Why is IKEA so cheap? Are they actually environmentally sustainable?

Whatever you want, a chair, book, sofa, bed even a pillowcase they probably have it. Although, some assembly is required. Ikea, the yellow and blue furniture mammoth from Sweden has quickly become a mainstay in many households. Through their alternative approach to interior design, which super cheap prices and a do-it-yourself attitude, Ikea made roughly 42.7 billion dollars in revenue during the 2018 economic year. When you walk through one of Ikea’s showrooms, however, it’s hard to understand how they’re able to make that much money. But Ikea’s low-price points and glossy designs are part of the reason why so many customers continue to brood to their big-box collection. So, simple to understand why IKEA is so cheap, and in addition to that, whether their low prices mean a weak commitment to mitigating their environmental impact. The story of IKEA’s cheap prices can be tied back to the mindset of its recently deceased owner: Ingvar Kamprad. Kamprad was a greatly cost-conscious man. According to a research article, he still drove an old Volvo and recycled tea bags despite his huge amount of wealth. He defends the idea of “lista” or “making do,” both in his own life but also in the basic values of the Ikea empire. Essentially, IKEA seeks to produce low-cost, essential and utilitarian solutions for daily life. And it does that in several ways. Similar to stores like Costco, IKEA leverages buying a huge amount of material to drive the price to decline All of those materials are “flat-packed” so that the maximum number of items can be shipped and stored in one place. On top of the list, they shift the assembly part of furniture onto the buyer, which means they avoid a huge amount of cost on the manufacturing end. They push the effort and time needed to construct furniture onto people eager to buy their stuff. So, the key to IKEA’s cheap products is a knowledge of where and how to cut corners, whether that’s in the manufacturing step, shipping step, or up to the point of sale. In the search for better margins and more profits, for example, Ikea has been blamed heavily for avoiding conceivably billions of euros in taxes by funneling cash through a web of subsidiaries and sub-companies. But does Ikea have the same disfavor for their environmental initiatives? In some cases, Ikea’s low prices are thanks to the cost-saving effects of the business's new environmental initiatives, but alongside these highly publicized sustainability efforts lie some questionable practices that leave much to be desired. Let’s start with the good. Ikea has made overwhelming headway on the renewable energy front. According to their 2018 sustainability report, Ikea has installed over 900,000 solar panels across its showrooms and warehouses and owns and operates 441 wind turbines all in the pursuit of becoming energy independent by 2020. This is certainly admirable considering there are 424 Ikea stores worldwide that require a massive amount of fuel and energy to run. Alongside this rapid transition to renewable energy, Ikea committed to slowdown emissions for all home deliveries by 2025, which means a fully electric home transportation fleet within the next five to six years.

At the top of the list, Ikea wants to reach a circular waste model by 2030. With the single-use of plastics elimination in the store combined with the use of recycled materials in their products, like their KUNGSBACKA line which uses recycled wood and plastic to create kitchen cabinets, Ikea has set out to reconsider their relationship with waste. So, in terms of climate change goals and ambitions, Ikea is doing better than most of the other big-named brands in the field. But, there’s always a back to the coin. We shouldn’t just applaud Ikea for doing something everyone else should already be doing. It’s our job as consumers and to consider the consequences of a brand that decides on a shockingly low price for their furniture and then challenges the design team and supplier to meet that price at whatever the amount. In fact, according to Ikea, the carbon footprint of the company grew from 23.3 million tonnes of CO2 in 2016 to 24.6 million tonnes of CO2 in 2018, which is roughly 1.2 million tonnes more CO2 in just 2 years. Even though they installed hundreds of thousands of solar panels on their showroom roofs, they’re still a growing company. And in terms of materials, Ikea consumes 1% of the world's logged wood for their furniture. For just one company that is truly a huge amount. According to the company, they seek to plant more trees than they consume, stating that in the 2018 economic year they logged 700,000 trees and planted 3.6 million trees. But Ikea’s track record when it comes to which trees its forestry subsidiary wood cuts down hasn’t been perfect. In short, Ikea is doing good, but there are also negative ramifications to the growth mindset of this massive fast-furniture company. So, as we look towards Ikea’s lower cost, we can understand a couple of things. Its “cheapness” is the product of streamlined marketing and sales, strong control of their supply chain, some unique approaches like flat-packing and DIY assembling, as well as a little help from cheap renewable energy. That being said, there is also a tension between the cheap first, everything else second mentality that seems to ooze from all things Ikea and their environmental practices. They’ve made an approach to crafting more durable furniture, but Ikea is a business. Mass consumption of their furniture is their reason to exist. The more you buy, the better they do, but at the same time, the better they do, the higher the environmental cost. Ikea is ultimately interested in sustainability because that’s what customers want and it’s good for business. So, the next time you’re consuming on those classic Ikea Swedish meatballs, look around; appreciate the fact that Ikea has made itself into a strong leader in sustainability for big companies, but also understand that buying Ikea will never “save the planet” or help mitigate climate change. Buying that Tarva bed frame is certainly less bad than other options, but searching for a different bed frame in a local antique or second-hand furniture store is the better option for the environment.

