Submerged Lands

The earth is one of the planets that have been discovered by scientists. It is the beautiful home of human beings. The earth today is under a new form of threat caused by its dwellers, namely, human beings. Man through his activities has caused some danger to his home. We are facing the consequences of our actions. Global warming is no longer scientific assumption. It is now a reality that we are facing.

Climate change which is also a terrible consequence of depletion of ozone layer has done a number of harm too many people today. Cases of prolong drought, terrible hurricane and other harsh weather condition abound. These have lead to loss of many lives in our era. Every year we hear stories of hurricane sweeping away millions of homes, killing thousands of people and rendering many homeless. This is one of the reasons why our planet should be conserved. There should be a concerted effort in every corner to make sure the earth is protected. Nobody should feel less concern because the earth is our home and we cannot afford to jeopardize it or set it ablaze with our own hand. We have no other shelter except the earth.

If you are not concerned about the earth, you should at least have concerned about your own life. Global warming and climate change are respecters of race and color. The effect can be very devastating. Such natural disasters as drought, hurricane and other harsh weather conditions can have some dangerous effect when they strike any place. So, this is why we should protect the atmosphere in order to avoid such disasters to the extent that we can.

Before we come into being, many generations have lived before us. They were able to preserve to the earth for us. That is why we live today on earth. The earth will not come to pass with our generation. It will be there for the future generation to live on. In the light of the above, it is our responsibility to preserve it for the future generation. The best thing that you should do to the future generation is to make the earth habitable for them. The best way to make the earth habitable for the future generation is to conserve the earth for them. Any action that will jeopardize the atmosphere such as deforestation and environmental pollution of any kind should be avoided. Making the planet a home for the future generation is one of the reasons we should protect the planet.

There are certain action of man that is not only a threat to the planet, but also to wildlife and marine life. Deforestation through bush burning for instance can lead to loss of wildlife. In the world today there is a number of wildlife that is going into extinction. It is our responsibility to preserve such wildlife for the future generation. The same can be said of marine life. Oil spillage and other forms of water pollution can also lead to loss of marine life. We need to protect them.

Wetlands are important to environmental wellbeing, financial and communal areas in the large lagoons. Moser, in specific, are significant reservoirs of biodiversity helping to defend coastal localities from the storm, advance water value by filtering sediments, maintain water amount by saving water, and supplying recreational possibilities. They supply critical habitat for the common amenities, uncommon and threatened animal species, including the monarch rail endangered.

Whereas generally affiliated wetlands for waterfowl and birds, they provide absolutely vital habitat for numerous species – mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish and bugs – up to 45% of them are uncommon and endangered.

A high decrease of wetlands has assisted to numerous endangered species. Some species, such as muskrat, and wood duck spend most of their lives in wetlands, while other ones – peregrine falcon, striped bass, and deer – rarely visit wetlands for nourishment, water and shelter. This kind of wetland environments may take at smallest part of their life cycle is called alignment types.

Texas Wetlands Conservation Plan and Efforts:

Texas Wetlands Conservation Plan, commenced in April 1994, focuses on non-regulatory, voluntary approaches to the preservation of wetlands in Texas. While developing the Plan Texas Wetlands Conservation (Plant) was coordinated by Texas reserves and Wildlife, is the course designed as a direct for efforts to conserve wetlands over the state.

Great Lakes Wetlands Conservation Efforts:

The Great Lakes Wetlands Conservation Activity Plan (GLWCAP) collects a broad range of governmental and non-governmental organizations in alignment to maintain the residual wetlands in the Great Lakes. It complements the objectives of the government Wetlands principle (1991) and the Regional Wetlands principle (1996) (which is part of the policy declaration of the provincial council), and is the first action design made during the 25-year strategic design for the protection of wetlands in the Great Lakes Basin. Partners take responsibility for one-by-one tasks, milestones and schemes that best support their strengths and interests.

