How to Be an Everyday Activist

One of the biggest problems that we have nowadays with the climate emergency is the lack of education and information. And I believe that the vast majority of us don’t wake up every morning and say, “oh, let’s harm the environment”. It just happens. Our decisions do it for us; our homes, our work, our transport, what we eat, what we buy and consume.

But on the other hand, we should wake up in the morning and do actions that really help the environment and make a difference. There’s a lot of actions that you can do in your day-to-day life, and they don’t have to be really big things. Everyone can be an activist, in their day-to-day life, in their own square meter, in their schools, in their homes.

For example, if you turn off the lights when you go out of your room, you’re saving energy. If you turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth, you are saving water. If you recycle, if you look at what you buy, if you buy apples in the supermarket, make sure that they’re not covered in plastic, because one of the keys and one of the biggest problems nowadays is plastic, right?

So if we try to avoid, for example, single-use plastic, that’s a really big step towards a more sustainable future. Maybe find people in your neighborhood or in your classroom, in your school that have the same interests as you and are doing the same actions as you and try to form a community. It can be fun because you can go with your friends to the forest and clean up garbage.

You can build nests for birds so the population of birds increases in your neighborhood or in your city. So if you come together with a group of people that have your same interests or similar and do more or less the same actions as you to help the planet, you’re going to have so much fun and you’re going to, little by little, make a difference, and change the world.

Another great thing to do is to put your closet on a diet. Think before you purchase another piece of clothing or another game. Nowadays, we have so many things at home that we don’t use. And if we keep buying new things, we’re consuming more than we should. And the natural resources of our planet are not lasting forever.

So I think education is key. If we educate little kids from two years old, they’re going to grow up with consciousness that’s going to be much greater than the vast majority of people. And these kids are going to be able to raise awareness to the people around them. And then is when we can create a chain of consciousness.

And I’m really an optimist. I have hope. So we need to wake up and it’s time to act now.