Eco-Friendly Makeup Brands

 In the world of makeup, there is so much choice for customers. One thing that you should look for is a brand that is conscious of the environment. Environmental sustainability has been a huge topic and needs to apply in every single industry. Skincare is an industry that creates so much waste specifically because it deals with a lot of little items that are replenishable every three months so the amount of waste that even just one person creates by having a skincare routine is massive which is why we need to start supporting brands that adopt a sustainable philosophy. So that we can reduce our impact on the environment as much as we possibly can. Environmentally friendly and sustainable have become terms that are used quite frequently but to understand the complexity behind these terms for a brand to be sustainable it's very difficult. We identify which brands are going out of their way to be as environmentally friendly as possible and in addition, no brand will be perfect, certain brands adopt certain sustainable principles that others have not yet but support that just an idea you know. So, many times is when a brand does make a positive movement in the direction of sustainability, you'll find a hundred people ready to call out every single tiny little way that they are not sustainable. Always support brands moving in a positive direction when it comes to sustainability and ethics. Environmentally friendly is that they should be cruelty-free and their packaging should be recyclable. So here is some sustainable skincare brand.

L’Oréal they've been able to do a lot more selfless work which we respect and they're very transparent about where they source their ingredients how they do it to minimize slave labor and unsustainable sourcing as much as possible. They have provided in-store recycling programs you can bring any of your recyclable cosmetics to their stores and using the TerraCycle program (free recycling program collects and recycle every kind of waste) you can just drop off all of your products there and they will recycle them for you. This is amazing because everything is done with intention and transparency which is something so hard to find but so critical when it comes to ensuring sustainability and ethics.

Kinship is a new skincare brand that focuses on very clean products but what their packaging they do use plastic packaging however it is made of 100% recycled material that they gather from the ocean around the world together with all the plastic together melted down into pellets that are used to create their incredible packaging. They've removed 1.5 tons worth of trash from the ocean but here's the last thing that so cool not only they gather their trash to use to make their packaging on the back of each product you'll find a QR code that you can scan and it will show you the exact location where the trash used to make your packaging this is so cool innovative. This is the type of technology and thinking that we need for the future so obviously, you should buy a few items from their websites like the super mellow cream and the sunscreen and see how they work especially because they are free of essential oils in those products.

Last Lush Cosmetics, from an ethical and sustainable standpoint this brand is doing everything right they offer products like their shampoo bars and hair masks that are completely free of packaging. If they do have the packaging, they have a recycling program that you can trade your packaging in for to get a discount they're very transparent about whether they source their ingredients from and the slave labor potentially used within their production cycle.

No matter from which brand you buy always read labels of cosmetics or skincare products you wish to purchase. Always purchase organic and eco-friendly products for your skin and products that are made for your skin type. Read the return policy. You want to be able to return the unused items if it doesn’t work for you especially if you paid a considerable amount of money.

What Is the Impact of Using Eco-Friendly Products on The Environment?

 An environmentally sustainable product is less detrimental to the environment than its conventional contributor.

More consumers purchasing eco-friendly products will reduce greenhouse emissions, give chance to our planet to breathe and restore, and make our houses and towns safe in the long run. Switching towards Eco-friendly home products has a greater impact on the environment.

Instead of using plastic bottles glass or stainless stain bottles can be used. The benefits of using a glass and stainless-steel water bottle over a plastic one are various. One is, stainless steel is recyclable also doesn't produce a foul odor after a few uses, these bottles are corrosion resistant, and won't leach harmful chemicals when exposed to sun or heat. You don't have to be worried about BPA leaking into the liquids. Glass bottle is also an option when choosing bottles. a Glass bottle also doesn’t leach when exposed to heat and sun. But plastic bottles are cheaper to produce but when plastic bottles end up in landfills it takes 700 years to decompose. The plastic bottle is not an eco-friendly product to use.

Over the row of a year, a person is expected to consume over 20,000 toilet papers, resulting in a significant number of trees cutting and water being lost. And many people avoid using recycled toilet paper because they think it is made from used toilet paper. Recycled toilet tissue is manufactured from recycled paper obtained from various recycling schemes, indicate that the paper has not yet reached the end of its useful life cycle.

Carry a reusable bag with you if you go to the mall and grocery store. It would be beneficial to the environment. One of humanity's ever-rising concerns is plastic bag waste. The United States uses over 100 billion plastic bags every day, with an average of 300 bags per person or 1,500 bags per home, and only 1% to 3% of these are recycled. Bags that are not recyclable become waste because they don’t biodegradable. One trillion plastic bags are used around the world, per year. Producing a plastic bag is bad for the environment, and discarding and not recycling a plastic bag is often bad for the environment. Any plastic bags will last 100 years in the environment. Furthermore, plastic bags kill about 100 aquatic species per year, because a plastic bag is used for just 10-15 minutes on average before being discarded. As a result, we must reduce our use of plastic bags. Consider the environmental effect of such a popular thing, considering its ease, if you are given a plastic bag.

When it’s come to sustainability paper bags have advantages over plastic bags. Paper bags are easy to recycle because they are biodegradable. But the paper bag is very resource-heavy to produce than a plastic bag.

