Earth Day Info Post :)

Hey animals! Since I can't get onto AJ at the moment, I think I might make another one of those informational posts you miss so dearly. Since it's Earth day, what better time would there be to talk about protecting the environment?

Get something to drink, because this is gonna be a long one. :)

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First of all, think about where you are. You are in a town or city, or some type of relatively small community. That small community is inside a larger community: a state, a country, inside a continent. There are seven continents in the world, each home to many, many millions of people, all different and unique. You can't just fit any group into one or a few broad statements. Doing so turns that/those groups of people into objects in your eyes, which is incredibly cruel, to say the least. 

Fun fact: Socotra island is an island home to hundreds of species unique to only that island. Many people believe they look alien because of the immense difference between Socotra island's wild life and for example, what's outside your window.

Look:

All of those continents home to millions and millions of people are all on the Earth, spinning around a big bright sun that is so big you could fit over one billion Earths into it. (If someone had the technology too and the sun was hollow, that is)

Other planets orbit around this sun as well, but all, as far as we know, have only the subtlest signs of life. Probes take pictures, only finding deserts, and frozen, small lakes full of liquid. It's likely that there IS some form of life out there, in fact highly so, but in the planets we know of, stretching out of the solar system, there is not life as lively and vibrant as there is on Earth, in any continent, in any country, state, or in small community. In your family and neighborhood even. Right outside your window.

Earth is like an oasis surrounded by planets of gas and dust. Earth is something special that should be treated kindly, but not all of the time are things treated as they should be.

"What can I do to help? I'm just one of billions of people."

When one person says this, a million or so other do. People disregard trying to help "because a small thing by just one person won't help," but all of that adds up. All of the denying personal importance and denying to help adds up, releasing literal tons of carbon dioxide into the air EVERY DAY, melting the ice caps and putting species, ecosystems in danger. Tearing down trees can kill off species.

Not-so-fun-fact: every 11 minutes, a species goes extinct.

All of the small things to help add up, too.

But the question is,

how do you help?

1. Don't support large companies that rapidly degrade the environment. In other words, try not to buy things too much from companies that clear forests to make slaughterhouses, or kill and degrade the environment in other ways.
2. If you can, buy things like food that aren't imported from places far away. Carrying the items from far away to reach you takes massive amounts of gas and releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide, deadly in large quantities. Try to buy from markets around you that sell things produced nearby.
3. Recycle paper and plastic. Plastic takes billions of years to break down in a landfill, so it's best it's made into something else of use instead of contributing to pollution. Recycle paper too, because it can save trees. Recycling an amount of paper stacked about one meter tall saves one tree, which is actually something great. (Not the exact height, but relative.)
4. Compost food if you can, which just involves putting inedible or old food into a bucket. Many places have compost bins where you can pour your own compost so it is sent to a farm to fertilize the soil. If you have your own garden, you can use compost for it, as well. 
5. Don't support destruction of the coral reef. The coral reef is home to many crucial fish and animal species, many that live in such frailty that just the slightest contamination to their home can kill them off for good. So don't throw trash into the ocean, okay?

Fun fact: Having plants inside a home can and will improve the air quality.

I hope you aren't bored to death by now, and I really hope you read it all. ^_^ 

Have a happy Earth Day!

– Countess