Submerged Lands

Eco life, or sometimes called sustainable living, is the way of life in which one reduces the use of natural resources to the minimum.  Commonly known today as carbon footprint we must all try to reduce our individual effect and make the resources to be available for our coming generations as well.  We should try to live a life balanced with our comfort in symbiotic relationship with Earth`s natural ecology.

Here are some of the ways by which we can live the eco-life:

Eco-Homes

Starting from our own very homes we can save a lot of resources.  Most of our daily routines involve use of energy.  For example, most of our appliances these days run on electricity, water and gas.  We should try to use these resources to the minimum.  We can achieve that by avoiding turning on extra lights, keeping the heaters on only to the minimum requirement, use water sensibly and take a shower preferably for a short period of time, as many of us are in habit of standing in the shower for half hour or so.  The cooking of meals could be done using bio-fuels and other renewable energy resources.

Eco-Transportation

The biggest threat to the environment is being posed by the greatly increasing number of vehicles on the road and their ever growing fumes.  We can use hybrid cars and switch from our big SUVs to fuel efficient cars.  Diesel, as it causes more air pollution than other vehicle fuels should be avoided.  Compressed natural gas and electricity run vehicles are the better alternative.  We can start by going to work or college by buses or subway trains.

Eco-Food

The health of a person is mostly judged by the meals he takes every day.  Instead of going for the branded and tinned vegetables and beans we can always buy them from the near farm-fresh markets, or the best solution is grow them in our own backyards if possible.  The quality of fresh vegetables is not the only advantage, rather they cost very less.

Gardening

We can help reducing our carbon footprint by planting trees and plants around our house, around our block and wherever we can have the capacity to.  The massive chopping down of trees and abolishing of forests is creating a big danger and we can help a little to grow more trees, if not a jungle.

Eco-Clothing

We can reduce the carbon footprint by choosing our garments and clothes very carefully.  The cotton crop is home for the pest and in return most of the pesticides are manufactures for the cotton crop.  And we know that manufacturing of pesticides involves a lot of toxic waste production as well.  Rather we should adopt for organic cotton which can reduce the pollution caused due to wastes.

Waste and Recycling

Each house produces about 1 ton of rubbish annually in UK according to a survey.  We can estimate that if we keep digging the earth and dumping the wastes in it we we`ll run out of spaces before 25years approximately.  Of course we cannot burn the garbage, but surely we can recycle most of the items.

These are some of the ways we can surely help save the mother earth and help towards saving the environment for our next many generations and live the eco-life.

 It is true that these days we still haven’t managed to wean ourselves from our obsession with our daily ration of meat. Not eating meat once a week will make a huge difference, benefitting our health as well as the environment. Vast areas of land are needed for grazing cattle, so our demand for burgers at every hour of the day or night can be met.

Increasing the amount of land used for grazing results in deforestation and decreases the agricultural land available to grow food. Another negative factor of cattle farming is an increase of greenhouse gasses as cows farting their way into our supermarkets and fast food outlets are responsible for releasing methane gas into the air. Vegetarians are often ridiculed for their soy burger culture and their vegan cutlet attitude, but their way of thinking makes sense, not just in terms of animal welfare but also in terms of protecting from environmental disaster.

Evils of Intensive Farming

In Argentina the planting of GE soybean crops has all but destroyed the ancient cloud forest areas and small farmers are being forced off their land to make way for multinational avarice and GE plantations.

In Malaysia the palm oil industry is destroying rain forests at an unprecedented rate, an ingredient hidden in the labelling of anything from soap to facial cleanser to lotions.

Would we really buy the products on our supermarket shelves, if we knew exactly how our food was produced and what it contained or what evil was disguised as environmentally friendly skin product?

Supermarkets’ buying power is determined by our shopping behavior – this was aptly demonstrated when Iraq was bombed in an alleged attempt to oust Saddam Hussein from power. German and French shoppers were so incensed at the disproportionate force used in US and UK bombing raids, they refused to buy the aggressors’ goods. Never underestimate the power of the shopping public: the more demands for better labelling we hurl at those who take our money with one hand whilst pulling the wool over our eyes with the other, the more choices we will have of what happens in world farming.

Exercising Pester Power

Lobbying your political representative is one way of ensuring more is done to improve labelling for a more informed choice. Avoiding supermarkets as much as possible is another.

Unless we support our farmers in their efforts to protect the land and to provide us with organically grown food, we are going to see a further decline in home-grown, local food.