You should still use an organic cotton bag instead of disposable bags. If you take care of your reusable shopping bag made of recycled products, it will keep you eco-friendly for a longer period. Furthermore, a reusable shopping bag is simple to disinfect, 100% compostable and recyclable, and can replace hundreds of plastic bags throughout its life. Cotton bags have recently been blamed for being more harmful to the atmosphere than plastic bags. Critics, on the other hand, failed to consider the long-term environmental impacts of a disposable bag – a plastic grocery bag that takes 100s of years to biodegrade. Researchers compared the amount of energy used to produce a reusable cotton bag to a plastic bag. Organic cotton is undeniably the winner in the long term. The simple advice to everyone, whatever bag you have in your house pile of cotton bags or plastic bags doesn’t throw them out. Keep using all of them until they fall apart. Overall, reusing a bag as many times as you can reduce its impact on the atmosphere.

When it comes to eco-friendly items, you can't go wrong. They're more durable, reusable, less dangerous, use fewer resources, and are safer for the species in the atmosphere. Furthermore, using eco-friendly items can help to maintain not just the environment and the health and well-being of your loved one.

Eco-Friendly Cars

 If you are looking to buy a car. How do you pick the car that is good for you and for the planet? There is already a lot to inspect when choosing a new car, and factor like climate change makes it even trickier. Well, we are here to guide you through it. Cars don’t just produce emissions when you are driving them. Assembling a car any kind of car takes a tremendous amount of energy, and so does disposing of it. So, when we talk about the climatic impact of a car, we have to consider the industry to landfill, not just on the road. So, that applies to all kinds of cars. But there’s still a lot to consider. First of all, we have got our good internal combustion engine cars. They can be powered by ethanol, propane even biodiesel, but mostly run-on gasoline and regular diesel. These kinds of vehicles account for nearly one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. But you have still got some choices that can reduce the impact of even a gas-burning car. Fuel efficiency how far you can go on one liter or gallon of gas depends a lot on vehicle type, age and model. Older cars can be less fuel-efficient, but buying a used car technically produces fewer emissions than a new car, because no extra energy went into producing the used car. Luckily there are a few easy means you can use to compare cars' fuel efficiency. And when it comes to which fuel is good to use, carbon dioxide emissions from diesel cars are likely to be lower but diesel cars emit more other kinds of gases, that may not affect the climate, but make the air less healthy to breathe. Considering all this, many climates conscious car buyers are turning to electric vehicles. Electric car run-on electricity stored in a battery. That simple! An electric vehicle doesn’t burn any kind of fuel and they don’t even have a tailpipe so they don’t emit any emissions when they are on the road. Remember, making a car and all of its parts takes energy, and this can produce its own emissions. So how clean are electric vehicles? Today’s electric cars typically run on lithium-ion batteries, which contain elements that are really rare and difficult to find like cobalt. But the process of mining and processing these metals into usable battery components requires a huge amount of energy. Even the wiring, casing, and the stuff that holds the battery together are expensive. All this considered, manufacturing an electric car produces about 65% more greenhouse gas emissions than manufacturing a regular car. When an Electric vehicle is plugged in, it’s gaining electricity from the power grid. Depending on where you live, how electricity could be generated by coal, nuclear, wind, solar, or in most places, a mix of all of these. So, driving an electric vehicle will probably still produce greenhouse gas emissions, just not from the tailpipe. When you consider manufacturing and charging, there’s no truly zero-emissions car in the market yet. But the thing is even though assembling an electric car produces more emissions than making a gas-powered car, and even though many electric cars get their energy at least partially from non-renewable sources over their whole lifetime most electric cars still generate less than half of the emissions of gas-powered vehicles. Electricity generating plants are simply more efficient at turning combustible fuel into energy than a car engine is at turning gasoline into energy.

So, are hybrid cars in the middle ground? Well, non-plug-in hybrids with gas engines and batteries charged when the car is moving are just fuel-efficient regular cars with a more emissions-heavy production process. The impact of plug-in hybrid cars on small gas engines and batteries charged by plugging in is hugely dependent on the energy source charging them. Manufacturing emissions are higher for hybrids cars too, but in many cases, the on-the-road emissions savings is more than enough to make up for that. The biggest factor in whether a plug-in hybrid contributes more or fewer emissions than a regular car is the source of the electricity going into its battery, similar to those questions surrounding electric cars. There is a couple of other choices out there too, like hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which use hydrogen gas to power an electric motor! The technology is tricky, the infrastructure just isn’t there yet and as of right now they are super expensive. It's too early to suppose how they may pile up compared to gas and electric vehicles in a practical way. The answer to this question “which car?” could be no car at all. If you live in an area that’s highly walkable or rideable or that has convenient public transportation, it may not make sense to drive daily. But the harsh truth is we have built a world that depends on automobiles, so we need to drive toward a greener car future. Just think if everyone in the World drove electric vehicles, we could cut our total car-produced gas emissions by half, even without changing how we make our electricity! We are in a huge time of transition when it comes to how we get around in a climate-friendly way.

What is Carbon Footprint? Why Carbon Footprint Matters for Climate Change

 A carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of an organization and an individual.

