Achievement 4 by @papi.mati Task : Applying Markdowns

I'd like to say few words about the global warming and our responsibility to stop it. Many people like to think it's not our business, it's the big companies who have to change, not us or that we should first focus on our own wealthy because taking care about the planet is possible only when we all are rich enough.

Nothing more wrong!
We should realize that global warming is the issue which needs to be solved by everyone together. Some small changes can be done by everyone: we can say "no" to the plastic bags, eat less meat, buy less things or choose the bicycle instead of car when we are going to visit family or friends.

I agree that without taking the worldwide actions, without changing the law and putting additional taxes on the oil companies, we will not achieve needed change on time. I believe though that intead of waiting for the changes we cannot speed up, we should take at least some small actions at home.

I understand that some of the ecological changes cost more money. Healthy food might be more expensive than supermarket food sold in plastic (in many places it's cheaper though. Veggies cost less than meat, unless you live in Paraguayan Chaco or other place like that). I understand not everybody can afford that. In fact, it's a mirage of the low price. In the end of the day, we pay higher price for using cheap substitutes. We pay it by spending money on healthcare and curing all the diseases it causes or, in the future, we will pay it by meeting in the technologies which will be absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. We basically know right now that without that technologies we will not be able to keep the climate friendly enough for human exist. At least not everywhere in the planet.

When I am thinking about the global warming, I am thinking about future generations, about the weather anomalies which are already happening, lack of water in some regions, some oceanic islands which sink every day. I know that the most responsible regions, so called "most developed countries", suffer the least, as they have enough money to prevent catastrophes. It's not fair, no. Most of the responsibility should be on them, on USA, EU, Australia, China or Canada.
I don't think that saying it allows us to do nothing though and in that post, I'd like to show you some ideas how to lower our carbon footprint without spending a lot of money

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1️⃣ Take short showers

Did you know that 3,6 billion people around the world lives in the places where at least one month in a year there is water shortage? >Source

Over 70% of water usage is caused by agriculture. We at our homes are responsible only for 8% of water consumption but we still can change things. Take the short showers, avoid baths, watch out how much water do you use when you clean the dishes or when you are making laundry.

Maybe you can reuse the water to flush the toilets or maybe you will find another way to save it? It doesn't cost much. In fact, if you will start to care about your water usage, you will probably save some extra money.

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2️⃣ Don't use plastic bags

This is very easy and cheap way to minimalize pollution. Currently microplastic is one of the biggest plagues in the world. We are breathing it in with the air, eating it with the meals... It stays in our organisms and nobody really knows how harmful it can be as plastic is in this world since relatively short time. I'm pretty sure it's not healthy though.

Minimalizing plastic usage is one of the keys to stop the global warming. You can use bags many time or make your own bags for fruits and vegetables. Take it everywhere with you and ask kindly in every shop to pack your shopping directly to your bags.
It happened to me that in some places people were giving me plastic bags anyway and they declined to understand why it's important to me to avoid plastic pollution. It's okay, I'm avoiding that shops and buying stuff in another places. I found also some places where I can buy beans, flour or nuts without the package. That way I make my impact for the environment much lower.

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3️⃣ Eat local products, try not buying products in plastic

It's difficult to not buy products in plastic packages at all. If you have enough time, I can assure you that most of the things can be prepared at home. You can make your own ketchup , mayo, canned beans, tomato passata, pasta, vegan milk, , jams and many other things. Quite often home made version is even cheaper than the one you usually buy in supermarket. Always, it's much healthier. For inspiration follow me - I'm publishing many recipes for half-products.

_{I'm trying to make everything on my own. Here: my own vinager which will be ready in a month. Photo made by me}

If you decided to buy the food, try always to look for the products packed in the metal cans or jars. Its also very important to know where that products are from. If you are living in Argentina, buy Argentinian things or at least something produced on your continent. Importing of products from China or India cause additional pollution related to transport.

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4️⃣ Use public transport and bicycle

The most eco friendly way to transport is walking or using bicycle. It's difficult to walk long distances though and sometimes we need to move from one city to another. In that case, the best thing we can do is to use public transport - train or buses.

If we have to ride somewhere with our car, I'd recommend you to consider taking hitchhikers with you or finding passagers on carpooling. Carpooling allows us to minimalize carbonfoot print, earn some extra money for the gas and opens the opportunity to meet new, interesting people.

Here you can see how big is the carbon emission for different types of transport. That's the emission for 1km, source here

Transport	CO2 emissions / 1km
Domestic flight	254g
Long distance flight	195g
Car (1 passenger)	171g
Bus	104g
Car (4 passengers)	43g
Train	41g
Coach	27g
Eurostar	6g
Bicycle	0g
Walking	0g

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5️⃣ Recycle and reuse

If something is broken, try to fix it instead of throwing it away. If you can, buy used electronic devices, furnitures or even clothes. There is a lot of opportunities to reuse old things.
If you are looking for inspiration, check @enveng profile and competition she makes: "before -after". Some of the ideas are really interesting.

@enveng says in the description of her contest:

"Reuse is the reutilization of a used product with similar or completely different uses. Reuse helps save time, money, energy and resources."

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6️⃣ Eat less meat

Changing the diet can be challenging. Of course, the best for the environment would be if we all could be vegan. It takes less water, land and causes less pollution. If you can't become vegan or vegetarian, it's ok. In that case try to eat it less. Maybe one or two days in a week without any meat would work for you? That step will allow you also save some money and is good for your health.

You can also change the type of meat you eat. Chicken or fish meat production pollutes the environment much less than beef or pork. For more details, look below:

1 kg of	beef	lamb	pork	chicken	fish
CO2 emissions	60 kg	24 kg	6 kg	5 kg	4 kg
Water usage	15 500 l	8800 l	4800 l	3900 l	-
Land usage*	119 m2	116 m2	7,2 m2	6,6 m2	4,7 m2

• Land usage per 1000 kcal

source 1
source 2
source 3
source 4

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7️⃣ Vote for green politics

Yes, if you are not the politician or activist, your chances to make any change in the law are low, but it doesn't mean you cannot change anything. Vote for the politicians who cares about the planet. No matter if they are from the left or right, most important that they see the danger which global warming cause and they want to prevent it. You can also send emails or letters to every chosen politician with the request how are they going to fight with the pollution and global warming. If you have enough money, you could consider also donating something for one of the environmental organizations.

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8️⃣ Use and popularize steemit to fight with inequality

Last - but not least. I believe there will be no effective international program against global warming without fighting with financial inequalities in the world. Currently 3% of the richest owns more than the poorest 50% of population. It's our responsibility to make the world more equal, give everyone access to the basic income and thanks to that give them the chance to effectively prevent global warming by making informed consumer choices. Steemit is a great platform to do it, so I believe we all should popularize it and work together to make it greater.

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Thank you for your attention.
Special thanks to @inspiracion which helps me to make my first steps on that platform

List of my previous achievements:
Achievement 1
Achievement 2
Achievement 3