By Katelyn Croll
With local and national parks being closed around the country to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, it may feel as though we are losing touch with the natural world around us. While we are stuck inside, the outside world is still changing, even though we may not be able to see it like we used to. Though we are all restricted to our homes, there are still many things that we can do to help protect and preserve the environment right now. Tracy Richardson, young adult science fiction author of The Field, utilizes her degree in biology and desire to protect and sustain the planet in her writing. Her upcoming book, Catalyst(Brown Books Publishing Group – eBook releasing June 2, 2020; paperback releasing September 22, 2020), highlights the dangers of fracking and all the other destructive activities humans do that cause climate change. During these challenging times, Tracy believes that we can still be active in our efforts to save the planet and has developed a list of activities that families and people of all ages can do to help the environment.
“So, what can we do to stop climate change?” she urges people to ask themselves. “Reducing our carbon footprint is one thing we can do. It essentially refers to our personal contribution to the carbon emissions that cause climate change.”
Here is Tracy Richardson’s list of top 10 things you can do to help the environment during what she prefers to call “physical distancing and social connection:”
1. Plant Trees
Most often we plant trees to provide shade and beautify our landscapes. These are great benefits but trees also provide other less obvious benefits.
Social Benefits
- Trees make life nicer. It has been shown that spending time among trees and green spaces reduces the amount of stress that we carry around with us in our daily lives.
- Hospital patients have been shown to recover from surgery more quickly when their hospital room offered a view of trees.
- Children have been shown to retain more of the information taught in schools if they spend some of their time outdoors in green spaces.
- Trees are often planted as living memorials or reminders of loved ones or to commemorate significant events in our lives.
Environmental Benefits
- Trees offer many environmental benefits.
- Trees reduce the urban heat island effect through evaporative cooling and reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches parking lots and buildings. This is especially true in areas with large impervious surfaces, such as parking lots of stores and industrial complexes.
- Trees improve our air quality by filtering harmful dust and pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide from the air we breathe.
- Trees give off oxygen that we need to breathe.
- Trees reduce the amount of stormwater runoff, which reduces erosion and pollution in our waterways and may reduce the effects of flooding.
- Many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat. Trees provide food, protection, and homes for many birds and mammals.
More information about the benefit of planting trees please VISIT HERE
2. Vegetarian Day
Many of you might feel like eww… Me too! I’m not really a fan of vegetarian food but do you know that those vegetarians are actually beating the climate change for us. So I think once a week is not much to ask. Here are several advantages for eating plants;
- Avoid excessive CO2 production
- Reduce methane/nitrous oxide production
- Save large amounts of water
- Avoid further pollution of our streams/rivers/oceans
- Reduce the destruction of topsoil & tropical rainforest
If you need to know more benefit of being vegetarian please visit
3. Start a vegetable garden from seeds in your house
When the weather warms up you can dig your garden and grow your own vegetables!
4. Reduce household water waste
Install efficient showerheads and toilets. Turn off the faucet when doing dishes or brushing your teeth. Take shorter showers.
5. Upcycle, Repurpose, and REPAIR
Instead of buying a new cloth or household item, why don’t you try to DIY those unused items and repurpose them into something useful or try Project 333?
6. Reduce the Amount of Plastic
7. Eat locally produced food to reduce the ‘Food Miles’ it takes for your food to travel to you.
Here are 7 benefits of eating local foods from Michigan State University
8. Tell your legislators to act on Climate Change legislation.
9. Join environmental groups like the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, or the World Wildlife Fund.
10. Follow Teen Climate Change activists on social media,
such as Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier, Mari Copeny, Xiye Bastida, Isra Hirsi, Bruno Rodriguez, Helena Gualinga, Jamie Margolin, and Jerome Foster II. Speak up about the dangers of climate change to anyone who will listen.
For more information about the author and her books, please visit www.tracyrichardsonauthor.com. For media inquiries or to request a digital galley copy of Catalyst for review, please contact me at Katelyn.Croll@theagencyatbb.com. Thank you for your consideration, and I hope to hear from you soon!
This piece was prepared online by Panuruji Kenta, Publisher, SEVENSEAS Media