Why wildlife conservation is so vital? Because the best gift God has granted to environment is the untamed animals, they embellish the natural beauty of their exclusive way of life. But because of the expanding significance of deforestation, couple of concerned animal lovers is making relentless efforts to save threatened species, and those who are on the brink of extinction, and save the world from mislaying its green heritage.

Some of the projects and programs of wildlife conservation in India include task Tiger, which has so far been most thriving in defending and maintaining the tiger community. The Gir National reserve is the only habitat for Asiatic lions in India. The Kaziranga Sanctuary in Assam is another amazing demonstration of keeping the endangered rhino. Periyar in Kerala it is to avert untamed elephants and Dachigam nationwide reserve to do the identical thing to save the Hangul or Kashmir Stag.

Natural tasks and programs started by the Indian government as Save Tiger, environment bivouacs and Jungle Lodge are coordinated to encourage perception of the environment of persons. These projects not only help maintain the natural heritage, but furthermore to promote eco-tourism.

Conservation efforts are the different ways conservation problems are addressed and solved.  Human activities like development, urbanization, and other live convenience invention have a bad way of affecting the environment.  The environment is the total surrounding affecting living and non living things.  In biological terms it is called the ecosystem.  So the world is wide ecosystem consisting of smaller ecosystem like: wetland.  Wetland is an area of land that is temporarily or permanently filled with soil and moisture.  Examples are mangroves, cattails, sedges, marshes, and swamps which are found in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.  These countries are homes to the largest types of wetlands.  

Why conservation efforts for wetlands?

It is an established fact that man is the reason behind every conservation or environmental problems, and ironically humans are also the brain behind conservation efforts.  Through conscious and unconscious efforts humankind have reduced the environment to a dangerous one, efforts such as invention, discoveries, urbanization, etc., resulting to deforestation, green house effects, desertification, acidic rain, and endangering species are some of the ways man have created an in-equilibrium in the environment thus leading to conservation efforts.  Now the question – why wetland conservation effort?

Wetland biologically vary among all ecosystem, many plants live in the ecosystem, namely mangrove, water lilies, sedges, tamarack, black spruce, etc, and different animals like amphibians, fishes, mammals, insects, and reptiles.  Also are the non living things like the sun, soil, sand, topography, etc., all having one interacting features that enables relationship with one another and adaptive features, enabling them to exist in the environment.  Due to human disturbances these inter-relationship and coexistence are threatened.

Poaching which is the killing of living things in their natural habit by humans is one of the major reasons why some species are endangered.  Another example of human destructive efforts in wetland is in drainage efforts, real estate development, flooding for creating recreational lakes, etc.  These off-courses disturb the natural food chain causing conditions like famine, scarcity, and cannibalism.  This in-equilibrium leads to conservation efforts for wetland.

Conservation efforts for wetlands

In other to curb this evil effect of human destruction on wetland some conservation effort are in place.  Ramsar convention is an international treaty designed to address world issues regarding the gradual loss and dilapidation of wetlands. It is aimed at promoting the important use of some of the major international wetlands, in view of preserving the wetlands.

Country conservation

This conservation outreach is targeted towards individual countries having their own wetlands they are:

New Zealand

The focus is on New Zealand considering the fact that more than 90% of their wetlands have been destroyed by European settlers, the protection is under the resource management act.

South Africa

Another country is South Africa.  This effort is a dual one between the department of environmental affairs and tourism in South Africa and the departments of water affairs, forestry, and agriculture. They offer support through encouraging rehabilitating, and sustaining the wetlands in South Africa by providing relief efforts like poverty and employment relief.

Other countries involve in conservation relieves are Sweden, United states, Paraguay, and many others.

