It seems that
these days all we hear about is the tragic impact our actions are having on
planet earth. With billions of tons of waste filling our oceans, millions of
people experiencing hunger every day, and thousands of species entering the
'endangered species' list, it is time for all of us to make a change.
However, not
everything is terrible, there are still many people in the world who are trying
their best to help our mother earth. This list compiled by Bored Panda shares
positive environmental movements from all around the world. We hope that these
initiatives will not only serve as great examples of ways to save the planet,
but they will also inspire you to do as much as you can to become a part of
brighter, and cleaner tomorrow.
#1 Man Plants a
Tree Every Day for 40 Years Now Has a Forest Bigger Than Central Park
What used to be a
landscape devastated by erosion is now 1,360 acres of forest and it's all
thanks to one Indian man named Jadav Payeng. Jadav planted a tree every single
day for 40 years and now this man-made forest is bigger than Central Park. Now
this incredible forest is home to hundreds of elephants, rhinos, boars,
reptiles, and birds.
This
botanical-enthusiast says he is planning to plant trees until his "last
breath". “Nature is God. It gives me inspiration. It gives me power … As
long as it survives, I survive." If you want to learn more about this
hero, you can check a short documentary dedicated
to his work.
#2 Search Engine
That Plants Trees Every Time You Search Something Online
Ecosia is a search
engine that allows you to be a part of tree planting around the world without
even lifting your finger off your keyboard. Every 50 searches Ecosia plants a
new tree with the ad money they earn. This search engine has currently planted
50,120,906 trees but the number keeps rising every single second. Bored
Panda has contacted the creators of Ecosia for a comment and found out
that company chose planting trees instead any other environmental initiative
because they believe “By planting a tree, you can fight climate change, restart
water cycles, turn deserts back into fertile forests and provide nutrition,
employment, education, medical assistance and political as well as economic
stability.”
Deforestation has
a terrible impact on our environment, there are currently 7 billion trees cut
every year around the world. If you want to stop deforestation here are some
changes you can make on a daily basis - avoid using as much paper as you can,
plant a tree once in a while, recycle and buy recycled products, reduce your
consumption of meat.
#3 Volunteers Pick
Up 5,3 Million Kilograms Of Trash On A Beach In Mumbai
To this day this
incredible initiative is called “world’s largest beach clean-up project”.
Environmentalist Afroz Shaz started picking up the trash from the beach back in
2015, with more and more people joining him, volunteers managed to pick up 5,3
million kilograms of trash. Versova beach in Mumbai was polluted mainly because
of the direction of the wind.
Since the
territory itself was not a popular tourist attraction, there was no action
taken to take care of the beach. Now, with the help of 1,000 volunteers, the
beach is open for the public to enjoy. There are over 8
billion tons of plastic thrown into our ocean every year. If you wish to reduce
your plastic waste try avoiding single-use cutlery, take away coffee cups, use
your own grocery bag instead of plastic one, and buy as many plastic-free
products as you can.
#4 New Clean Up
System Wants To Remove 90% Of Plastic From The Ocean By 2040
With over 5
trillion pieces of plastic currently floating in the ocean, there is a
desperate need for new innovations that can help clean up our waters. The Ocean
Cleanup is an initiative that calls themselves the largest cleanup in the
history. Founded in 2013, it's a non-profit organization that tries to find
solutions to cleaning plastic out of the oceans.
The Ocean Cleanups
has created a fake 600-meter long coastline in the middle of the ocean that
uses natural oceanic forces to capture the plastic. The organization is hoping
to clean out 50% of the plastic in the ocean in the next 5 years. According to
their website, the
organization wants to remove 90% of plastic from the ocean by 2040.
#5 Japan Turns Old
Electronic Into Olympic Medals
Olympians at the
Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games will be receiving recycled trash as
their prizes. The environmentally conscious Medal Project is using scrap metals
to manufacture the prizes for the upcoming games. In a countrywide effort,
citizens within Japan have been donating their consumer electronics directly to
the cause.
E-waste, waste
from dumped electronics is the fastest growing waste problem in the world.
According to a U.N report, 45 million tons of electronics were thrown out
worldwide in 2016 and only 20% of that waste had been recycled. If you are
interesting you can read more about this initiative in our article about it.
#6 Mexican Company
Creates Single-Use Cutlery Made From Avocado Seeds
A Mexican company
called BioFase created single-use cutlery and straws that biodegrade in 240
days. Since Mexico is responsible for around 50% of the world’s avocado supply,
the country has plenty of avocado seeds that usually are burned in a landfill
without any useful purpose.
Biofase uses these
avocado seeds and gives them a new purpose this way reducing the plastic waste
in the world. You can learn more about this initiative by reading our article about BioFase.
