6 Ways to Cleanse the World
6 WAYS TO CLEANSE THE WORLD
1. DON'T HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN YOU OR THE WORLD CAN SUPPORT
The chart above shows how the human population has grown over the past 10,000 years, and how much it has exploded in just the last 100 years.
Our global population has been doubling roughly every 40 years, and it is important to realize that it would be physically impossible for this doubling to continue for much longer. Because even if you start with the number 1, and you start doubling it (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and so forth) by the 31st doubling the number would have already reached over 1 billion! (1,073,741,824 to be exact.)
And since our population is already in the billions, if it kept doubling every 40 years, it would take less than 2,000 years for the human population to outweigh the Earth itself! (If the average human weighed 150 pounds and the estimates that the Earth weighs roughly 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds is correct.) And since we are made of Earth, it of course wouldn't be possible for the human population on Earth to ever outweigh the Earth itself.
And even if we were able to get into spaceships and spread our population evenly throughout the cosmos, if the number of humans continued to double every 40 years, it would only take about 5,000 years for there to be so many humans in the universe, that even if they were all crammed together into a gigantic pile of human mass, that pile would be larger than the observable universe itself!
So it can be said with certainty, that the current human population growth WILL slow down DRAMATICALLY in the VERY near future. But the big question is, "What will cause our current population growth to slow down so much?"
Will it be due to a massive number of deaths due to wars, diseases, natural disasters, pollution, droughts and famines?
Will it be due to a massive number of people no longer being capable of having children due to a drop in fertility rates caused by poor health, or even mass sterilization efforts carried out by leaders in power?
Or will it be due to a massive number of people simply making the choice to have less children?
If you are thinking about having children, I would encourage you to ask yourself the following question...
"If I have a child today, what will the world be like when my child is my age?"
It may not be possible to predict the future, but are you optimistic about the direction that the world is heading in? Or does it scare you to think about what the world might be like by the time your future child is your age?
It wouldn't be wise to have a child right now if you doubted that you would be able to provide them with their basic needs such as food and water, and it also wouldn't be wise to have children right now if you believe that food and water will become scarce for everyone in the future due to less resources and more people.
The most fundamental desire of all lifeforms is to keep their species alive and thriving, and having big families was the best way to keep the human species alive and thriving in the past. But because there are so many "end of the world" scenarios that could actually happen in the near-future due to human activity, the best strategy for keeping not just the human species alive and thriving, but for keeping ALL life alive and thriving, may actually be for humanity to make the choice to start having smaller families.
2. REDUCE PLASTIC USE
Have you ever stopped and thought about the fact that humans are the only species on Earth who create "trash"?
And one of the worst forms of trash that we have created is plastic, which isn't biodegradable and can go on to pollute the environment FOREVER even though a lot of the plastics we use these days are "single-use" plastics which are designed to only be used once.
And there is no telling where plastics like these can end up or what harm they can do...
Below are some tips for reducing your use of single-use plastics...
1. Avoid Plastic Bags
One time I was at a grocery store, and I saw a customer grab a bag of grapes, and even though it was already in a bag, he put it into a disposable plastic produce bag, and then when he got to the checkout line it was put into yet another bag. (Which meant that the grapes were now in 3 bags.)
Plastic bags are so common, that there will likely not be a day anytime soon when you don't find yourself in a situation where you can choose to use a plastic bag or choose not use one, and therefore, getting into the habit of avoiding plastic bags could easily result in HUNDREDS of less plastic bags each year.
Whenever I go to a grocery store, I will usually just grab an empty box (grocery stores tend to have lots of them) and put everything I'm buying in the box, or I will bring a backpack or some other re-usable container from home.
2. Prepare Food Yourself
If go to the grocery store and you want to buy an apple, you can probably find one that isn't wrapped in plastic. But if you want to buy apple that has been cut into slices, or that has been mashed up into apple sauce, or that has been squeezed into apple juice, it will probably come in a plastic container. (And it will probably be more expensive and less healthy than a regular unprocessed apple.)
A lot of people could greatly reduce the amount of plastics that they use each year AND save a small fortune by simply getting into the habit of doing their own food prep.
And we as consumers, could do a lot of good for the environment by refusing to even buy foods that come in ridiculous and unnecessary packaging...
3. Use a Reusable Water Bottle
I recommend that people consume more water and less plastic, so instead of buying bottled water from the store, I recommend getting a home distiller and a reusable glass water bottle so that you can drink the cleanest water possible AND never have to purchase or drink water in a plastic bottle ever again!
3. PROMOTE MINIMALISM
Promoting minimalism is one of the best things that we can do for the planet.