Conservation method for wildlife is the different effort in place to protect wildlife from human’s destructive hammer. It is quite ironical that humans are behind the conservation efforts when they are the reason for the preservation efforts in the first place. The environment is hitting back, natural disasters are increasing everyday, the grave dangers of famine and extinction have knocked sense of preservation or death in the head of some humans, while the ludicrous ones continues with the evil activity without taking into cognizance the impending evil effect. Like wetland, wild life is another endangered natural resources that is sure to destroy the whole of mankind if it is not controlled, even eliminated.

Wildlife Conservation Definition and Consequences

Wildlife is animals with the exception of domesticated animals, plants, and any other organism. Their natural habitat is in the wild: land and water. They unlike domesticated animals are untamed, and un-captured. Examples are lions, tigers, hyena, whales, elephants, wild dogs, fox, and many others. They are mostly found in all ecosystems like rain forests, mangroves, wetlands, desert, plains, etc. Man’s interference in this habitat is as old as the various ecosystems; it is seen in the attempt of capturing some of these wilds for entertainment in funfairs and as pets. To enable them fulfill this hunt they undergo very exclusive education of taming these animals. The problem from this activity is that it creates a gap in the ecosystem.

For every animal that is removed from the wild, a level of in-equilibrium is created leading to unnatural circumstances like cannibalism, then extinction. Activities like poaching, destroying wild life for different purposes like games, food, rituals, commerce etc., leads to the need for conservation method for wildlife.

The four most common reasons that have resulted in wildlife destruction are over killing, habitat destruction and fragmentation, chains of extinction, and consequences of introducing species. These efforts are the major factors that endanger the wildlife ecosystem. For instance Deforestation which is one of the cases of habitat destruction and fragmentation is caused by increase in urbanization attempts, real estate building, etc.

Conservation Method for Wildlife

There are many efforts that are targeted at preserving wild life such as obtaining approval for flipper seal. This is a conservation method for wildlife geared towards preventing over killing of dolphins to extinction. It involves obtaining a flipper seal for placing on their products if they have undergone the strident procedures of obtaining a license.

The agreement that must be met before the license is issued is that they, the company, must buy and sell tuna products without killing dolphins, this including other assurances like, dolphin friendliness and saving. Add to this agreement, the tuna fish company must allow monitoring equipments that will examine their accounts and factories globally.

Using DNA to save wildlife is yet another conservation method to save wildlife. This strategy is targeted towards ending world wide use of wild whale meat. Wildlife is very important to existence of living and non living organism; much effort has been targeted at preserving wild life, and others are still in the cooler.

Humans have been known to be quite selfish and over the past years we have had a chance to witness this self loathing a handful of times, in the shape of wars, genocide, mass murders, etc.   All of the inhumane things that have been taking place on this earth have been lowered in their intensity and overall happening, however, we are still the cruelest of all species on our planet. Now this inhumanity does not end with humans killing humans, it goes on to other species, like animals and fishes, etc., and the resulting effects ruin the whole planet.

For as long as I can remember, there have been movements going on, to try and stop others from destroying earth in one or the other.  There has been little hope though.  Not all humans are evil, in fact, it is only a handful of people who have taken a toll on earth and they have been doing things like killing innocent animals for financial gains, chopping of trees in the forests to make items for their personal usage, etc.  Although, being humans, there are quite a few things that we can’t stop from happening, like eating meat of different animals; however, it is not justifiable to slaughter every animal in sight just to flourish off of them.

You might have heard of global warming, of course you would have.  This is what happens when we don’t pay attention to what could go wrong if we mess with nature.  Carbon emissions, pollutants of all sorts, all of these have led to our wildlife and wetlands being ruined. There are however, a lot of efforts being made in order to conserve our planet from becoming totally worn out.

