Ecological actions

Here's a list of various actions you can take in different areas of your life. You'll find easy things that everyone can do in favour of a better environment. We suggest you go at your own pace and don't try to become a model of ecological comportment at once. Very little people do everything described in the following anyway, so don't get discouraged and go little by little.

Changing your habits in those areas will allow you to contribute to the effort necessary from everyone in order to help solve some of the major problems that are over-consumption, global warming and others.

RECYCLING

It is true that we have improved on the way of recycling, but there is still much to do in order to reach the ideal level of trash revaluation. Trash zero, that's the target! Whether garbage are buried or burned, soil and air are getting polluted when we have to get rid of our trash. To recycle is also about slowing down the rate at which we exploit the vegetal (trees for paper) and minerals (silica for glass and other metals) of the planet.

COMPOSTING

Composting is an important natural process that transforms vegetal, organic elements into dirt. Earth, soil is compost from leaves, branches, flowers and fruits from the wild. You can reduce the volume of your domestic trash by keeping your organic leftovers for compost. Peels from fruits and vegetables, egg shells, tea leaves, coffee and its filter, just about everything that comes out of the kitchen can go to compost except meat. Some municipalities collect it, but it's rather easy to make your own.

TRANSPORTATION

Not only the choice of the car as an individual means of transportation is highly pollutant. But the growth of car users brings to construction of roads which monopolises space that seals a soil that we can only use to drive cars and pollute more. And finally the automobile isolates people one from another, limiting human relations and amplifying the individualistic figures of our society.
So here is our hit parade of the best means of transportations and their advantages. Think about all those alternatives before getting in your vehicle alone because each time you will contribute to get more CO 2 in the air. Certain options might take more of your time, but sacrificing a little of your time is a great part of ecological choices. And the more time passes by, the more acting ecologically becomes more a duty than a choice:

Walking is not only the cheapest way to go around, but most importantly it is the best for your health.

The bicycle allows you to cover a considerable distance in a reasonable time (10 km=30min.), it works with quite an ecological fuel, you can pass by traffic jams and it is rather easy on maintenance. You can carry the baby around and quite some weight in panniers. It is also healthy and it is not limited to city transportation.

Public it says, public it is. Constructed to accommodate a great number of people, public transportation is the price to pay for the kind of society we built. The time has passed where we could at the same time enjoy a good quality of air and enjoy being alone in a vehicle. Subways, tramways and buses are can lead you almost anywhere in big cities. Combine it with some walking or biking and it can become really efficient.

Imagine if half of the drivers on the road would take the other half on board of their vehicle. Fifty percent less pollution, 50% less traffic. Ideal car sharing is when you travel with a co-worker that has the same schedule as you. But it can also be someone that you pick up on the way who works in an office or a plant close to your own work place. Most of the excuses like: “I have the kids to drop at school.” are not valuable, so try it.

ALIMENTATION

Our way to feed ourselves also has a great impact on the environment. As a consumer we have the duty to create a demand for quality products. We don’t have to rely on the over processed and empty products partly proposed by the market.
Transformation: The product has been processed, the more there is an ecological cost; water for washing and cooking, electric energy to have all the machines working. There can also be a great loss in the values of the aliments and the addition of doubtful products that are harmful to your health. By choosing unprocessed you live healthier and you help the environment.
Eat less meat: There are actually 20 billion livestock heads in the world, more than three times the world population. Twenty billions that we have to feed if we want to eat them. How come is it that we can feed those, but that we cannot feed the six billions of human kind? The problems are multiple. Most importantly, economic interests overrule human interests.

Packaging: Processed generally implies wrapped. For the equivalent product, look the one that has less wrapping. If you want to go further, write to the brand you chose to tell them you bought for their minimal wrapping and another brand to say that you didn’t buy because of the over wrapping.

Organic products: Organic agriculture generally means that the growing and the preservation of the products are done in great respect of the environment for the better health of consumers. That is to say:
- No pesticides, natural fight against pests

- No chemical fertilizer, use of organic fertilizer

- No genetically modified organisms

- No intensive culture, rotation of cultures to avoid soil impoverishment

SOFT WATER

Today, contaminated water kills 5 million people.

It seems sheer non sense to us that we use drinkable water to evacuate our bodily wastes from our houses. Each time we flush the toilet, 10 litres of drinkable water is going down the drain. Closed circuit systems exist to treat the water with bacteria. They are becoming quite popular in Japan for big buildings. Sometimes they serve a whole commercial block. It is clearly an example to follow.

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