How to create an eco-lifestyle?

[Discover]

Fish are cool. Here in the Community team we’re pretty fascinated with them... they have impressive learning capabilities, they’re amongst the oldest inhabitants of the earth, and there are more species of them than mammals, birds and reptiles combined. We’re also totally intimidated by the colossal scale of all the ‘blue bits’ on the globe. So. Much. Water.

Back in 2016 the World Economic Forum said that by 2050 there would be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fish.

That’s a lot of plastic.

And nowadays, it can feel like every August breaks a summer record. Every year another peculiarity or even disaster is reported, shared on social feeds and beamed through headphones.

An environmental crisis is upon us. And sometimes it’s easy, when cramming into a rammed Metro or Underground carriage – a stranger’s shoulder in your face and another’s briefcase jammed into your back – to feel like a very small cog in an unfathomably large, densely populated machine. And that nothing you could do could ever truly affect the course of the earth’s future.

But these kinds of misconceptions are a luxury the human race simply can’t afford.

A startling UN report created by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and published in May 2019 warned that nature is declining at a rate never seen before, with up to a million species threatened with extinction. The assessment cited climate change, pollution, changes in land and sea use and exploitation of natural resources as key drivers in the crisis. 

In a similar vein, NASA has said that the frequency of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has increased since the early 1980s, and figures released by the Met Office in early 2019 revealed that continued high temperatures could make 2014-2023 the warmest string of years since records began. In fact, global averages are around 1°C higher than pre-industrial levels, contributing to increased frequency of floods, droughts and extreme weather occurrences.

So what can we do?

We were bumbling around some Explore pages over at Samsung.com a while ago and Four Ways to Create an Eco-Home This Summer got us thinking about what tips we could share on the Community for creating eco-friendly lifestyles. The IPBES report called for widespread adoption of sustainable conservation efforts on both national and local levels, and there are all kinds of ways you can make a positive impact.

Recycling, lift-sharing, cutting down meat and dairy consumption, replacing single-use plastics with reusable food containers, sourcing local products and buying second hand clothing are all great ways to make a difference. They're also solutions that many of us have probably heard before, so if you have something to add, why not share it with us?

We're inviting all of you to discuss the habits you're swapping-out for greener alternatives, any positive contributions you're making to the environmental effort, and whether there are any ways you're using technology to reduce your carbon footprint.

As always, we love your feedback. So if you've got something to say, just post it in the comments below.

Big hugs,

The Community Team