Today’s Lifestyle Change Can Lead to Tomorrow’s Better Planet

Being ‘green’ doesn’t carry that much weight when it’s just a ‘label’ and you are being ‘forced’ to change.

It’s like being ‘on’ a diet. We say, “I’m on a diet”, as if we can get ‘off’ of it at any time. And more often than not, we do.

But if you change your lifestyle to eat better and exercise, the chances are, you’ll stay more fit and be healthier.

Being ‘green’ is like that. It’s a lifestyle change; not a program that you get ‘on’ and ‘off’. If you think of it as a better living, healthier living, frugal living, it’ll be easier for you to change to a different, better, lifestyle.

Having said, here are three simple ways to change your lifestyle today for better tomorrow.

1. Conserve Water.

According to Water.org:

More than 3.5 million people die each year from water-related disease; 84 percent are children. Nearly all deaths, 98 percent, occur in the developing world.

Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.

Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection.

Millions of women and children spend several hours each day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.

443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness.

OK, so we don’t live in areas that lack water but this is such an easy step to take that it’s almost too silly to even talk about it. But water is one resource that we take for granted daily. If you ever experienced a power outage and can’t get hot water to take a shower, you’ll know what I mean. I lost power last year in a winter storm that I didn’t know when I would be able to take a shower. And about a month ago, due to the continuous winter storms we had, snow runoff into the reservoirs made drinking water unsafe so we had to boil water before drinking or cooking with it. It’s an inconvenience for modern society but residents in Arizona or Nevada will attest that saving water is daily ritual.

So, conserve water in any means possible, even if you don’t live in the desert. You just never know when we’ll be left without this natural resource. And frankly, if we can save, why not?

2. Use Alternative Energy.
This might be tough in some areas but there are more and more alternative and clean energy options available now. New Jersey is one of eight states that encourage clean energy, including solar energy, and has been a model for other states to follow in helping its residents to switch to solar energy. Many utility companies are offering green energy so check with your energy provider to find out ways to switch to alternative energy.

3.Take Eco-Vacations
This is a great opportunity to learn, see and feel all that you’ve been doing to live sustainably. Visit a national park and volunteer to be a volunteer trail crew in Colorado, or sail with a crew on a boat and learn about river conservation on Clear Water on Hudson River, NY or become a farmer for a week or a weekend, on an organic farm, located all over the world. You will not regret the experience and you will also be helping in the effort to conserve the planet.

4. OK. I lied. There is one more.
Read blogs like this and learn and share. You may know many of these ways already but maybe your friends on facebook do not. Your Twitter followers may not. And contacts on your address book may. This is a great way to share the message and influence another person to live sustainably as you have. After all, we can’t save the planet all by ourselves. We need as much helpers as we can get.

How did you change your lifestyle today for better tomorrow?

Photo: Schanlaub

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Tags: Alternative Energy, eco vacation, eco-travel, Water Conservation

About the Author

Karen Lee Karen lives a simple, frugal, green life and shares her eco tips and news on ecokaren and is a co-founder of Green Sisterhood, a network of community of green women bloggers, making change. When she's not managing Green Sisterhood or blogging on ecokaren, she is a chauffeur to two greenagers, wife to an accidental recycler, master chef to hungry locavores, seamstress, knitter, and dumpster diver, not necessarily in that order.