Communities have been formed, committees have been set up, and activists are working, either led by governments or boosted with personal zeal, so as to try and figure out ways in which we can live in a more EcoFriendly way.  There are a lot of steps that we, as individuals, can take on our own and become part of the efforts to conserve earth.  Following are some of these ways in which you can play your part:

• Don’t litter in the open.  Use the trash cans, which are situated almost everywhere.
• Try not to use those items, such as deodorants, and fuel run cars, which emit green house gases.
• Join the adopt-a-tree and if you are financially stable enough, join the adopt-a-child foundations.
• Don’t use paper, go virtual.  Save the trees.
• Try to conserve electricity and water. These resources are getting depleted really quickly.

There are a lot of people out there who want to help save the earth, so that their children and the generations to come in the future have a better place to survive than we are living in.  The best way to go about doing that is to join a conservation movement or a group but you must ensure that they are really making a change, not just existing like all the others are.

One of the most important reasons to promote environmental awareness is that it enables most people to actually know the importance of the environments.  It is true that some people are unaware of important pollution issues and they do not know exactly what the environment entails.  These people need to be educated about the effects of pollution on one’s health and the health of the entire planet.  The more a person is educated, the more responsive they will be towards keeping the planet cleaner and healthier.

When there are enough studies done on the effects of pollution, it will be realized that the environment is actually very important to our way of life.  The environment is so important that when it is affected negatively in any way it causes so much sickness and pain.  As a matter of fact, many people have been victims of environmental pollution and because of this they have a lot of respiratory health issues.  Many people fall sick and in the process die due to issues like pollution and unhealthy air.  The environment therefore needs more protection than we actually think and it is only right to protect it or else there will definitely be future problems associated with it.

One major effect realized with this sort of thing is when people fall sick as a result of environmental degradation or its related issues it leads to so much money being spent just to keep the fellow alive.  It is obvious that environmental degradation can be expensive to humans.  Expensive in this term refers to the fact that many will want to get treatment when they fall sick.  For instance those people who are often found to be diagnosed with cancer are forced to spend so much money to receive the chemotherapy treatments.  And it is important to state that cancer can be caused by pollution and its related problems. There are even instances whereby some people cannot afford treatment and so they end up losing their precious lives.  Of course one can attribute all these mishaps to the bad treatment of the environment.

There are even instances where some bad practices, such as illegal mining, bush burning and usage of dangerous chemicals for fishing, can be very detrimental to human health. Smoking is another factor that affects both the environment and the person involved.  Smoking even affects other people and animals nearby due to second hand smoke.

All these pollutions can be avoided provided there is enough awareness created, as this is very crucial.  As a matter of fact, awareness is noted to be a basic tool to curbing environmental related problems and as such should be improved upon.  Once we can educate the entire population on the health effects of pollution and poor air quality, we could save lives and safe the planet.

All over Africa there are schemes of education for school children to value their local wildlife as their greatest natural asset for the future of their countries. The same is true for island worlds such as the Fijis or Hawaii, where land grabbing developers had threatened the delicate fresh water cycles of the islands through deforestation and coastal over development.

Education also provides the key to issues such as over-fishing and by-catch. Where local fisheries were introduced to better, sustainable fishing methods, their livelihoods were protected for the future and their income increased through improved efficiency.

Environmental Pressure Groups

Joining a local group of one of the major environmental pressure groups can be a great way to receiving further education. Volunteers are usually teamed up with an experienced member of the organisation and they will guide the new recruit into environmental projects of their own. As well as being able to apply many of the eco-friendly subjects learned, recruits find that their social life improves. There are many conservation groups running local programmes both for adults and for kids, on pretty much anything from bat conservation projects to pressure groups preventing councils from reserving land for the exclusive use of supermarket development.

Listening Skills

Having a chat with grandparents and taking their advice on environmentally friendly ways of planting in our gardens is another source of education open to many people. Our grandparents are a “mend and make do” generation devoted to recycling and avoiding waste. We can learn a lot about crop rotation in our gardens or recycling clothes.

Our grandparents had to live through one or even two world wars and had to learn the hard way what education on waste reduction and recycling really means. It’s a survival guide. As precious resources become scarcer, we have to know how to better conserve the ones we’ve got left and how to use them more effectively. Our grandparents recycled most of their clothes, mending or taking them apart to make new garments for future use.

