The most important battle humankind will face, Climate Change.

“If we continue on our current course, the damage that has been the defining feature in my lifetime will be eclipsed by the damage coming in the next.” - "David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet"

After watching David Attenborough's "A Life On Our Planet" has truly opened my eyes to the damage we are doing to our planet. David Attenborough looks back on his illustrious 94-year-old career and ruminates on the relentless destruction of wild habitats.

Over the course of the documentary, Sir David underlines the bleak central message about our devastating impact on the environment.

However, Sir David offers some hope for us as a society. There are simple actions we can take to deal with climate change. For example, renewable energy. I myself have recently discussed this with my parents and we have decided to implement this into our house more. We have installed solar panels on our roof which gives us renewable electricity from the sun. "According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “more energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by everyone in the world in one year.” Today, we use the sun’s rays in many ways—to heat homes and businesses, to warm water, or power devices."

There are many things I am doing to try and reduce my carbon footprint. For example;

using reuseable water bottles. “The plastic bottle transformed the beverage industry and it changed our habits in many ways,” says Peter Gleick. Moving to reusable bottles that are free of toxins helps limit the amount of plastic that pollutes our oceans and air. By upgrading to efficient food production and reducing our consumption of meat, humanity will "require far less space to provide for ourselves" and instead leave more for "grasslands", Sir David says.

This brings me to my next point, changing our eating habits. It is proven that almost 20% of litter is caused by humans food wastes which is plastic and harmful. I now try to buy non-plastic organic foods which significantly reduces my personal pollution.

I now use public transport where possible. When I am in college I will walk or take the bus around the town. Along with helping to save money and improve fitness, leaving the car in the garage also reduces the amount of dangerous greenhouse gases (which are responsible for a large chunk of climate change) we release into the environment.

I pay particular attention when disposing of waste. It is essential we reduce reuse and recyle. "A paper released in 2017 in Science Advances reports that roughly 300 billion pieces of floating plastic clog the Arctic Ocean. This devastating situation impacts the marine ecosystem adversely. Cleanup is a formidable if not impossible task, and this mess has accumulated in just a few short decades. Reducing use of plastic, repurposing it and recycling it are imperative measures to stop the damage."

There are numerous ways we can help the economy but what matters most is we work together and all do our part. As sir David says "we can yet put it right".

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