More than a week has passed since people far and wide made well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions. Lose weight, exercise more, never again have a year like 2020. By next week many people will be adjusting those resolutions to fit reality: every now and then it’s OK to eat what you want to; some days it’s too cold … too wet … too dark to exercise; not much you could have done about 2020 anyway.
I have a suggestion for people who find themselves backsliding: Make resolutions that are easy to keep such as promoting healthy natural environments. Below are 10 easy-to-make, no-need-to-break environmental resolutions.
1. Begin with a simple exercise. Send an email to your local newspaper or an elected official stating your opinion concerning a specific environmental issue or the environment in general. You might take this as an opportunity to teach a youngster how to express a polite and well-reasoned opinion in writing.
2. Take a walk around your neighborhood for the express purpose of noticing your surroundings: trees, shrubs, whatever animals you encounter. Too often we take nature and all her wonders for granted. Looking closely at the natural world is the best way to appreciate it.
3. Read a natural history book. From wildlife guides to photograph-filled coffee table books to children’s stories excellent choices abound. If you are completing the checklist with young people, have them read sections from your favorite books. Ask them to find passages they like.
4. Act like a wildlife ecologist for a day. Find an animal in your yard and observe it for several minutes. Whatever you pick – insect, squirrel, spider, bird – watch it closely. Is it gathering food? Building a nest? Setting a trap for unsuspecting prey?
5. Spend time looking at plants and animals in a wetland habitat. Isolated wetlands that may dry up in the summer are great places in winter because of their extremely high productivity. Streams and rivers also make excellent observation spots if you linger long enough to see what's there. While observing the wildlife, consider how important the environmental health of the water is to wildlife living there and downstream.
6. Visit a natural history museum, nature park, zoo or public aquarium. Most have an environmental theme of one sort or another. They can be highly informative regarding endangered species, water quality and overall environmental conditions.
7. Pick an animal or plant species that lives in your region and read about it. Reliable internet sources, natural history magazines and field guides are good places to look. Pick something you are likely to see on a regular basis (trees and other plants are sure bets). By becoming familiar with the ecology, geographic range and overall natural history of the chosen species, you will appreciate it for the rest of your life. Nature writings these days often include information on what the environmental threats are to a species of interest.
8. Check out a website on ecology or a particular group of plants or animals and see what you can learn. Be cautious with this approach. Unlike most published books, which have been subjected to rigorous scientific and editorial reviews, many websites have no fact-checkers. Misinformation flourishes on the internet. Websites associated with universities or with reputable institutions like the Smithsonian are more likely to have accurate information.
9. Help a nonprofit environmental organization by donating money or time. Even a small monetary donation lets the staff and volunteers know you care about their efforts to make the environment better. You might have the greatest impact (and the most fun) by volunteering to help a local environmental group.
10. Send this checklist to one or two friends and ask them to complete it. The more people who pay attention to the natural world, the better off the environment will be.
You may be successful with your eat-less, exercise-more resolutions or you may return to your old habits. Either way, if you stick with this environmental checklist, you will feel better about 2021 than anyone did about 2020. Happy New Year!
"easy" - Google News
January 10, 2021 at 09:43AM
https://ift.tt/35rcfhE
ECOVIEWS: Easy-to-make, no-need-to-break resolutions - Charleston Post Courier
"easy" - Google News
https://ift.tt/38z63U6
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "ECOVIEWS: Easy-to-make, no-need-to-break resolutions - Charleston Post Courier"
Post a Comment