Where people have learned how to make things out of old clothes, they’ve found new hobbies opening up as well as new business opportunities presenting themselves. Making bags out of old clothes has become a successful business venture for a number of people. Clothes swapping parties are another result of education on recycling.

Learning by Example

Indigenous peoples are a great source of knowledge and many countries are beginning to recognise that the knowledge built up over thousands of years is one of our most valuable resources. In the USA Native Americans are participating in a global education program by downloading their knowledge on native plants and there uses in medicine onto the internet.

The Environmental Education and Training Unit at the United Nations is using this knowledge and other sources to produce learning support and educational material, making available things like training manuals, starter packs, posters, resource kits, newsletters and compendiums.

Governments have started to realised that we need to need treat, sort, reprocess waste before being turned in to something else and started to shift the responsibility on to manufacturers. Companies are now being forced, through legislation, to consider the full ‘lifecycle’ of their products; as a result, any potential costs have to be internalised in the production process. An early example of this was in the electronics industry, recognising the threat posed to the environment from electric components that were not disposed of properly. More recently, car manufacturers have been forced to reconsider the materials that go in to their products on account of their potential damage to the environment when they’re taken to the wrecker’s yard.

It’s clear that in many cases the increase in costs as a result of meeting these new regulations has been passed on to the consumer. This reflects part of the true environmental cost of making and disposing of the many products we demand, and it’s a cost that more and more people are willing to pay.

There is no such requirement for food manufacturers, as we assumed that food waste was not so much of a problem. The evidence suggests, however, that more and more food is finding its way to landfill sites, where its decomposition leads to the release of methane. Leaving the dubious ethics of binning perfectly good food to one side, consider the huge environmental costs that accumulate in the production of our food: from intensive water and energy consumption, soil degradation from fertilisers and associated transport costs.

Excessive food packaging has also become the bane of waste managers everywhere; bunches of bananas sold in plastic bags, multi-packs wrapped in cardboard. We have been encouraged to show our disapproval of such practices by tearing off the packaging and leaving it at the checkout, forcing the supermarkets to deal with the problem, but as a form of direct action few of us are brave enough to draw attention to the problem or ourselves.

One of the simpler ways to achieve a reduction in waste is to create a better balance in the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle. Improvements in recycling technology and a greater awareness of it have led almost to a legitimising of increased consumption. If governments went to similar lengths to provide practical ways individuals and companies could carry out the ‘reduce’ and ‘reuse’ part then real progress could be made.

Of course, encouraging people to effectively reduce their spending goes against the need to avoid further economic recession and in a climate of austerity, it’s unlikely that public money is going to be made available in this area. As with other environmental issues and challenges, the greater impact perhaps comes from more and more individuals making choices with the environment in mind, thus forcing companies to modify how they consider waste should be managed.

A significant change that the environmental movement wants to see take root in society, has to be achieved by accentuating the positive. There is evidence this is happening: cycling is being promoted and is being taken up in force. There is a greater emphasis on the benefits of using a bike: environmental (cutting down on emissions), social (improves health) and economic (two wheels are cheaper than four).

Global economics has a role to play. The notion of a ‘throw-away society’ illustrates perfectly just how unsustainable modern living has become, and this has been caused by a global economic system that often makes it cheaper to go out and buy new things, well before we actually need them. Thus, we shouldn’t be quite so please with ourselves when heading to the local dump and having the capacity to recycle everything from televisions to clothes, only to then drive off to the nearest shopping mall and stocking up again. Somehow the focus on ‘recycle’ rather than ‘reduce’ sums up where the environmental message sits right now.

And yet, there is a fantastic opportunity to change people’s way of thinking. Recent studies have shown that our happiness has little to do with the possessions we own. The opposite indeed seems to be the case.