If you don’t have a farmer’s market where you are, write to your local council and ask if there are plans for a weekly market. If there aren’t, get together with your neighbours and discuss, if they are interested in participating in a box scheme offered by farmers located within a 50 miles radius of your home. Farm shops will deliver, if there are enough households in your area, who are prepared to sign up to a weekly scheme.

The choice is yours!

Every momentous change has to start with the first small step. Not buying fruit out of season isn’t a great hardship; eating less meat is good for your health and allows you to lose weight at the same time. Avoiding fast food of all description not only makes your arteries and your doctor happy, it means excessive cattle farming – one reason for deforestation – will cease in time. Less farting cattle on the planet add to the efforts of reducing greenhouse gases. And guess what? Cooking a proper meal at home is far cheaper than take-away or ready-made meals!

By making just small adjustments to our shopping habits, changes which often cost less time and money than we imagine, we can make a huge difference to the environment. Recycling our clothes by swapping or by giving away clothes we don’t want to those who do need them is no hardship at all and can easily be built into our lives.

Healthier Cleaning

Did you know that a solution of 1 part vinegar and 4 parts water will make for an excellent window cleaner? Have a look in your library for books about making soap and shampoo – you’ll be amazed how easy it is and how much fun you’ll have whilst experimenting with the natural scents you can add. Before you know it you’ll have saved yourself a great deal of money every week and you will have notched up another environmentally friendly point on your list.

Many facial products such as facial cleansers or eye make-up remover contain ingredients that where grown in an irresponsible fashion. Palm oil is added to numerous cosmetics and with labelling being totally obscure (what is the chemical “formula” for palm oil?), shoppers inadvertently buy stuff they’d rather see banned from the planet. Try making your own face mask and facial cleanser. Cucumber, lemon, yogurt and honey are wonderful for giving a natural glow to the skin whilst cleansing at the same time.

Green Fingers

If you are one of the lucky few who’ve been given access to an allotment, you may already be growing some of your own food. The huge demand in allotments has meant all over the UK and Germany for example people are on long waiting lists, until councils make more land available for plots to be rented out to willing gardeners.

Growing fruit and vegetables in your garden means you only buy those items you cannot grow yourself. The trend in self-sufficiency is encouraging, but more needs to be done to make it happen. Some of my friends are keeping chickens, because they could not bear the way in which intensive chicken farms keep their animals! Our front gardens should not be made into yet another car parking space, but given back to nature for wildlife to inhabit.

Going green is easy to do – only the very first step is hard: that’s the one where you make the conscious decision to be passionate about protecting the land around you.

Due to the fact that most natural resources can disappear in time, there is a need to focus on management of quantities available. This led to the development of a special discipline called Natural Resource Management. As you surely imagine, it deals with managing different natural resources while also focusing on the effects that use can have on life quality in the present and in the future. We can say that natural resource management will be linked with sustainable development. This is a simple principle that stands out as the basis of environmental governance and land management. We need to pay attention and differentiate between this discipline and environmental management. The discipline of natural resource management will focus more on technical understanding and science.

The Problem of Natural Resource Depletion

In the past few years we saw development agencies focusing more on the problem of natural resources depletion and they are trying to move towards sustainable development. Such a concern mostly appears in regions that feature rainforests. This is because they currently hold much of the Earth’s biodiversity.  Also, natural resources conservation is a highly important aspect that is tackled by environmentalism, natural capitalism, green politics and the ecology movement.  In developing nations we see a lot of conflicts and social unrest because of depletion.

The Protection of Natural Resources

Natural resources are protected through conservation biology.  We are talking about a scientific study of status and nature when analyzing the biodiversity noticed on Earth.  The aim is to protect habitats and all ecosystems from extinction.  We need not confuse conservation biology with habitat conservation, which is a practice of land management that tries to restore, protect and conserve habitat areas for animals and plans. This is especially true for conservation reliant species.  Habitat conservation also tries to prevent fragmentation, range reduction and extinction.

Nowadays people are starting to be aware of the fact that most natural resources are limited in quantity.  As time passes there are fewer resources that can be used and this can lead to problems in the future. Different organizations and governments are issuing special laws in order to protect nature.  Also, we see a constant attempt to try and move towards natural resources that cannot be depleted. The best example is electricity provided through wind or solar power.  Hybrid cars are also surfacing due to petroleum being a natural resource that is depleting.

