Earth Day 2023 - Steemit Engagement Challenge Season 9 | Save the Earth!

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75 Hours without electricity over a 5 day period!

Our nightmare started Saturday night at 20:00. Our electricity went off, back on, off again, back on.. and this is how it carried on until Monday morning 9:00. In total it was off for 17 hours.

But that is not where the nightmare ended, from Monday morning until yesterday the electricity stayed off for 58 hours in more than half of our town.

• Do you know how it feels when you cannot have your morning cup of coffee or tea?
• Do you know how it feels to drive in your car to charge your phone’s battery a little bit?
• Do you know how it feels when the washing is piling up and you can do nothing about it?
• Do you know how it feels to stand in queues in front of a coffee shop to get a seat just so that you can have internet?
• Do you know how it feels when you full freezers starts defrosting and you want to cry as you know what it cost to fill them?

My Steemian friends this was the story of your lives and thousands of other residence over the last couple of days when a power station blew and caused problems to the electrical cables.

Now what does our electricity problem have to do with Earth Day? Everything!

Climate Action and Earth Day

Water is warming up, ice is melting and climate change is setting in.
How far away from a catastrophe is the world?

According to scientists this question is difficult to answer but with a further 1.5 C degree increase in temperature, we can lose many of our rain forests. This can happen within the next 10 years. Saving our rain forests are crucial for mankind.

🌲Rainforest plays a vital important role in the water cycle and without water man cannot live

🌲Losing rainforest will increase climate change which will result in droughts, increase flooding, poor farming conditions, and difficult economic times.

🌲With fewer trees less greenhouses gases are absorbed which leads faster global warming.

We may think of the climate change and the loss of rain forests but it goes so much deeper. It is our heath that is on the line, new diseases, higher air pollution, poor nutrition, lack of medication, and even death as a result of hunger.

Not to mention nature, all the species that are lost and that are truly worrisome.

We need to act now!

“Stepped-up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-induced impacts, including: climate-related hazards in all countries; integrating climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning; and improving education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity with respect to climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.”
This is the true meaning of climate action according to the UNDP.(United Nations Development Programme)

Global goals were established to help with climate change and 5 targets were determine for action against global warming;

Target 1 – To implement effective strategies by 2030 to reduce natural disasters globally by all counties.

Target 2 – To create and integrate measurements for climate change into the policies of all countries.

Target 3 – To raise awareness and educate people about global warming, the impact thereof, the adaption and prevention thereof.

Target 4 – For those counties who were part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to contribute financially to the Green Climate Fund for the further development of action plans.

Target 5 – To develop and promote means for planning in least developed countries and islands with the focus on communities, the youth and women.

It is good to have these goals in place but more importantly is to achieve them.

For me, Earth Day is to show the world how bad or how good it is going with Mother Earth.

One day of 365 days to create media awareness.

One day to publish records showing the current state of the earth.

One day to tell the people the progress that countries are making

One day to show that the responsibility rest with man for action as after 30 years governments can still not get to a point of agreement and action.

One day to honor those who has made an effort to save our world

Earth Day should not be once a year. Not if we want to save Earth.

Earth Day should be every day!

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My experiences and activities to take care of the earth for the better!

There are so many changes that we have implemented to care for Mother Earth that I can actually publish a pocket booklet.

For this contest I am going to share three of our activities.

Let’s start with our food.

The blood group of my whole family is O+ with the result that we are meat lovers.

A shocking 41% of greenhouse gasses or Carbon dioxide comes from the cultivation of meat.

Food item	Mass	Carbon dioxide equivalent
Red meat	1kilogram	99.48
Poultry	1 kilogram	10 kg
Rice 1	kilogram	4.4 kg

“Meatless Monday’s” were introduced a couple of years ago. On this day you are not allowed to eat any meat, not red and not white. Also not more than 1 egg and no high-fat dairy products.

With this I noticed that when you fly they no longer serve two portions of meat with a meal. You now have the option to choose between two or three.
So why not adapt to this?

We have one day of the week that we call a “meatless” day. It is not always on a Monday as be found that having it on the same day was becoming boring.

