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Five things I have learned about being kind to the planet.

When I wrote this journal entry, it was six months since I began this imperfect project. Six months since my perception of the how we care for our planet became so disillusioned, that I felt compelled to add my small voice to the big world.

Six months which began with a naive thought that we were doing a lot of good things already, but soon realising how much more we could do ourselves as a family to help the planet.

But then a realisation that this humbling discovery is not a failure but can be energy. The energy to learn and change our little world.

And by starting small, you can do it. You have time, and it does make a difference.

This journal is a reflection.

From my very small platform, my very small voice. It is what I have learned so far. Five things that have worked for me and for our family. It is not a list of things to do, because we are all different and have our own pressures in life. I hope instead it is a list of considerations about how we make any of our day-to-day decisions, that can motivate small changes.

We are also not activists or scientists, and so this list will be as imperfect as we are.

1) Recycling is a last resort.

I believed that recycling was the pinnacle of being kind to the planet. I believed that washing more yogurt pots, was the path to sustainable glory and accolade.

We should recycle, but recycling is only one of the three arrows that we see on our boxes and bags, on our packets and tins. The other two — reduce and reuse, can even remove the need for recycling, and at the heart of this is the common ground of consideration.

Consideration when we make a purchase. Any purchase.

If we think about whether we need something, then it is amazing what do not need. By this I don’t mean immediate and huge shifts in behaviour. More so fighting our natural and forgivable human instinct to be impulsive.

By leaving items in our online basket for 24-hours before making a purchase, to make sure we love it. By resisting the urge to jump in the car to the drive through, and to jump into the fridge or store cupboard instead. At least sometimes.

Consideration leads to habit. The habit of thinking about how things are made, where they come from, creates choices. Everything was created somehow, by nature or by humans. Everything came from somewhere. We live in a world of alternatives. By asking or researching for a few moments, you can always find something that was produced more locally, or in a kinder way. We don’t need to boycott all supermarkets, or only wear hemp.

Finally, looking after our stuff, and thinking about what happens when we are done with it, is a lost art. If we look after our toys or our books, then someone else can enjoy them afterwards. Using old containers to store food, does not photograph well, but the pasta doesn’t mind. Being less quick to trash things — because most things that are broken, can be fixed.

2) The problem, is not always the problem.

We have a habit of listening and reacting about what something is called, rather listening and hearing where common ground might exist.

A committed vegan would disagree with a passionate farmer about many topics. The vegan might point to animal welfare, and the farmer would in return defend the respect they have for the animals in their care. Those who fish our reefs have a love for the ocean and for the fish that many would find hypocritical.

The common ground may be the commoditisation of any food.

Bees shouldn’t be shipped around to pollinate plants. Chicken bones shouldn’t be jet-washed. Rivers shouldn’t be diverted to irrigate fruit, animals shouldn’t live in tiny cages. No matter if it is a meat, a fish, a plant, the production should not upset the balance of nature in an unsustainable fashion.

It is often how we use things, not exactly what they are, that is important. Considering this, means we can realise that we seem to have lots of different ways of saying the same thing. We say we should be zero-plastic, and we argue about it. But if we reframe this, we can all be against the disposable nature of our mass consumption.

Labels are dangerous shortcuts that pitch us against each other. There is positive opportunity everywhere to make a change, and positive common ground everywhere that we don’t realise exists. We have to listen and hear each other, and seek it out.

3) Nature is amazing.

Nature is fabulous, calming, enduring and still. Slow and relentless. Nature has existed, adapted, and continued to exist at its own pace, despite the accelerating pace of our own lives.

Reminding ourselves of this, however we can, is good for the planet, but also good for mental health. Looking after a pot of basil, can teach you as much about nature as trying to cultivate the perfect allotment, and can give you a moment of quiet.

Nature does also not give style points. If we want to grow something, then as long as we care for it, then it doesn’t matter what it looks like. We should be proud of our imperfect attempts, because we tried. Nature won’t judge, and will never, ever *like* your Instagram posts.

But nature will reward you for your care by giving you joy.

We should take walks, stare out of the window. If we have space on our desks, we can fill it with green, and then start each work day by taking half a minute to tend to it. Little opportunities to be closer to nature, helps us remember about the football pitch of trees and habitats that are destroyed each minute, all over the planet.

There is even something therapeutic about putting your nose really into the ground, even in your garden or in a park, and really smelling the soil. It sounds odd, and looks even odder, but it is wonderful. Nature just does, and is.

4) We all have time.

Most of the little changes that we have made, can be planned in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee. And that includes sourcing better coffee.

Start small, make tiny changes, and it is possible.

It helps also to be planned. Being organised has become unfashionable in our hyperconnected world. It is beneath us, when we can outsource anything we need with a click or a swipe.

However, if we take a half hour each week, to plan a menu for the following week then we can be more resourceful and less wasteful. Even if we don’t exactly stick to it, and instead mostly stick to it then it makes a difference. It can also become a habit, and thirty minutes becomes twenty, becomes ten.

Lack of time is also a common ground. The gift of time will never to refused. But we do use time in other ways that we can replace, sometimes. We can our three minutes of time on our tiny screens during the morning coffee run, to like or share information. Stuff that can make others all be better organised, less wasteful, and more planetwise.

These tiny changes can change the world.

A world that could have a positive cycle of helping each other and being kind. Rather than a negative cycle of competing, boasting, and ultimately all feeling a bit more sad than before.

5) Planetwise, can also mean humanwise.

Being aware of our planet, and trying to be kind to our planet, is also about being kinder to each other. Just as the ground we walk on, and the air we breathe is important, so are the people we share it with.

Some changes that appear to be kind to the planet, are at a more basic level, kind. It is better to pick up litter, as much for the creatures who may accidentally eat it, as it is for those humans who might enjoy the beaches or the countryside that we also enjoy.

In some ways, respecting our planet is about putting ourselves in the shoes of others, and understanding others. It is about making a moral commitment to be kind, and to understand and be accountable to each other.

This is what I believe motivates many of the inspirational people I have discovered as part of this project. Many discoveries I have made as we have made our small changes — are about individuals, institutions and organisations who have made a moral commitment to the planet.

They might have started to change their own behaviour because of something they have observed. But then they have gone further, and have made our planet’s problems their own. And then figuring out how they can make change for good.

We do this by being part of the conversation. By being a small voice in a big discussion. We are all at the same party here on planet Earth, and right now the party is not going too well. I joined the dance floor, and sometimes it can feel like you’re dancing alone, and it can feel foolish.

This anxiety means that my brain does strange things. Last night, I had a dream that I was working in the world’s first plastic mine. Picking away at the walls, and filling buckets with plastic chips, that were being shipped to somewhere faceless I couldn’t see. I still can’t work out if that was a wonderful dream or a dystopian nightmare.

Making small changes work. It is climbing up a hill, step by step. It is pausing along the way, it is take a backwards step to take two forwards. It is making choices that you think are right, and being as thrilled by the mistakes and the failures as by the successes, as they are a chance to learn.

Small changes mean that if you are having a bad day, or a bad week, you can look back at the good days and the good weeks.

To remind yourself how far you have come, and to galvanise you to continue.

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