live green - what does it mean?

by Tom Powell

​‘Live Green’ is one of the six themes for the Marlborough Earth Day Party, planned for A&P Park in Blenheim on the 21st April this year.  But what does ‘Live green’ mean in our day-to-day lives? 
Living ‘green’ means living in way that does not harm our water, land and air or the life that it supports, including insects, birds, fish, mammals, phytoplankton, plants and micro-organisms . These essential building blocks form the global food chain on which all life, including human life depends.
For most of human history mankind has survived and thrived by extracting the resource wealth of our planet.  However it has become apparent in recent decades, as the human population has grown, that our planet’s resources are running out and its capacity to absorb the pollution generated by our industrialised way of life is running out too.  In order to leave our children a planet that resembles the one we’ve come to know and love, we need to move away from a lifestyle based on resource extraction, waste generation and pollution and towards one based on living within the planet’s ecological limits.  Living sustainably.
Right now we are far from this ideal.  Our rubbish dumps and oceans are filling up with plastic waste,   carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are increasing in our atmosphere, forests that would naturally absorb carbon dioxide are being cut down to graze livestock, our oceans are becoming acidic and our climate is becoming warmer and more prone to extreme weather events, such as prolonged droughts, more powerful cyclones, increased flooding and greater wildfire risk. 
So what can we do at an individual level to help achieve a sustainable lifestyle? 
Burning less fossil fuel is the most obvious step but there are some less obvious changes that can also make a big difference, for example by minimising waste.
All of the things we buy, use and throwaway everyday require energy, usually from burning fossil fuel, to grow or make, to package and label, to transport and to dispose of or recycle. So, if we use less of these things we use less energy and that reduces greenhouse gas emissions that come with it, as well as other industrial pollution.
To do this we can follow the 5 “R”s - Reject, Reduce, Re-use, Re-purpose and Recycle. 

• Reject by refusing to buy products with excessive packaging, look for packaging with high recyclable content or products with no packaging at all.  Avoid buying water in single use plastic bottles – a water bottle filled with tap-water is virtually free!
• Reduce by using alternatives to plastic bags, containers and wraps.  For example, wax paper or wax cloth instead of plastic wrap, reusable bags to carry groceries instead of single use plastic bags, a water carbonator instead of buying bottles of soda water;
• Re-use plastic bags, food containers and water bottles around the house;
• Re-purpose plastic, glass and cardboard containers so they have another useful life;
• Recycle plastic, glass, newspaper, tins, office paper – around 90% of all the stuff in our rubbish bins can be recycled – we just have to put in a little time and effort to organise our rubbish.  We can use the recycling bins or take our recycling to the Resource Recovery Centre on Taylor Pass Road.

 
With a little thought and effort, we can leave a cleaner and greener world for our children and future generations to enjoy – just like the one we have now.
 
Editor Note:
Photo caption – ‘Peter Deacon of Climate Karanga Marlborough proudly displaying his well-organised recycling bins’.