GET OUT OF THE DISPOSABLE MINDSET
If you live in the city, and you go out for a walk on "trash day", you will likely see a lot of furniture, electronics, and clothing that is still in good condition, but that is being thrown away instead of donated, because we've all been conditioned to view everything from toothpicks to big screen TV's as "disposable".
It requires a lot of environmental destruction to produce a lot of the things that we buy, but because the environmental destruction isn't happening in our own neighborhoods, we often don't realize that there are "hidden costs" in the seemingly inexpensive products that we purchase on a regular basis.
Regardless of whether we are purchasing gasoline, cellphones, or meat, these products are only cheap for us because someone else on the planet had to pay for it with their health, their freedom, or their life!
BE A GOOD ROLE MODEL FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD
Did you know that over a billion people in the world still live on less than a dollar a day, and that over half of the world is still living on less than $10 a day? And do you realize that as internet access becomes more available to these people, they will not only see us but will probably want to "follow" us?
The average person living in the U.S. consumes far more resources than the average person living in a far less developed country. (A person in "Africa" who can't afford a pair of shoes is obviously going to have far less of an environmental "footprint" than an extremely wealthy person in the U.S. who doesn't even know how many pairs of shoes they own.)
It would be a total disaster if everyone on Earth started living like the average American does, so it's important that we realize how dangerous it is to use the internet to "promote" completely unsustainable lifestyles.
There are a lot of people in the U.S. right now who are incredibly wealthy, but who are also incredibly depressed, and many them will try to cope with this by posting pictures of themselves on-line where they are smiling and flaunting their expensive cars, expensive meals, and expensive vacations to get "likes". (Which gives people who don't have a lot of money the impression that having more money will make them happy.)
The truth is that most of us who are living in the U.S. are so "well-off" that we can go to the store or get on-line and buy whatever we want. (And even if we don't have enough money for a new car, a new stereo, or a new house, we can still purchase things that they can't afford through the help of credit cards, loans, monthly payment options, etc.)
Yet, even though we have more material things now than ever, we also have more depression now than ever (which is clear evidence that having all of these material things hasn't truly made us happy) and we need to be more honest about this problem so that others in the world can learn from it and avoid making the same mistake.)
MINIMALISM QUOTES
"Sometimes less is more."
"The best things in life aren't things."
"Remember when you wanted what you currently have?"
"It's not a good deal if you don't need it."
"If you know you have enough you are truly rich."
"There's enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed."
"Minimalism isn't about having less, it's about making room for more of what really matters."
"The easiest way to organize your stuff is to get rid of most of it."
"If it can't be recycled, it shouldn't be made"
- Common Sense
4. REFORESTATION
One of the best ways to cleanse the Earth, is to cleanse the air that we all breathe by planting more trees and by living more modest lifestyles so that less trees will have to be cut down each year to produce things that we don't need.
5. JUST ADD KINDNESS
Below is a beautiful example of how just a little kindness can literally bring a smile to millions of people. (10 million views so far!)
A LITTLE GIRL SAYING GOODBYE TO STRANGERS AT THE AIRPORT
6. RESPECT OTHER LIFEFORMS
I'll make a bold prediction now that if life is ever discovered on another planet, it won't be alone, and it won't be a single species. Because life (at least as we know it) is a process that involves countless different species who all depend on countless different species to exist.
If giraffes had gone extinct long before cameras existed, and the only evidence we had of their existence were ancient drawings and stories, there would probably be a lot of people who were convinced that giraffes were mythical creatures who never could have actually existed, and if giraffes somehow hadn't been discovered yet and an explorer found a group of giraffes in a forest and took a picture, there would probably be people who were convinced that the orange long-necked creatures in the picture were some kind of aliens from out of this world, because life on "Earth" can be so unbelievable that we simply don't believe it.
And we can even become so blind to the miracle of life surrounding us, that we start to tell ourselves that maybe someday we will find intelligent life other than humans on another planet in a galaxy far, far away, when there are already countless intelligent lifeforms living right here on "Earth" who desperately need protection from our dangerous belief that we are the only intelligent species here.
Below are just a few examples of our fellow "Earthlings" who we share this beautiful and strange world known as "Earth" with...
"MOUNTAIN GOAT"
"BABY BEES FORMING"
"SNAIL"
"SAWFISH"
"STARFISH"
"A COLORFUL CHAMELEON"
"STINK BUG EGGS WITH FALSE EYE SPOTS AND EVEN FALSE MUSTACHE SPOTS"
"A DEAD FISH SKELETON REVEALING THE FLOWER OF LIFE PATTERN"
"A HUMAN EGG BEING FERTILIZED BY SPERM THAT LOOKS LIKE THE SUN"
"BIOLUMINESCENT GLOW WORMS ON A CAVE CEILING THAT COLLECTIVELY LOOKS LIKE THE STARS AT NIGHT"
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