It’s encouraging that governments, for example in the UK and France, are more interested than they have been in the past, in measuring people’s happiness. A proposed general happiness index may have drawn sniggers from hard-nosed economic commentators, but it’s what the environmental movement has believed for a long time, they just have not communicated it very well.

So as people in many developed countries face much harder economic choices, as a result of the recent economic crises, the climate could be right for a new kind of environmental message: one that doesn’t harass people in making changes, but suggests that making lifestyle changes may bring benefits to their wallets as well as to their general wellbeing.

Reference Hybrid Cars: The Evolution of the Hybrid Car

The word biodiversity is used to describe the range of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem. The greater the diversity of organisms, the more healthy the ecosystem tends to be. Maintenance and encouragement of biodiversity is therefore a key part of the sustainability agenda. In order to maintain and improve biodiversity, developers should try to incorporate building elements that provide habitat for plants, birds and animals in and around the properties that they construct. In many countries, biodiversity is not an optional extra, but a requirement of the planning system with which property developers must comply with. The use of landscape architects with appropriate knowledge of techniques for the encouragement of biodiversity does not only help to achieve the goal of biodiversity, but can also make a development much more attractive, which generally enhances consumer demand.

One interesting way of introducing biodiversity to developments is through the provision of green and brown roofs. Green roofs can be either flat or pitched. Flat green roofs can be either intensive or extensive. Extensive roofs have a thinner layer of grass or sedum grown in a thin layer of matting or soil above further layers of materials that ensure both the viability of the overlying foliage and efficient drainage. Intensive roofs are similar in construction but have a deeper soil layer in which larger plants, including trees, can be grown. Intensive roofs are often used to provide amenity space to residents as well as contributing to biodiversity. Pitched roofs, which can only be extensive in design, require simpler waterproofing and drainage systems than flat roofs, because the formation of pools of water is prevented by their design. Some developments are now starting to introduce green walls, which operate on similar principles.

Brown roofs, also known as bio-diverse roofs or rubble roofs, are similar in design to flat green roofs, but are usually designed with specific biodiversity objectives in mind. They are typically planted with a much wider variety of plants than green roofs and the growing medium also tends to be more diverse. Soil and rubble are deposited in varying depths to suit different vegetation types. The extra weight generated by the use of rubble and an unequal distribution of weight requires such roofs to have greater structural strength than green roofs. Sometimes brown roofs only provide the growth media, which are then seeded by the wind, animals and birds. The planting of certain forms of vegetation can be used to encourage particular bird and animal species to frequent the area.

These roof types help to provide a more constant temperature for buildings. In the winter, they keep the heat in while in the summer they help to keep buildings cool. They can also enhance the appearance of buildings, although brown roofs can be less attractive to some people, and as mentioned above, can be used to provide amenity space for residents. They generally require little maintenance, although drainage systems may need repair and weeding may be required if aggressive, unwanted plants start to colonize them.

Reducing Energy Usage of New Developments
Reducing Water Usage of New Developments
You Are Here Encouraging Biodiversity on New Developments
Reducing Construction Waste
Becoming a Sustainable Business
ISO 14001 Accreditation

Conserving resources is an important issue today.  We all need to do our share to help keep the planet from dying. Several resources need to be conserved each for different reasons. Apart from conserving energy so that we can reduce global warming, we also need to conserve our soil for many reasons too. Think of the food that you are going to eat today and you can always link it up to the soil that you stepped on when going to work. Most of the plants that we know of rely on soil for support therefore without soil food will be hard to come by.

Soil conservation ensures that our soil is always taken care of from the various factors that try to do the opposite. These include things such as soil erosion or wind erosion. If we don’t take care of our soil then a chain of events will follow. You can be sure that all of them will not be good. From soil erosion, our plants will somehow die out and these plants are the same things that other animals feed on so they will also die and it will also get to us. Before it gets to us, you should know that plants are responsible for removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it to manufacture food for itself. The rate at which we are now releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is alarming and you can definitely tell that global warming will follow.

