It’s up to you: grey or greenvironment?

I’d like you to think about your home. How it shelters you from the freezing cold in winter or it protects you from the extreme heat in summer. It’s also a great place to spend time with your loved ones and feel safe. And so you look after it: if your shower head gets clogged or the heating breaks down… you would immediately call someone in to fix it. But how many of you thought of the Earth when I asked you to think about your home? What do you do to contribute to its ecological wellbeing, as well as you look after the comfort and safety of your home?

Many environmental activists around the world engage in environmental cleaning activities to breathe new life into polluted areas. It means that these repairmen clean up after those people who could possibly also be repairmen, but instead choose recklessly to contaminate and destroy our common home. By choosing these actions they cannot, or do not want to see the consequences of their actions, such as air pollution, habitat destruction, which not only harm our planet, but also humans and other living beings. So why not stop contaminating at all and put our full effort into spreading awareness about the importance of safeguarding our planet? Let’s take a look at one of the initiatives taken by the European Union for motivating everyone to make a positive contribution to the fight against climate change. 

In 2020, the European Commission launched The European Climate Pact, which aims to encourage people to get involved in climate action. It was a significant step taken to make people realise that the climate crisis is real, and if we join forces, we can achieve considerable success in climate neutrality. And the good news is that everyone can become a member of the Pact, regardless of where they come from, their background, whether they are just starting to take an initiative or have already been involved in environmental activities. You can always contribute with your actions, however small or big. Maybe you have new ideas to do so, and you can share them with the people around you!

Doesn’t it sound fun that you can come up with new beneficial ideas and implement them? 

• Hey, Henry. I’ve been thinking about this climate action thing you told me about the other day. I’d like to recycle my old sweater but I have no idea how.
• Have no fear, Henry is here! Why don’t you turn it into a pillowcase? Sounds like a useful recycling idea for someone like you who likes to sleep a lot!

There are many more , such as biking to work or sharing a car with someone else, reducing food waste, planting trees, etc. It would be great if we took a wider look at these tips.

From my experience, cycling is one of my favourite ways to take care of the environment. As is well known, bicycles don’t release fossil fuels into the atmosphere, unlike other vehicles, such as cars and lorries. And apart from benefiting the environment, cycling can improve your mental and physical wellbeing. 

Another easy way to start protecting nature is by reducing food waste. This is straightforward and feasible for everyone. There’s a straight connection between reducing food waste and preventing climate change. Growing more food leads to a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions; from farm to fork, your food goes through various stages that require fossil fuel consumption, which causes global warming. If we don’t waste extra food and only grow the amount we need, we can considerably reduce the negative impact on our planet. 

We can’t move forward without touching on a very significant point: reforestation. Some people may value trees only because they provide us with shade and oxygen. However, reforestation means much more than that! Before anything else, our green friends help to prevent loss of habitat for millions of species and provide food, safety and shelter for many birds. Furthermore, by reducing erosion and pollution in the waterways, trees may decrease the effects of flooding. Luckily, every year reforestation events are held at various times, especially on National Youth Day in Azerbaijan, and numerous volunteers engage in these kinds of activities. Expanding the greenbelts, ecosystem restoration and environmental protection are the main focus of these events. 

Aside from this, waste products are one of the leading causes of environmental issues. In order to prevent plastic waste and to reduce the use of plastic in Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is implementing a number of educational measures. As a result of these measures, the use of plastic bags in Azerbaijan has decreased significantly. 

The list goes on and on, and you may be familiar with some of them. But knowing is not enough, we must take action to protect, repair and save our common home, the Earth.