Most of the carbon footprint comes from fossil fuel burning. When we burn fossil fuel it produces greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and other gases. There are many other greenhouse gases but to keep it simple and easy to compare, we count them as CO2 equivalent. We can also calculate the carbon footprint of the world, a country, an individual, a business, a product, etc. For example, when we travel with a vehicle that burns fossil fuels, it clearly produces carbon into the atmosphere. If I use an electric vehicle for traveling, then the question is: how is the electricity produced? In the China and United States, for instance, the two countries with the largest carbon footprint, about 60% of the electricity is produced from fossil fuels so there is a good chance that an electric car produces a lot of carbon footprint. That's right, most sector of our modern life relies on energy. The generation of most of that energy releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. From all of the greenhouse gases, CO2 is an important type of greenhouse gas. It is a naturally occurring molecule that is necessary for maintaining our planet's temperature and for good growing conditions. However, since the Industrial Revolution, the burning of fossil fuels - such as coal and petroleum - has produced excessive amounts of CO2 which is harmful to our planet.

How we can calculate the carbon footprint? calculating your carbon footprint is like many others, there is a website for it https://www.carbonfootprint.com › calculator. If you enter how much energy it takes to heat your home, how much traveling you do, how much electricity you use, how much money you spend on food, clothes, accessories, technology, etc. and the search engine behind it translates everything into how many tons of CO2 equivalent that is. Adding it all up at the end, you get your carbon footprint. Mine is 1.63. It is significantly lower than the average. We use fossil fuel in a different form, it releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which makes temperature rise and the earth get warmer day by day. We have emitted much of these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over the past century that the earth is getting warmer than it has been over the past 400,000 years. So, we need to reduce our gas emissions which means we need to reduce our carbon footprint either by planting trees, building a wind farm and a solar power plant. The best way to reduce my carbon footprint is to address its root causes and take immediate actions. So, we can live in a smaller home, improve the insulation of our house, use less electricity, have more your electricity produced from renewable energy resource, fly less, walk and bike to travel less by car, when you do travel, use a very efficient vehicle, maybe an electric vehicle, eat less meat, especially beef which generates a lot of carbon emissions.

Our current atmospheric CO2 level is four hundred ppm, a level that last occurred about 20 million years ago. This is the highest level ever seen during human existence. All excessive CO2 traps an awful amount of heat and will eventually turn our planet into a very hot mess. To keep the Earth system in balance, we need to reduce our emissions, but it's impossible to imagine a life without fossil fuel because it has been the main energy source for our modern lifestyle for a long time. We use fossil fuel not only to produce energy but also use it to make many other things. New technologies - such as solar, wind, and geothermal - could free us from our fossil fuel dependence, but it will take a great deal of effort to build a clean and green alternative energy system that is strong enough to meet all of our energy demands. The energy transition will be a step-by-step process, but let's not wait until then to reduce our gas emissions. So, for the betterment of our atmosphere, we need to start today, consuming less of everything, from meat and water to all those unnecessary things that we throw away so easily. Even simple things like not wasting food and avoiding extra packaging can help to go lower gas emissions. Changes will happen from today so do your best. However, even if we stop all over CO2 emissions, we won't stop the climate from warming. All the CO2 we've produced so far is like a thick blanket insulating the Earth and it will take time to dissipate. The sooner we stop burning fossil fuels, the sooner our Earth can begin to deal with all of this extra CO2. We all have to take part in reducing CO2 emissions to lessen its impact on the environment.

Best International Clothing Brands for Climate

 Clothing is more than just the outfit we put on our backs - it helps us to keep warm, makes a presentation about our personality and can be a status indication. Clothing is something we have to think about daily, but we don’t always think about how our clothes impact this environment. From growing or manufacturing textiles, to sewing and transporting outfits across the world, the clothing industry overall releases more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide each year – contributing around 5.5% of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s about as much as roughly all of Russia’s emissions or aviation industry. That’s awful - but there are many ways to be fashionable and environment friendly at the same time. The ways we make clothes and how quickly we throw them away end up having a huge impact on our environment. Take, synthetic materials, for example, Polyester – the most commonly used clothing fabric – is made by combining alcohol with petroleum by-products and acid at high temperatures. Basically, heating some fossil fuels with some more fossil fuels. In 2015, polyester produces as many greenhouse gases as 185 coal-fired power plants. But other materials also have a huge impact on the environment. Leather production means methane emissions from cows. Rayon production means cutting down trees. And, growing cotton uses a lot of water. We also burn a lot of fossil fuels transporting clothes around the world, from where they’re netted to where they’re dyed to where they’re stitched together to the person who finally wears them. Or sometimes, doesn’t wear them. In the US, 65 pounds of clothes per person get to throw in a landfill each year, and a mess of that happens before anyone buys them. So, what can be done to make fashion more eco-friendly? So, the goal is to make clothes that are fashionable and sustainable, ethical labor aspect is important, too and environmentally friendly shipping is important, too. There are so many aspects. It's not just, like, getting organic cotton, it's also giving profit the person right, saving on labor, not throwing away the rest of the stock and so on and so on. Ethical and sustainable clothing is not new. For most of human history has a wardrobe full of clothing wasn’t really a thing. Before the 18th century, textiles were woven, cut, and stitched by hand - an incredibly lazy and expensive process. Clothes were the main purchase, and people didn’t purchase that many of them. Even well into the twentieth century, long after we invented machinery that could stitch and weave fabrics, the average person was still spending between 12 and 16 percent of their yearly budget on clothing. But today we spend just 4.5 percent. So, why would we start spending much less on our clothes? In the 1960s clothing started costing lesser thanks to more advanced manufacturing technologies and synthetic fabrics. Also, around this time, expanding clothing production to countries and regions with lower labor costs became most popular. Since then, clothes have just kept getting cheaper day by day. You can buy a pair of jeans from H&M for 10 to 15 dollars only. 10 to 15 Dollars! I’ve had juice more expensive than that. And all these inexpensive clothes have led to us making and buying more and more clothes than ever before. In 2014 we made more than 100 billion new clothes which are sufficient to give every single person on the planet 15 new pieces of clothing. Today, we’re purchasing, on average 60 percent more fabrics than we did 20 years ago, but we're only wearing it for half as long. As a consumer, if you decide to buy from a fast fashion brand, an inexpensive garment, it seems like a great deal. But, two reasons 1 - It won't look good for long and 2 - The person who made it, somewhere far away overseas is not getting paid or treated well. So, you can change that by consciously determining to buy style instead of trends. And by only choosing items that go with what you already have in your wardrobe. It's the idea of a capsule wardrobe. You buy fewer items, but they're more combinable and so you get more wear out of each fabric. So, it's about to compute quality before quantity. So, what we need is more options - more brands that are in between that environmental hippy side and that mass-market super inexpensive production side. Because the demand is there. 

Let’s take the example of some brands: Ecoalf, a Spanish company that makes swimming trunks from recycled fishing webs, bags from coffee grounds and flip flops from old tires. Yes, they’re a smaller business than the Zaras and Forever 21s of the world, but they’re making their tag on the fashion industry by association with big players. And zealously, many brands have also gotten on board this sustainability train.

Knitted sneakers like the Adidas Ultraboost and Nike Flynitare lighter and use fewer materials than the average sneaker - a lighter shoe is easier and cheaper to transport, requiring fewer fossil fuels to form. And fewer materials in the production process means less waste use. Plus, the point is much of Nike’s Flyknit sneakers is made of recycled plastic rather than directly from petroleum. Of course, looking great and what’s fashionable is all relative but it doesn't have to mean cycling through dozens of materials every season. It also doesn't mean wearing a vegetable sack. 

sustainable brands

There are lots of sustainable and stylish options out there. If you purchase clothes that are sustainable or high quality, it's not necessarily more expensive. It's a question of choice and of the option you got. So far, sustainable fabrics tend to be a bit rougher, they're - not feel as good on the skin, or you just have fewer colors. It's not as resistant when you wash it. So, there is a drawback to it. So, the question is - how much good feeling you want, how much sustainability do you want? Exquisitely you are somewhere in the middle. Ideally, you want both. None of these solutions are perfect. The sustainable fabric still has some impact on the planet, and a lot of it is really expensive. But now trends are moving in the right direction. The thing is, people are more aware of what's going on in the fashion industry and they are more informed to make better buying decisions. So, the thing is, changing. It's evolving - slowly but surely. And the demand for ethical and sustainable clothing is growing and there is space for many more labels. It's really inspiring stuff! And as more and more people and brands start considering how clothes are made, the more fashionable this whole idea will become.

Simplest Ways to Prevent Indoor Air Pollution

 Some people are conscious of outdoor air pollution, which urges them to use masks when they go out in the real world. It is good that there is awareness about air pollution. Optimistically, that attention also reaches out to indoor air pollution. Pollutants are not limited to the outside where vehicle fumes and dust and other toxins abound. Pollutants are also present indoor.

Indoor air pollutants are not seen easily but can be smelled sometimes. Indoor air pollution in truth is becoming a worldwide problem. It comes from different kinds of things you have at your home like chemical products used in cleaning or beauty products like hair spray. Indoor air pollutants can also come from paints, pots, carpets, craft and art products, and even pets.

 Ban Cigarette Smoke

Experts say that one of the most common and dangerous indoor air pollutants is cigarette smoke. This is just another reason to give up smoking altogether. First of all, people already know that smoking is harmful to a person’s health and the people inhaling second-hand smoke. But after a person finishes a cigarette, the smoke continues to leave behind pollutants. There are residual tiny gas particles in cigarette smoke, and they can settle in fabrics like curtains and carpets or your couch. It is mostly the children that severely suffer from this because they are usually on the ground, playing on the carpet. Experts call this phenomenon third-hand smoke. The electronic cigarette is also a source of pollution contain heavy metal and VOC linked to a lung problem.

Switch to natural household cleanser

Disinfectants and household cleaners use harsh chemicals in order to be competent. This is why most of the cleaners have the ability to remove stains and dirt in just one wash. But that kind of facility will also cost you good air quality. Household cleaners and disinfectants are among the more common causes of indoor pollution. The fumes from ingredients in these products can irritate your mouth and nose, as well as cause problems for the lungs and heart. Some could also burn the skin.

Don’t use carpet

If it is possible for you, then don’t use carpets. These can look really good at home and will allow you to walk the house barefoot, but pollutants easily stick on to any kind of textile. However, if you have a child and it is necessary to have a carpet to minimize the traumatic effects of stumbling or falls, then you just need to make sure you clean the carpet regularly. The same goes for curtains. Also, wash your bedsheets and curtains regularly—like every week.

