Foreword
The following text and initiative are about considering the environment in practice in order to hinder the possible man-made acceleration of global warming. In matters like this there is an obvious risk of being very hypocritical. The fact is that I am by no means more environmentally oriented than the average person. And like most of the people, I am not keen on sacrificing my personal quality of life too significantly for a possible common good. As such, making a difference is not easy, but also within these boundaries it is possible to take on the challenge and make at least some kind of a contribution. In fact, this initiative is meant especially for us, who usually don't think much about the environment.Background
In the past few years the environment and especially global warming have spurred an increasing amount of discussion. The global mean temperatures have risen during the last 150 years, which has made a lot of people concerned about the future. Some claim the current temperature shift is only a part of normal natural cycles that the earth has always had and that we are actually now living in a cooler time period, whereas others say mankind plays a significant role in this change. It is likely that neither of the views is entirely wrong. No one knows exactly how a big a role mankind plays in this climate change, but one thing is for sure: better safe than sorry. On the other hand, protecting the environment at the expense of all other things, can of course also lead to regrets, like suggested here. Still, otherwise acting for the good of the environment can never be a bad thing, even if most of us (me included) usually give very little if any thought about it.International collaboration is of course the most crucial part when fighting for a better environment. This is due to the fact that few individuals and perhaps even fewer nations are willing to voluntarily decrease their own quality of life for the common good. Accordingly there is a need for common rules, which should at first be adopted by the richest countries. Nevertheless, since this kind of global collaboration is an extremely difficult task and the Copenhagen conference (unsurprisingly) showed very little result, common rules are yet to be established and will most likely continue like that for quite some time. Therefore individual choices for the good of the environment do count.
The first decade of the 21st century was a time of increasing environmental awareness. Perhaps the next decade can be a time of putting this awareness into effect.
Initiative
The idea of this initiative is that annually on 1st of July, people and organizations, otherwise thinking very little about the environment, would make an act or a decision for the good of it. This can be a (permanent) change in lifestyle, consumer behaviour or company policy, or a single act for the good of the environment. Since this is just a single day, it is not reasonable to assume that the actual deed or change would always be concretely done on this specific day. Therefore it is suggested that at least the decision would be made on this day, and to fortify this decision, it would be written down along with a time limit of actually implementing it.The idea is NOT to disencourage making more environmentally friendly choices throughout the year. But if the environment gets forgotten otherwise, this is the day to at least try making a difference. All in all the basic premise here is that even the smallest of choices do matter, when lots of people contribute!
Apart from international collaboration, environmental contributions can be divided into three partially interconnected but still very distinct operational levels: individuals, companies and governments. The practical emphasis here is on individuals, but there is no reason to rule out larger entities.
In the following paragraphs some basic motivational guidelines and a small set of ideas are introduced for each of the groups. If you have any practical ideas to be implemented on any of the three levels, please feel free to post them as a comment!
Individuals
In the way of making a new year's resolution in the beginning of the year, make a new promise to yourself for the good of the environment. You can either make a change in your every day habits or take a more specific one-time action. Simple options for a change in the every day habits would be for example- starting to bring a cloth bag along instead of buying plastic bags when shopping for groceries.
- taking recycling habits up a notch
- Planting a tree, if possible.
- Deciding to move closer to your work place to avoid using your car on a daily basis. Or if possible starting going by bike or on foot.
- Making an initiative in an organization you are a part of.
Companies
Individual companies can take action in a number of ways:- By making its internal processes more environmentally friendly.
- eg. by using more environment friendly materials or using teleconferencing instead of excessive flying etc.
- By encouraging environmental friendliness among its employees.
- eg. by giving public transportation benefits or supporting working at home.
- By encouraging environmental friendliness among its clients.
- eg. in retailing, by emphasizing more environmentally friendly products and making the customers aware of this.
- By lobbying the government to help the company in implementing the above goals.
Governments
The task for governments is of course to modify legislation to support environmental-friendliness through taxation and restrictions, but also by supporting the development of more environmentally friendly technologies. Carrying out or even initiating these kinds of changes perhaps does not fit well with the single day idea, but on the other hand most changes are initiated on an individual level, and in that way the thought of implementing this initiative also on the government level might not be totally absurd. For example in terms of transport related matters that are part of our every day lives it would be possible to- support public transport more straight and by giving companies the possibility to offer their employees tax reduced public transportation benefits.
- adjust car benefit legislation to be less attractive for employers and employees - especially when the company is paying for private fuel usage.
- support hybrid and electric cars.
Links
To support the cause either just in spirit or both in spirit and in action, please join the Facebook group:The same article in FinnishA relatively objective site about the subject:
For hints on actions to take:
