.
2. Byrko, K., Kaiser, F. and Olko, J. (2017). Understanding the Acceptance of Nature-Preservation-Related Restrictions as the Result of the Compensatory Effects of Environmental Attitude and Behavioral Costs. Environment and Behavior. 49 (5): 487-508. doi: 10.1177 / 0013916516653638
3. Epstein, MJ (2017). Making Sustainability Work. Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental and Economic Impact. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324 / 9781351280129
4. Gould, SJ (2018). The Golden Rule: A Proper Scale for Our Environmental Crisis. In: The Earth Arround Us. Maintaining a Livable Planet. Jill Schneiderman. Taylor & Francis Group.
5. Legras, S., Martin, E. and Piguet, V. (2018).Conjunctive Implementation of Land Sparing and Land Sharing for Environmental Preservation. Ecological Economics. 143: 170-187. doi: 10.1016 / j.ecolecon.2017.07.006