Humans are a plague on the planet. Do YOUR part for the world we live in!

[HawkPerception]

Did you know that 380 million metric tons of plastic is produced each year? And only about 9% of that plastic is recycled each year? About 79% of it ends up in landfills and the other 12% ish is incinerated, ending up polluting the air heavily.

How about the fact that about 50% of that is single-use plastic?

Or how about the fact that over 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean each year?

And how about that 2.12 BILLION tons of waste is produced globally each year?

And that 1.3 billion tons of that waste is food? That's over 3 trillion meals each year. About one third of all food generated for human consumption.

Or how about that microplastics have been found in all humans in almost every part of their bodies (including breast milk, the placenta, testicles, hearts, livers, and kidneys)?

They've also been found in fruits and veggies.

Ocean acidity has increased by about 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution which affects marine life and ecosystems dramatically. 70% of the world's coral reefs have been damaged or destroyed because of the bleaching of the ocean, which is causing an increase in sea temperatures.

Global sea levels have risen by about 20 centimetres since 1900, with projections indicating a potential rise of up to 1 metre by 2100.

The Arctic sea ice extent is declining at a rate of 13% per decade, and Greenland's ice sheet is losing around 279 billion tons of ice per year.

An estimated 10 million hectares (a hectare is slightly larger than an American football field) of forest is list each year due ot logging, agriculture, and other human activities, leading to mass biodiversity loss. And out of that, the Amazon rainforest, often called the "lungs of the Earth" is losing an average of 1.5 million hectares per year.

Over 33% of global fish stocks are overexploited, depleted, or recovering from overfishing, which disrupts marine ecosystems and food security.

So what can WE do about all of this?

(And believe me when I say I'm telling myself this as much as everyone else.)

• We can reduce, reuse, and recycle. Pretty sure we're all familiar with this.
• We can conserve energy. Turn off lights when not needed, use energy efficient appliances, and switch to renewable energy sources
• Cut down on water usage.
• Use public transport, carpool, bike, or walk instead of driving alone. Consider an electric or hybrid vehicle
• Reduce meat and dairy consumption (I'm a huge meat lover, so trust me I know this one's tough) to lower your carbon footprint
• Avoid single-use plastics, use reusable bags, bottles, containers, and choose products with less plastic packaging
• Buy locally produced goods and support sustainable brands
• Join local environmental groups, volunteer for cleanup activities or support conservation organizations
• Stay informed about environmental issues and advocate for sustainable practices in your community
• Vote for policies and leaders that prioritize environmental protection and sustainability

This is all our home, and we wouldn't want our home to have trash lying around everywhere or have poor air quality. You may not be able to do a lot of these due to finances or other constraints. I know I can't, but just do the best you can! Every bit adds up!

[DishLady]

Right on.


Too many people feel entitled to treat the planet however they choose, thinking the planet is “for them,” wo a sense of consequence for the next gens or any other creatures in existence — they don’t even care if that they do affects the person next door.


People pollute existence with their actions, words and deeds. We see this even in online forums, which are a flimsy reflection of how people treat one another (and their planet) in real life….

[OfMiceandMen]

It is sad, but nature has a way of fighting back, it always has. Things like disease will plague us in return. In the end we only hurt ourselves and our pollution will most likely cause our demise.

[ohsheeT]

You know there's a lot of things in life that we can get out of when we take it too far but this is one subject that is being taken so far and we're not going to be able to get out of it even our drinking water is contaminated this is why people are unhealthy besides the food is fake generic it's man-made nowadays with scientists changing things our fruits or vegetables aren't even real anymore our chickens not even real anymore there's so many chemicals and everything it is destroying us as people it is destroying the planet not only with our government we need to start standing up and start doing something about it because we are on the road to hell our kids are going to be in hell if we do not do something about it

[ohsheeT]

By the way thank you for this question I hope you keep asking him over and over every single day because people need to become aware of where we are headed and we're going there fast so I thank you for this question

[Anonymous]

The main problem is habitat destruction.

Other than that global warming is a good thing for the planet on net which will help greatly by unlocking much of the earth's land and resources.

Its true many countries are not handling their waste properly but in all cases in which we do store it we will soon enough be in a position to recycle. It is simply a question of the AI and robotic technology to sort thou and recover theses materials. So we are dealing with a very much temporary storage issue.

[NaultD]

I get it but you got to do reverse phycology on the rest of people.

The planet is going to actively raise taxes and destroy homeownership value if we don't FIGHT climate change. It's going to double down insurance home, car even death insurance. Then 10 fold on taxes on fires, floods, hail just everything.

All of our infrastructure is made for 1000 year events but those events are happening every other season at this point.

Tax the rich. The free market is supposed to figure shit out so tax them out the ass till they fix the globe as is intended.

[Kelly6]

low and middle class citizens can make no changes, it's the corporations.

any corporation that says that we will no longer be producing plastic waste is BS.

Those companies keep producing plastic waste, but pay other small company to take their plastic waste and in media pretend that the plastic waste was produced by small corp. lol

[HawkPerception]

Hmm. I'm gonna have to disagree with you. You don't have to buy plastics. You can get fruits and veggies from grocery stores. You can get fresh bread from bakeries. You can get foods with organic containers. You don't have to get water bottles... you can get steel thermos bottles and use filtered water from the fridge or just use tap water and filter it if your area doesn't have clean tap water. You can use public transportation or if you're willing to go the extra mile, you can bike it or use a hybrid electric bike that's powered a little by kinetic energy. You can buy plants and grow some of your own foods which helps increase air quality and saves you a little money on food. You can make sure you're composting all your organic food. You can volunteer if you have the time. There's plenty you can do as a single person.

[Kelly6]

@HawkPerception
up to you, but check how much plastic 1 company's single department uses.
your jaw will drop as cartoon lol

[HawkPerception]

I'm not saying that individuals have more impact than corporations. All I'm saying is each person has an impact. And if people stop purchasing stuff from these corporations, they won't be making all the plastics they do

[Kelly6]

but companies will still use is manufacturing

[HawkPerception]

What would they be manufacturing if no one is purchasing their products? If we as consumers stop buying their water bottles, and plastic bags, or other plastic products, they wouldn't be making money from us and their production facilities would shut down

[Kelly6]

I ment manufacturing product using plastic

[Kelly6]

It's called SUM, single use material, aka plastic.
use it to make candy and throw it in waste and candy comes in market as clean plastic free lol

[Kelly6]

@HawkPerception
but whatever up to everyone's believe

[HawkPerception]

I don't think you're understanding what I'm saying. What happens when the consumers stop buying that plastic wrapped candy or whatever plastic products they make? The corporations will stop manufacturing them because they won't have any profits to maintain the business. Everything is in the power of the consumers.

[Kelly6]

everything? NO
consumers don't even know what happens in manufacturing plant and which product uses more plastic

[Kelly6]

My ex boyfriend worked in AstraZeneca.
and told me that how much plastic is used daily to make drugs.

[thenerdone]

I'm a conservationist. I do think this is our planet, and therefore we should take care of it, because it's great (and useful).

You cannot take away my meats, though. No siree.

[exitseven]

I do not have trash pickup in my town. I separate all my trash and take it to a transfer station. Just about everything is recycled. There is even a tank for used motor oil.

[Guacamole409]

Why don’t we ban private jets? Why don’t we ban cruise ships?
Because no one gives a shit.

[FunkyMonkee]

Yes! Everyone kill yourselves!