Water is life and therefore conserving it is like protecting our lives from extinction. It might look almost impossible to conserve water but there are ways of doing it. Some of us have the impression that since the world has a large portion covered by water, there will never come a time when there won’t be any but that’s not true at all. Currently there are people suffering from droughts in some parts of the world and they are dying of thirst too. In our own homes, we don’t take care of how we use the water that is provided to us. Simple things like failing to close a tap or letting the water run while you are brushing lead to wastage of water that could be used to do better things. Water that has been used can still be re-used for something better and you will be conserving water in the end. Taking care of our water sources is also another way of conserving water and in fact this is the best way of conserving water.

There you have it; conservation is something that is basically for us. We have been greedy and selfish as humans and all the things that we are currently experiencing are because of us. We cannot solve all these problems overnight and the only way that is left is to conserve the little that we still have. The methods of conservation are really simple and even though they seem too absurd it’s worth trying them and doing something that is right for once.

When we think about conservation, many images come to mind. While there are several major areas we need to conserve, there are other areas that are not thought of as much.  One of those areas is perhaps the most important thing to us. Wildlife! While most of us think that wildlife is all about animals, it is actually about animals and plants which live much on their own.

Wildlife conservation is thus a science which focuses on analyzing and protecting the earth’s biological diversity. The major things that we are supposed to be concerned about when it comes to conserving wildlife is their loss of habitat, change in climate, excessive use of pesticides and hunting and poaching for animals. Loss of habitat comes about when we keep on destroying forests just to extract timber from the trees or to find a place to settle. Wildlife conservation thus tries to educate people on the importance of having plants and animals on our earth. The reasons are quite obvious to all of us. We keep the wild animals for posterity and sometimes they serve as great tools for research purposes. Many plants and animals have some distinct habitat requirements which if they aren’t met then they find somewhere else to go to. Sadly, we cannot correct this problem overnight and it will take years for everything to be restored back to normal.

We can’t also forget about energy conservation especially when fuel prices are so high at the moment. Energy conservation is all about efforts made to reduce energy consumption and this is best achieved by using energy efficiently. Most of us don’t know much about energy conservation and that is why we still have incandescent lamps lit in our homes yet no one is using them at that specific moment. If you thought energy conservation was expensive, you should try estimating the amount of money that we usually waste when we aren’t keen on energy usage. The simplest things that you thought would never make a difference are the ones that actually make the difference. Apart from switching off lights and using fluorescent lamps as much as you can, you could also think of taking a walk instead of having to use the car all the time. It would seem tiresome and all that but you are actually doing something about our energy and saving us from a lot of air pollution too.

It is worth noting that these are not the only types of conservation that are out there. With all the wrongs that we as humans are responsible for, you can imagine all the types of conservation measures that we can try to come up with in order to correct our messes. Without these measures you can be quite sure that we will stop being human beings since all that we have will be gone because we never cared about tomorrow much. Here’s our chance now so let’s not throw it away.

To help save our planet, save our land and utilize natural resources more, we need to shop differently.  Instead of going to the big grocers that contribute to imported fruits and vegetables, we need to start buying our fresh food at the local farmers market.  Perhaps it will take a little time at first to shop this way – it is very much like returning to the days when we had to visit several shops such as the bakers, the butchers and greengrocer to get our weekly shopping done. However, when we do shop in this way we often save money, as the online seller doesn’t have a High Street store to maintain and an army of staff to pay; we receive most certainly better quality and a far greater choice.

Cutting off the Funds

Shareholders must be served with their dividends at all costs – shouldn’t we start to look at a different set up for our companies as a whole?

