5 habits that will change the World

Pic by Melanie Holtsman

It’s Friday night and, after being out most of the week I don’t mind being home alone, also thanks to a recurrence of back pain that kept me awake last night.

I had read for a while “One More Ride On The Merry Go Round“, and as it always happens when I’m reading Terzani, I feel a great desire of Asia, of writing and this time also of experiencing, one day, a colon cleansing retreat.

I have been thinking for a long time about writing this article, because so many people are disillusioned thinking that there’s nothing we could do to make this World a better place.

Or that landing a rover on another planet is more important than taking care of our own.
Or that our family, our business and maybe our local community are the sole responsibilities we have.

So much feeling of weakness and powerlessness in front of the big illness of planet Earth are really justified?

But if the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas (Butterfly effect) imagine what you can do when shopping at the local grocery store!

So I invite to think twice. Every action counts. Everything we do, now more than ever, has a worldly impact.

After 33 years of experimentation here are 5 simple habits that allow you to contribute in the World salvation:

  1. Eat less meat. I just finished the serrano ham left by my friend Gianluca in my fridge, but I still support the weekday veggie movement. Check my previous post if you still don’t know the effect of industrialized meat production!
  2. Navy showers. Netherlands will never have this problem, but in some other countries the water shortage is a real issue. Better be prepared for some water and energy conservation being comfortable with taking navy showers.
  3. Pee in the shower. OK, that’s the most controversial one. But if you pee and then shower as part of your morning routing, why not combine things and save 6-10 Liters of water? Alternative for guys: pee in the sink.
  4. Drink water from the tap. Good chances are that the water from your tap is drinkable. So you can get a metal bottle, virtually eternal, and save the World the effort to produce and dispose of zillions of plastic bottles across the globe.
    Do you know the Pacific Garbage Patch (or Trash Vortex)?
  5. Your turn. I would have felt too arrogant if I had really pretended to tell the 5 habits to save the World… but I only know 4 🙂
    I leave it to you. What the 5th habit should be?

Following those simple habits not only I give a great contribution to the World, but I also feel good so that I can close one eye over the rest of the bad habits I have. Highly recommended!

 

Note for the shy readers: I know you’re out there. The game is over! Surrender and place a comment.

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Di Daniele

Hi, I’m Daniele! A human being from planet earth. I founded WP-OK.it and I like dancing Salsa, running, and living a location independent lifestyle.

15 commenti

  1. 1.I just finished the serrano ham left by my friend Gianluca in my fridge, but I still support the weekday veggie movement??? .. ehem … how?
    3. Alternative for guys: pee in the sink … hmmm … u forgot to add: only if you live with men or on your own …. 😛
    5. Express gratitude everyday.
    baci 🙂

  2. 5) be generous
    I know a person that for his birthday, that will happen tomorrow, has bought as many present as his age, that will donate to friends and people had never met before with the message “giving is receiving. Please accept my present and remeber to give to other people”

  3. 5. Take public transport/bicycle whenever you can avoid car/motorbike; avoid flying.

    6. Buy used goods instead of new. Manufacturing consumes energy + raw materials.

    7. I stopped buying food produced far away (across the atlantic or further south than N. Africa). No more bananas!

  4. Wou – that blog is certainly interesting.

    Peeing in shower is not a good idea, man! What would work – is reinvention of toilets (there are ideas to stop using water, and let things dry instead, subsequently using that stuff as fertalizer… I watched an interesting docu on the history of toilets, very inspiring! Hopefully just like solar panels this will soon pick up.

    One small remark though – if we go back to primitive life principles, those people maybe ate healthier and did not use soaps and deos, but they lived much shorter, and thus did not age as much as we do now, Aging comes with illnesses and decay in our bodies, and this might get smelly and unpleasant for others… Also the environment was less acidy, and there was less of us!
    I am not amused thinking of all those comrade humans in a hot metro daily commuting to work and back pfff
    I do hope everyone will start going by bike then!

    T contribute to number 5:
    people, please do EDUCATE YOURSELF for god sake! :)never stop learning, discovering, paying attention to history and cultivating respect to others..

    Hugs

    1. Thanks for contributing Tati!

      Good 5th, even if history is not my thing 🙂

      I don’t advocate going back to live like primitives, but to adopt habits that can change the World with little or no impact in our lifestyle quality 🙂

      Btw, the primitives were not aging mainly because there were no refrigerators and proper ways to conserve/preserve food.

      Thanks!

    1. Nice article acirei, we don’t eat bugs in Western World but are very common in Asia and Latin America… in Colombia they eat the “hormiga culona” 🙂

      We’re just used to think they’re disgusting, but they’re not.

      “Marketing can do a lot of this”… how true!

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