 Don’t walk around the home with your shoes on

Make sure you have a shoe stand at the side of your house door so anybody who comes in and can leave their shoes on it. Dirt that comes from outside should not enter your home. We have enough pollutants to battle indoors.

 Minimize air fresheners and scented candles

Air fresheners and scented candles have pollutants. Both of these have chemicals in them to make the house smell better. Air fresheners are known to have formaldehyde and phthalates, which are harmful chemicals for health. Candles are usually paraffin-based and emit toluene and benzene, which are also pollutants and igneous to health.

Conclusion

When people in the same house are getting sick at the same time, this is already an alarming situation that indoor air quality is poor. The environment is currently in a serious situation. It needs protection because we have a wonderful planet. In order to take care of it, we first have to take care of our house.

What Will Happen to Climate if We Stop Emitting Carbon Tomorrow?

 Imagine that today aliens landed and gifted us a carbon-free limitless energy source. And instead of killing each other over this technology, we immediately decided to transform the world into a carbon-free society. 

Electricity, oil refineries, coal and natural gas plants all these wondrous sources would power our homes, industries, cars and planes. So, if we cut down our carbon addiction today, what does that mean for global warming? So, if we stopped burning carbon, would the climate suddenly go back to the calmer, cooler atmosphere where humans lived before the Industrial Revolution? The short answer to this question is: Not exactly. The climate would continue to change and temperatures would remain higher for many ages. So, that’s not good. I know, we’ve been told for years that devastating greenhouse gas pollution is the key to stop climate change. But unfortunately, those solutions wouldn’t immediately stop our planet from warming up. One reason is that over the last 60 years, 80% of the extra global warming has gone into the oceans. It takes time for oceans to heat up, but once you drop adding additional heat, they’d still emit the heat that had previously accumulated. It’s kind of like how a vessel of boiling water continues to give off heat long after you’ve turned off the stove. Because water heats up slowly, it cools off slowly too. And as all this excess heat fully mixes in the deep ocean the oceans would continue to increase, rising sea levels for centuries. The other reason Earth would stay hot is that carbon dioxide molecules -- which cause more than 80% of the warming -- remain in the atmosphere for an unusually long period. If you burn 7 gallons of gas today you create about 140 pounds of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But way off in the year 3000, as much as 50 pounds of that gas will still be floating in the sky, warming up this planet. Since the industrial revolution earth has warmed by about 0.8˚C [1.4˚ Fahrenheit]. Supposed If we turned off greenhouse gas emissions today, shorter-lived greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide would be chemically broken down and dissipate first. That would cause the surroundings to cool by maybe half a degree, over about a century. But carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere way longer because it’s so chemically stable. So that would keep, the earth warmer for at least one and half thousand years. So, many of the impacts we’re experiencing now, like the melting ice, droughts, and extreme thunderstorms would probably also continue. In the end, carbon dioxide might take as long as 10000 years to finally return to pre-industrial levels. So even if we cut down all emissions today, the truth is we are confirmed some amount of climate change and warmer temperatures. But switching to a carbon-free society would still give us a lot of benefits immediately. Health is one of the most important. Over two and half billion people worldwide breathe air that is so polluted that it doesn’t meet World Health Organization guidelines. Air pollution from stoves or fossil fuels is thought to cause more than 4.5 million deaths per year, thanks to things like heart disease, lung cancer and stroke. Most of those deaths occur in developing countries, where there’s more pollution. So awkward fossil fuel burning would immediately improve the lives of millions of people. Wild places would also benefit. Some of the world’s most primeval environments contain abundant fossil fuels. Stopping emissions would mean closure of fossil fuel extraction, which means less construction in wild areas, less noise pollution, and cleaner air and water. Awkward emissions sooner rather than later mean that future generations might still face climate impacts, but they’ll probably be less severe. For example, with each degree of additional global warming, the area burned by wildfire in the western United States should be two folds. Each degree of additional global warming is also thought to reduce crop yields by as much as 15 percent. Lowering emissions means fewer fatalities in extreme weather, hardly any severe storms, and more children manage the hardship of migration to cooler places. And who knows, maybe one of those kids could grow up to establish some technologies to actually absorb the extra carbon straight out of the sky and speed up the cooling. The idea of aliens providing us a magical greener energy source is of course a fantasy. But today we’re already installing real clean energy technologies that could detach us from fossil fuels, things like solar cells and wind turbines. 

The decisions we’re making today will affect not only our future generation but their grandchildren also. Our obsession with carbon has put us and our descendants into a deep hole. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how we will move out, but the good we can do for ourselves and them is to just stop digging.

Lessons Coronavirus has Taught us about Climate Change

Originating from the live animal market in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has broken out into an international pandemic. Millions of people in China were quarantined and basically closed down its economy. Leaders restricted flights, postponed mortgage payments, and cleared streets with forced lockdowns. Trump banned all travel from different countries. Abrupt and forceful action seems to be following in the footprints of COVID-19, and as someone who comes across most of their time deal with the vision that is climate change. Today, we want to investigate this with a very simple question: what can we learn from the COVID-19 and how can we put this to climate change?  First of all, the Coronavirus (or COVID-19) is a serious international issue. At the time of writing this, the global death toll has hit thousands and will continue to rise.