Co-operatives make each and every person working for the organization a partner in the business. Not only does this come with the possibility of larger financial gain, it also comes with individual responsibility of how an organisation conducts its business. In other parts of the world, in African countries for example, the old tribal traditions of how to conduct business are not so very different from Britain’s partnership John Lewis. Doing away with the shareholder culture is an important step in changing our future.

Doing away with irresponsible lending is another. Next time you have money you wish to put into a savings scheme, think about investing it into a credit union instead. By depriving irresponsible High Street banks of funds, you can make a difference in your local community and the environment generally. There are even savings schemes which your local employer might support, when you invest in a credit union.  

There are a few banks now which invest only in ethical schemes. The choice is yours – and if you believe, your small savings won’t make a difference – think again. The overwhelming amount of money comes from small time savers like you and I. High Street banks may not give two figs about us as individuals, but collectively we have enough power to put them out of business for good.

The good people of East Germany, Tunisia and Egypt have shown us that voting with our feet can dislodge the most adhesive dictatorship. Isn’t it about time we had a banking revolution?  By depriving multinationals of the kind of lending banks have traditionally provided to them, corporate executives have to think twice about where to invest their money and how to spend it. Cutting off their funding at source, by choosing to bank only with ethical financial institutions and by investing your savings only in environmentally sound schemes, is vital if we want to stop the rape and destruction of the land around us.

Conservation Starts at Home

It is easy to blame others for the state our planet is in, but the sad truth is: we are all guilty of destroying the planet. Think before you invest, consume or buy anything. It’s a start, however small the step may be!

Attach bat boxes to sheds or trees and before you know it, your kids will be admiring pipistrelles performing an aeronautical show at dusk. Once your children have learned that bats are great at keeping insect populations down, which means less itchy midget bites as far as your offspring is concerned, your kids might ask you to enrol them as a Young Bat Worker at your local Bat Conservation Trust project. A new generation of your very own environmentalists is born!

Plant a few sweet Williams, which attract butterflies, and marvel at their colors and mating dance, whilst silently thanking them for playing their part in pollination.  Above all, don’t forget the humble earthworm, in Charles Darwin’s eyes the most important creature on our planet.  Devoting an entire book to the little gardeners, he wrote in 1881 “…the plough is the most ancient and most valuable of man’s inventions; but long before it existed, the land was in fact regularly ploughed, and still continues to be thus ploughed, by earthworms.”

Don’t poison your soil with artificial pesticides – you are harming your most valuable ally, the earthworm, by doing so. Birds in turn feed on worms and their digestive system rarely tolerates pesticides for long. If you love harvesting your crops, then start worshipping the humble earthworm, for throughout its life it munches its way through an astonishing amount of leaves and dirt, enriching the soil with their “dung”. Thanks to the earthworm’s tireless work you are achieving better crops naturally, without the aid of expensive and toxic fertilizers.

Providing Habitat

Hedges and shrubs planted in your garden or allotment provide a valuable habitat not just for insects but endangered species of native birds and small mammals such as mice. Some fruits can be grown in attractive rows of shrubs, which may serve as a hedge separating your plot from your neighbour’s garden and at the same time provide nesting space for wildlife. If your fence needs replacing, plant a hedge instead. In autumn be sure to stack a pile of leaves and twigs in a quiet corner to provide a winter quarter for hedgehogs and bugs alike.

A New Outlook on Life

A conservation project in your kitchen garden or allotment may eventually lead you to consider participating in projects initiated by other people. You will learn new skills and find out, how you can protect the land from deforestation or destruction of wildlife habitat. You will meet interesting people and before long you will be buying your groceries from a farmer’s market rather than supporting the destructive methods of your local supermarket giant.

You may even take up a new hobby: the beauty of wildlife photography is that you don’t have to go on safari in far flung places. Capturing a bat in mid-hunt with your digital camera or snapping a picture of a rare bird is thrilling. Your very own plot of land behind the house can be a tiny jungle full of amazing creatures and you are a naturalist explorer – the adventure factor depends just on your point of view.