Today we come to you with a few easy, practical tips that you can implement straight away in your daily life, which will lower your carbon footprint and lessen your impact on our oceans.
Check them out!
1. Conserve water at home:
When you conserve water, you keep more of it from excessively running off, so less of it flows into the Oceans as wastewater.
2. Be mindful of the chemical product you use:
If you can, use environment-friendly cleaning and personal hygiene products, because they are less harmful to the Ocean, but also for your health. You can buy and even make these products, and also reusing containers you might have thrown out to place them into.
3. Proper disposal of chemical products:
If you use cleaning products, herbicides, or pesticides with toxic or harsh chemicals, be extra careful and make sure you dispose of them correctly so that they don’t end up in the Ocean.
4. Follow the "3 R" rule:
Reduce your general consumption of products, reuse the products you purchase and find new uses for them before throwing them out, and properly recycle the ones you do get rid of.
5. Reduce your plastic usage:
This point is tied to the last one. With the reduction of consumption comes the reduction of plastic usage. By now, we all know the harm that plastic is causing to the environment, and specifically to marine ecosystems. Reducing as much as possible the consumption of plastic is a must. An easy way to do this is by replacing plastic products by sustainable alternatives.
6. Go second hand:
This point is also strictly tied to the promotion of mindful consumption. Buying your clothing and home items in second-hand shops is a massive contribution towards transforming the overconsumption economic model. When we buy second-hand, we are practicing the reuse rule and avoiding the consequences that the effects of the clothing industry has on the Ocean, such as chemical pollution, the emission of greenhouse gases, and microplastics.
7. Choose responsibly sourced seafood
When you choose seafood responsibly sourced, you help reduce the demand for overexploited species, species fished by super trawlers, or fish grown in fish farms, as these are harmful to the environment.
8. Reduce your energy consumption
As a way to mitigate climate change, which directly affects the Oceans. You can do this by using efficient light bulbs, avoiding oversetting your thermostat, using public transport, carpooling, riding your bike, etc…
9. Educate yourself
All life and ecosystems are connected to and fundamentally dependent on our Oceans' health. Educating yourself on how our ecosystems work and what they need to thrive, you can make more responsible choices and contributions in their favor, and you can also educate others to do the same.
10. Join a community beach cleanup
If you live close to the Ocean, consider joining your community's beach cleanup! From Curiocean we have been promoting periodical cleanups around Galway city beaches with great success. Also, apart from contributing with this way of service, beach cleanups can be a great way to get to know interesting people in your community!
(Add photo from Curiocean cleanup here)
Sources used:
https://www.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/
By Belen Blanco