In this global crisis, the news media has been intensely covering the virus with constant coverage of quarantines and death tolls. Yet in opposition, an environmental issue like air pollution, which has been predicted to cause 5-7 million premature deaths every year hardly makes headlines. So, in the preference of adding to the storm of coronavirus analysis, I want to use the global response to COVID-19 as a device to understand the best way to awaken immediate climate action, if we acknowledge the risk of climate change the way we have to the coronavirus, we would be capably on our approach to a zero-carbon future. Before we can dip into this investigation we must first learn the differences between the two crises. While climate change gradually builds-becoming a catastrophic hazard over the series of decades—Coronavirus is instantaneous and right in our face. As a consequence, climate change research and data are more easily called into doubt, making it much more difficult for international leaders to act confidently and quickly on environmental problems and issues. On the other hand, Coronavirus spreads most quickly and there’s a very clear relationship between effect and cause. We know that tiny virus travels through respiratory droplets made when a person sneezes or coughs. With this information, we are then able to understand a clear boundary between actions and consequences. We know for sure that actions washing your hands frequently and quarantines will directly restrict the spread of the virus. However, Climate change is not so simple. This is due to not only its step-by-step timeline and scale but also to the successful confusion campaigns run by fossil fuel giants like ExxonMobil. At first glance, it seems like there is no direct relationship between taking action and seeing change.Climate change certainly is taking lives today, but the link between a particular death and between our emissions is long and complex. Yes, of course, from one example climate change is making certain intense weather events more likely, raising the risk of death either directly from that intense event or indirectly through things that intense event contributes to, but compare that to this statement: Coronavirus has already killed over a thousand lives. That second statement is so much more direct and so is our reaction to it.” In short, there are not only more incentives for those with power to hinder climate action than there are to prevent the coronavirus, but we are also more structurally and psychologically equipped to deal with short-term, clear-and-present dangers like Coronavirus, and less able to deal with multi-decade risky problems like climate change. Despite these differences, and in some ways because of these contrasts, there is a lot to learn from how we’ve responded to COVID-19. One of the big take-away is that there is a very clear relationship between the economy and the emission rates. Carbon Brief asserts that China’s coronavirus lockdown temporarily decreased the country’s CO2 emissions by a quarter, which Stanford Professor Marshall Burke predicts might have possibly reduced the number of premature deaths due to air pollution, so much so that China’s overall mortality rate might have decreased in the months during the height of the coronavirus lockdown. The point here is not that pandemics are good or necessary, it’s instead that there is a large, hidden toll of fossil fuel emissions that is here and now. But to prevent the millions of future deaths caused directly through fossil fuel burning or indirectly through the results of a hotter planet, the world needs to act quickly to create rapid and drastic structural change. The often-quoted Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) report asserts that we have until 2030 to make sharp global emission cuts, which many argue is impossible. The Coronavirus definitively shows that large-scale, collective, structural change is feasible in the face of a crisis. And climate change is the biggest crisis of our future generation. As Amy Jaffe, director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Energy Security and Climate Change program, puts it, "Suppose you were a policymaker, and you were thinking about what you would do to lower emissions — you just got a good instruction." Because of the Coronavirus, countries like Italy have almost done away with travel, many previously busy streets are now free of cars and people. Workweeks are shortening for some, others are embracing the potential of remote working instead of traveling long distances, and some companies have staggered work shifts to reduce traffic. In New York City, temporary bike lanes were set up, and walking and biking were encouraged over other transportation options. Of course, the answer to climate change is not to quarantine everyone in their house, that would be a complete disaster. The response to the Coronavirus demonstrates that planned economic lockdowns are not only possible but necessary to cut emissions drastically. But this type of fast structural change shows that without robust social safety nets like a clean jobs guarantee, or a strong low-carbon low-cost public housing system, extensive free public transit, degrowth will harm millions. Climate action propositions like the Green New Deal need to incorporate this type of essential framework in their policymaking because to fight climate change very fast we need a rapid structural transition. A break from the status quo. But what’s key is that this lockdown doesn’t have to mean job loss, worry, and pain, it can instead mean opportunity, free time with family, and a more intentional quality-driven economy. In short, Coronavirus shows us that the rapid emissions reductions called for in the IPCC report are not a line dream, they can and are happening. The virus demonstrates that to collect support for this needed action we need to treat climate change like it really is a global crisis. But it also shows us one more thing: that the needed reduction in emissions through de-growth has to be coupled with strong safety nets like childcare and healthcare for all, to trick all those affected by an economy-wide transition to a fossil-fuel-free world. COVID-19 is scary and is affecting the whole world, but if we don’t act in the same way about climate change, the effects of a hotter harsh planet will be much worse. The Coronavirus response has shown us a straightforward path, we just have the courage to break from the status quo and go down it.

