Overshoot day

Really interesting reading

Have you heard of overshoot day, I have been reading here, once you go past our country (world) overshoot day, we are using more than our Earth can give us and last year as previous years almost every country on our Earth did.

A lot of people will shrug their shoulders and say nothing we can do, but I believe we all can do things, people power does make a difference, lots of small acts mount up. Look how quickly we have changed to reusable bags to carry our shopping home, that was led by government, but plastic straws are becoming less used as is coffee chain throw away cups, which is people led. 

All we have to do is think about what we care for, and how we can make small changes towards ensuring our world is here after we have gone.

When I was growing up, I loved Star Trek, I thought we would be living in a clean, equal world, where the powers who ruled our Earth would stop wars, famine and everyone would live a good life, well I was young and hopeful. 

So with small steps I believe we can turn things around, I hope the children on this world, are taught to learn from mistakes made and are shown how to ensure their world is better than ours. 

I will continue with my saving and add other small changes, here are a few we like to do already.

• Twice a week we eat meat free - it takes more resources to produce meat.
• We purchase from local supplies where possible, helping local producers.
• We do not upgrade, unless the item is broken, this was harder, but we are getting there. 
• We have cut back on buying clothes, we have loads to use up before we buy more. 
• Books are now purchased secondhand, if we are not able to get them from our local library.
• We try and not bring into the house one use plastics, this is much harder, and can be more expensive, but we are always on the look out for greener packaging.
• Any plastic in the house and garden will be used until it wears out and replaced with a greener item, if we can. 
• I carry my own shopping bags, plus reuse plastic and paper bags so I don't need more wrapping paper. 
• We do not pop to town each week, having less to purchase, means our trips are not worthwhile, saving fuel on unnecessary trips. If we need to go out, we plan so we get all journeys done on the same trip. 
• We are looking at ways to save and store water, and reuse as much as we can. 

My list is just some of what we do, every one does different things, but us small people can make a difference, that's if we want to.