#7 Brewery Creates
Edible Six-Pack Rings To Avoid Plastic Pollution
Saltwater Brewery in Florida came
up with a genius way to reduce plastic waste, by making their six-pack rings
biodegradable. What is even more amazing, is that this type of packaging is
completely safe for animals to snack on since they are made from barley and
wheat ribbons. Back in 1987, the Associated Press announced that around one
million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals were killed every year by six-pack
rings, a piece of plastic, that we give so little thought about before throwing
away.
In today’s tragic
state of plastic pollution, creating biodegradable single-use packaging is a
necessity. Before you buy anything packed in plastic we encourage you to think,
that you are holding something that can take up to 1000 years to dissolve.
#8 Australian Town
Comes Up With A Genius Way Of Stopping Pollution By Simply Using A Net
In 2018, the city
of Kwinana in Australia installed two drainage nets in Henley
Reserve. Before these nets were installed, workers would pick up these trash by
hand. The total cost of these nets came to be around $20,000 which is way more
cost-effective compared to paying for manual labor. This simple invention
turned out to be way more useful than anyone expected.
In just four
months the nets caught around 815lbs (370kg) of trash. If you are inspired to
reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our waters, we encourage to learn
more about plastic pollution, and how it affects our earth. Organizations like
Greenpeace are doing their best to educate society on the problems of water
pollution and single-use plastic. If you are interested, you can help
Greenpeace by donating to them.
#9 Pakistan Plants
1 Billion Trees And Is Planning To Plant 10 Billion In The Next 5 Years
Pakistan's new
government is aiming to solve environmental problems by plating 10 billion
trees in the next five years. The country believes that by planting the trees
they can solve many problems Pakistan is facing now, such as protecting the
fast-eroding landscape, reducing the risk of floods, also rising temperatures,
droughts, and rainfalls that were caused by the climate change.
Initiatives such
as #plant4pakistan and "Billion Tree Tsunami" are not only tackling
environmental problems, the country is also trying to reclaim mafia encroached
land by converting it into forests and wildlife parks for future generations. Bored
Panda has contacted an organization “Positive Pakistan” about the
impact these environmental movements have on the country, but the organization
is yet to comment.
#10 55 Tonnes Of
Waste Removed From The Ganga River
Bachendri Pal, the
first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest, managed to organize a volunteer
initiative which resulted in 55 tonnes of waste removed from the Ganga river. A
40-member team, including Premlata Agarwal, a first Indian woman to climb all
seven summits of the world, managed to clean this massive amount of trash in
only one month.
While this
initiative is nothing but amazing, Ganga river is in a desperate need of
cleaning, with tons of waste entering the river every single day. This sacred
river is not only a place for religious cleanses it also stores tons of human
and industrial waste. Bored Panda has contacted National
Mission for Clean Ganga and they are yet to comment about the current state of
Ganga river.
#11 Denmark Opens
A Store For Food That Was Supposed To Be Thrown Away
A supermarket in
Denmark is fighting global famine in the best way possible. A shop called
‘WeFood’ is selling products that are past their expiration date or have a
damaged packaging by cutting the cost for consumers by 30 to 50 percent. WeFood
is not only useful for low-income shoppers but also for anyone who is worrying
about a huge food waste problem we are currently having.
What is even more
amazing is that the store is completely volunteer run and all of the profits go
to charity initiatives in developing countries. Global famine is a huge
problem, one third of the food produced in the world is thrown away which is
approximately 1,3 billion tonnes every year. With 795 million undernourished
people globally, this is a a luxury our society shouldn’t be encouraging.
#12 Swiss
Billionaire Donates $1 Billion To Save The Planet
Hansjörg Wyss, a
philanthropist and conservationist offered $1 billion dollars in order to
protect our earth. In an article called "We Have to Save the Planet. So
I’m Donating $1 Billion" Mr. Wyss stated he is willing to donate this
amount of money in hopes of protecting 30 percent of the planet's surface by
2030.
In times like this
it is extremely important for the world's wealthiest people to spread the
message about the environmental problems we are facing. Although, donating huge
amount of money can be life-saving for many endangered species, all of us can
make a change with our daily actions and small donations to charity
organizations that strive for the better world.
#13 Uk’s 5 Pence
Per Plastic Bag Law Reduces Plastic Waste By 37% In Just One Year
Back in 2015, the
UK made a drastic change by charging shoppers for plastic grocery bags. What
seemed to be a very small price - only five pence for one bag, actually
resulted in a massive change. Not only did it stop many people from using an
extra unnecessary bag, but the shops were also encouraged to donate any funds
raised from selling the bags to environmental associations.
In 2016, the Great
British Beach Clean association announced that the amount of plastic bags on
the beaches was down by 37%, proving there was a drastic change. But there is
still a long way to go, in the USA every person uses about 1 plastic bag a day,
resulting in 365 plastic bags per person, meanwhile, Denmark and Finland's
citizens only use 4 bags per year. Seriously, how are Scandinavians so good at
this environmental stuff? Absolutely outstanding.
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