It’s Personal – Do You Value Your World?

It’s Personal – Do You Value Your World?
February 3, 2022 Sabine Schoenberg

Value World – this term describes a fundamental concept – the foundation for valuing our planet. Everyone who desires personal wellbeing, good food, and economic sustenance for our families, pets, and ourselves needs a friendly and nourishing environment called Mother Earth. Not doing so creates a future without a future. There are strong indications we have not done a good job taking care of Mother Earth. The good news is, we can all start with simple, everyday choices.

Learn From Droughts Centuries Ago

The facts are clear: Our world is changing rapidly. The ONLY question is in which direction. It would not be the first time that our planet created uninhabitable conditions. PBS’s “The Lost Inca Empire”  (Nova series) and National Geographic both presented evidence that drought conditions over long periods forced the highly sophisticated Aztec people to vacate their settlements/cities.

 

Let’s not repeat such catastrophic failures: We must value our world. And today we have to add that we must restore our planet.

Can we learn from history? Are we willing to look at evidence and facts? Or, will we be so terrified that we pretend nothing is happening?

Excavations show that the Aztecs tried to protect themselves. They built extensive and large water cisterns to capture water to sustain their crops and lives in their settlements. But in the end, even those measures proved to be insufficient. They were forced to vacate. Archeological evidence shows that they carefully organized their retreat. In other words, they expected to return with friendlier environmental conditions. Sadly, this never happened.

In other words, we already have examples in our history where a change in climate had a devastating impact on entire populations.

Tips For People Who Value Their World

What can the individual do? Where do we begin? I submit, as consumers, we make choices every day. Re-evaluating these daily choices through a lens that values the world in a positive, non-polluting way in our homes, gardens, and our larger environments is possible. In fact, we simply must do so immediately. So here are some suggestions.

Healthy Food From a Healthy Planet

How about eating healthy, organically grown food direct from the farm to the farmers’ market to reduce lengthy and fossil consuming supply. Jim Kovaleski’s Florida regenerative micro-farming garden might even inspire you to grow your own food altogether. Jim’s no-till gardening technique makes it look simple. Jim’s garden is just one in SHG Living’s Pete Kanaris’ Green Dreams series. Eating fresh healthy greens from local producers is a great start to contribute or value the world – healthy for you, healthy for the planet.

Reduction of Carbon Footprint to Value World

People speak of reducing one’s “carbon footprint” to value the world. For some folks like SHG Living’s Tiny House Expedition, this means reducing from a large home to a tiny house. Enough people subscribe to tiny house living that today there are a variety of tiny home villages. Most tiny house communities are located in Colorado and the Oregon coast. In some, you can rent a tiny home – the perfect way to find out if this lifestyle is for you. Extra storage lockers can also be rented to make the transition easier. Renting a tiny home is the perfect way to explore if this home choice and lifestyle is right for you.

Easy Shopping – Know Your Certifications

Shop for items carefully. You don’t know where to begin? Let’s start with the family couch. Matt Daigle of SHG Living’s show Rise devoted a whole episode to what goes into the production of the family couch. He points out the many products that make even a couch a complex chemical mess.

Since it is next to impossible to ascertain from store salespeople what exactly goes into the fabrication of furniture, Matt presents the labels to look for: FSC to sustainably harvested wood, Certi-Pur which evaluates foam, and GreenGuard Certifications which evaluate the broadest range of criteria.

Green Guard Certification is becoming more widely used by many products today. Shopping Green Guard Certification especially puts you way ahead of the game and ensures healthier products for you, your family, and the planet. It’s a total win-win.

At every turn, we, as consumers get to choose how we want to live. Every decision is embedded in how we choose to live and value the world.  Become aware of your selections. Shop intelligently with the right certifications and in the process, value our world.

Image by Joao Tzanno