With this I’ve also introduced a healthier eating lifestyle with fresh fruit and vegetables.

Next I will take you on our travel trips.

Travel makes us happy and we like to travel.

With climate change we decided to change our vacation habits. We will now visit one town or city and explore it to fullest. This we do by making us of local transport or by walking. It's so much better than doing city hopping not only for climate change but also to learn more about a specific area.

Our vacations are no longer a rushed and at the same time we are contributing less to air pollution.

Lastly, saving energy at home.

I am sure that by now most Steemians has adapted to this. It is also by far the easiest changes that you can implement.

1. Our clothes are washed in cold water
2. I don’t have a tumble dryer. I hang the washing in the sun to dry
3. We’ve changed our light bulbs to LED bulbs
4. When we make coffee we fill the kettle with just enough water for the amount of cups we are making
5. Although I have a dishwasher I only use it once a year, on Christmas day
6. We switch the minimum of lights on at night
7. We’ve added double glazing to all the windows to keep the house cool
8. Most of our appliances are energy efficient
9. We’ve adopted the rule that if we take out a plant or tree we have to replace it with a new one
10. We are planning going off the grid not only with electricity but also with our water supply. We had our first water tank installed.

Of importance is that the changes you make should not be a punishment but an effortless behavioral engagement.

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Environmentally friendly products that I use when traveling and other adventures

Most of my shopping is done at one of your local supermarkets, Checkers. Now you might wonder, is shopping an adventure? Of course it is!

Place: Checkers, Mount Richmore
Center: New Salt Rock Center
Google location:

There are two things that impress me from shopping with them;

Their “Simple Truth” range of eco-friendly products.

This range have everything you need to clean your house and also some healthy food items. Not only are all of the products cruelty-free, it contains no artificial colouring or ingredients but some of the packaging is made from biodegradable materials.

Their "Save the planet" shopping bags

A couple of year ago they introduced the Checkers “Save the planet bag”. Whenever you use this bag you get a discount on your purchase. They also introduced South Africa’s first 100% recycled shopping bag.

As for travelling we also have our “musts”

Travelling light and clean up wherever you go is what mom always told us when we were young. It is something I practise till today.

1. We always make sure that we have a recyclable bag in our car or handbag for waste.
2. We take our own bags for shopping (brown bag or recyclable)
3. We make use of our own reusable water bottles
4. We have stainless steel straws that we take with us as we don’t like paper or bamboo straws
5. We take toiletries in smaller bottles that we can refill later again

Whether we are at home or travelling it is for us to make the smallest of changes to ensure that we contribute to saving the planet.

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Tips for protecting the environment from trash when adventuring in nature

Behavioural science is the solution!

When we are adventuring in nature we need to consider the damage our behaviour will cause.

• What are we thinking
• What is our motivation
• How we are influenced by society
• The effects of our behaviours
• Enforce good habits

The three main key factors is “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”

Reduce – We need to cut down on what we take with us when we are in nature.
Reuse – Make sure that what you take with you is reusable like those water bottles.
Recycle – What you take with you must come back with you and then sorted for recycling unless you could eat it

My husband is a smoker and he knows that not even a cigarette bud will be left behind when we are in nature.

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My hope for the future of the earth!

This brings me back to that electricity problem we’ve experienced this week.

It is my HOPE that we will never reach a day of no electricity on earth.

It is my HOPE that individual, communities, businesses and countries will stand together and take saving Mother Earth serious.

It is my HOPE to see new actions. We had a medical aids that incite their members to go to the gym more. There is even a medical aid that monitors and managed your driving abilities. It is tangible differences like this that is required.

It is my HOPE to see menus with food items marked with that V moved to the top of the menus and no longer being displayed at the bottom.

It is my HOPE to see cities like Cape Town in my beloved country who went from a “Day Zero” of no water now to a stage where they can save water.

It is my HOPE to see Mother Earth surprising us each day with a new picture when the sun rise on the horizon and color the earth with those last rays of sunlight before it goes down.

It is my HOPE for us humans to experience only the beauty of Mother Earth and not the sorrow and sadness.

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