In a society that revolves around production and materialism, we as consumers are pawns in the game called life.

But we don’t have to be, and that’s something I’m now beginning to realize.

I feel like in a way, my posts on minimalism were connected to this new Series.

I Intend to eliminate more of the things I no longer use, but this series will be a bit different. It’s sort of a new lifestyle change, and I hope to keep up with it. Starting now.

What will this be you ask?

Read on to find out!

We all love our things, myself included.

But, as a human species, we are incredibly wasteful. We often don’t think twice about the things we buy and what happens to them after we no longer want them. Instead, we just throw them out blindly, unaware of the consequences that are to come later.

Or maybe we are aware, and it’s willful blindness or ignorance. We think that changing our actions and ways of life don’t have any negative repercussions or don’t need to change.

If this does so much as to get a handful of people to live more mindfully, I’d be happy.

Why does it matter what we buy, what we throw out, what we “recycle”?

Ever heard of a thing called climate change?

It’s not some old wive’s tale, it’s something we see happening right now, because of us, the human race.

According to the UN, we have 12 years, 12 YEARS, to change our ways and limit climate change. Twelve years isn’t long at all. Put that in perspective for yourself.. how old will you be in 2030? Personally, I’ll only be 30. That sounds far right now, sure, but 30 is young. 12 years isn’t that long to fix our act, and if we don’t, there will be a lot of repercussions.

Temperatures will continue to rise which melts the polar ice caps and raises water levels, a change in growing season lengths, precipitation patterns, more droughts, stronger hurricanes, eventually ice-free arctic…. These things, and more, are bound to happen if we don’t act now.

So I ask you, how will you leave your mark?

Will it be measured in love for others, things you did, learned, said?

Or will it be the negative impact you had on the environment and therefore, the generations to come?

There’s many things we can do to reduce our footprint, and I intend to try many of these things myself and try to incorporate them into my every day life.

I want the mark I leave to help the environment, not to kill it.

I’ll be posting more on this topic as things arise. I hope you’ll join me on my journey and maybe try to make changes yourself.

You can make a difference.

People always say, “I’m just one person, I can’t make that big of a difference,” but you can.

With the ripple effect, one person influences many. Start a ripple in your community!