Recycling is also highly important for natural resources.  There are different substances that can be recycled and it is everyone’s responsibility to try and help in this process. We see numerous campaigns that are promoted through different media channels in order to make people aware of the importance of recycling.  Although there are only small chances that there are going to be huge problems in the near future, there is a huge chance that our children are going to be faced with a lot more than we are at the moment.  Natural resources need to be protected, recycled and properly managed in order for us to live properly.  We are dependent on them and if they disappear, only problems can arise.

A crucial natural resource is gold.  As a matter of fact, gold is very attractive in all situations and as such many people will die just to obtain it.  It is true that gold is a precious mineral, but the question is how is gold obtained?  When one is to follow strictly the way gold is mined, he or she will right away say it is good idea they stop mining it.  The mining of gold is noted to cause so much environmental degradation, which can lead to very serious health problem for people.  Most of the time miners go deep down tunnels just to mine gold.  Some people cannot do other things apart from mining gold, and as such this implies that gold should be mined continuously.

Well this is not a bad idea at all, except that those who often go through this process in the first place risk their own lives, in the second place cause some kind of degradation to the environment and last of all, extract the most precious natural resource one can think about. It is therefore necessary sometimes that there is some kind of education given concerning this particular thing.  There should never be any sort of problem whatsoever involved when this is taking place.

It is because gold is so important that without it certain things may not be done well in a particular country. For instance, any country that possess gold as a natural resource are often considered rich, but of the price of gold in the world market is so high and as such the majority will always do all that it takes just to possess gold.  It is therefore worthwhile possessing gold but the way it is usually obtained should be one of the things to talk about. Also all should not be taken away because we still need to conserve our natural resources for the future.

The world’s natural resources therefore are always very necessary to be conserved no matter what the situation.  This is exactly what some unscrupulous people cannot handle. It is therefore necessary to say to that although the natural resources are meant for usage; they should still be managed so that all of it is not exhausted.  This is because the future generations also have the right to benefit and as such enjoy from this fine commodity.

For instance when considering crude oil, it will be realized that crude oil has reduced and as such there is even an estimated number of years left for the worlds crude oil to get exhausted. This is just one of the reasons why it is very important to conserve our natural resources and also try as much as possible to do the right thing.  It is only when things like these are well done that the world will truly appreciate nature.

It is important to state here that some of the world’s natural resources can easily be replenished whiles others cannot.  So those that cannot be replenished should be used with care while those that can be replenished should be replaced immediately after it is used. When practices like this are encouraged, it will definitely lead to proper conservation of the natural resources and since our natural resources are so important to all of us on the planet, this is something that should be taken very seriously.

The railroads had no respect for the mountains, forests and the natural resources we need to survive. They just wanted the quickest way to expand from coast to coast. Again, wood was used to build the tracks, and fuel the fire for the steam engines along with using coal as fuel later. The people built towns along the railway to have places for the workers to stay.

In addition to all the natural resources that being used, destroyed, and contaminated, there were people who were getting very wealthy. The people obtained their wealth by buying up acres of timber land, then cutting it down to sell to people to make houses, stores, saloons, and whatever else they wanted to build. The cattlemen became wealthy raising cattle and horses for the army. In addition, they had cattle drives to send cattle back east for food.

There were people who had little respect for the earth and did not care how they treated it. The buffalo hunters, for example, did not have any respect for the massive herds of buffalo that fed, clothed, provide bedding, and buffalo chips to make fires for the Indians. They killed the buffalo for sport, leaving them to rot in the sun. Although these were animals, they were a natural resource. They gave back and were not just for show.

The miners and railroad owners, blowing holes or tunnels in the mountainsides, plus the railroad owners would destroy acres of timber if it meant a shorter way to get the train moving toward the other coast instead of cutting down just enough trees to make room to lay tracks.

The people out West were not the only ones using natural resources recklessly. Back East, people were getting wealthy building or selling material to build stockyards, slaughter houses, railway stations and houses. All they could see was dollar signs with no respect for the land. At this time in history, no one was wise enough to realize that if they used or destroyed natural resources, they would take a long time to regenerate or they may be so contaminated they could not be used.

In the present, some people are still using natural resources excessively with no thought of tomorrow. We have advanced from learning how to manage a fire to knowing how to put a man in space. All of these advances have used natural resources in some way or other.

If people and industries do not wise up, there are going to be very little, if any, natural resources for future generations to use. They are going to have to manufacture things to use for fuel, food, and housing. Before you use something that is a natural resource, stop and think. Destroying a natural resource is not worth doing. These resources may disappear before you know it. Leave something for future generations.