A Brief History about Plastic

 Today, plastics are everywhere. All of this plastic originated from one small object—that isn’t even made from plastic. For hundreds of years, billiard balls were made from ivory from elephant tusks. But when excessive hunting caused elephant populations to decrease within the 19th century, ball makers began to seem for alternatives, offering huge rewards. So in 1863, an American named Wesley Hyatt took up the challenge. Over subsequent five years, he invented a replacement material called celluloid, made up of cellulose, a compound found in wood and straw. Hyatt soon discovered celluloid couldn’t solve the ball problem the material wasn’t heavy enough and didn’t bounce quite right. But it might be tinted and patterned to mimic costlier materials like coral, tortoiseshell, amber, and mother-of-pearl. He had created what became referred to as the primary plastic. The word ‘plastic’ can describe any material made from polymers, which are just large molecules consisting of an equivalent repeating subunit. This includes all human-made plastics, also as many of the materials found in living things. But generally, when people ask about plastics, they’re of synthetic materials. The unifying feature of this synthetic material is that they begin out soft and malleable and may be molded into a specific shape. Despite taking the prize because the first official plastic, celluloid was highly flammable, which made production risky. So inventors began to search for alternatives. In 1907 a chemist combined phenol a waste of coal tar and formaldehyde, creating a hardy new polymer called bakelite. Bakelite was much less flammable than celluloid and therefore the raw materials that were used to make it were more readily available. Bakelite was only the start.

In the 1920s, researchers first commercially developed polystyrene, a spongy plastic utilized in insulation. Soon after came PVC, or vinyl, which was flexible yet hardy. Acrylics created transparent, shatter-proof panels that mimicked glass. And within the 1930s nylon took center stage a polymer designed to mimic silk but with repeatedly its strength. Starting in 1933, polyethylene became one of the foremost versatile plastics, still used today to form everything from grocery bags to shampoo bottles, to bulletproof vests. New manufacturing technologies accompanied this explosion of materials. The invention of a way called injection molding made it possible to insert melted plastics into molds of any shape, where they might rapidly harden. This created possibilities for products in new varieties and shapes— and how to inexpensively and rapidly produce plastics at scale. Scientists hoped this economical new material would make items that when had been unaffordable accessible to more people.

Instead, plastics were pushed into service in the second world war. During the war, plastic production within us quadrupled. Soldiers wore new plastic helmet liners and water-resistant vinyl raincoats. Pilots sat in cockpits made from Plexiglas, a shatterproof plastic, and relied on parachutes made from resilient nylon. Afterward, plastic manufacturing companies that had sprung up during wartime turned their attention to consumer products. Plastics began to exchange other materials like wood, glass, and fabric in furniture, clothing, shoes, televisions, and radios. Versatile plastics opened possibilities for packaging mainly designed to stay food and other products fresh for extended. 

Suddenly, there have been plastic garbage bags, stretchy wrapping, squeezable plastic bottles, takeaway cartons, and plastic containers for fruit, vegetables, and meat within a couple of decades, this multifaceted material became referred to as the “plastics century.” While the plastics century brought convenience and cost-effectiveness, it also created staggering environmental problems. Many plastics are made from nonrenewable resources. And plastic packaging was designed to be single-use, but some plastics take centuries to decompose, creating an enormous buildup of waste. This century we’ll need to concentrate our innovations on addressing those problems by reducing plastic use, developing biodegradable plastics, and finding new ways to recycle existing plastic.

The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion

 From that dress you have only worn once at a party and shoes you bought for a one-night party fast fashion maybe kind on our wallets but it’s rough and tough on the environment. An ethical fashion influencer Kelly Novell says the toxic chemicals released during the huge production of cheap clothing are polluting our environment. This fashion industry creates 1.2 billion tons of carbon emissions each year worldwide and transportation combined and it's because we need to be more conscious of what and where we are buying from. Now many sustainable brands produce clothes that lessen harm to the planet and people. These brands are eco-friendly. Another way to reduce pressure on the environment is to go to places that recycle our old clothes and send them to be sold abroad. But lots of people still throw their clothes away an estimated one and a half million tons of clothing are bought in the UK each year and nearly a quarter still goes for dumping. We also purchase clothes from charity shops so we cut down carbon emissions and help to save this planet.

The message of this article is to affection the clothes we have got in our closest and don't rush to buy something new.

Environment-Friendly Home Decoration Ideas

 All of us have affection for our homes because this is the place, we spend most of our time. From embellishment to the environment, everything matters for a quiet and fresh feel at home. There is no doubt that we all must decorate our house according to our taste to make it look lovely but what about the atmosphere? How can we make our house atmosphere environment friendly? Let’s go down and examine how can we decorate our home in such a way that impacts well on our surroundings.

 Environmental Friendly Home Decoration Ideas

Here are some eco-friendly ideas we can work on to decorate our home.

1- VOC Emission from Wall Paints

2- Bamboo Flooring

3- In Door Plants

4- Go Organic

1- VOC Emission from Wall Paints

Some of you would not be acquitted of the role of paints in our environment. Everybody wants their room walls to look beautiful with wall paints and graphics no matter what color. So, when it comes to decorating a wall with paint, we’d recommend you to go with paints with either low VOC emission or zero. Less VOC emission means a low percentage of chemical gasses in the room which is more than enough to ask for as an environment-friendly home decoration plan.

2- Bamboo Flooring

How flooring can be environment friendly with regards to your home decoration? indeed depended on natural materials like bamboo or any wooden flooring that is natural by the material. Going with the idea will not only help you in embellishment but will also be favorable for the environment. 

3- In Door Plants

Having plants in your sitting and bedroom is one of the best ideas. These green plants will affect your room’s atmosphere significantly and improve the overall filtration of air within the room. So, we’d recommend all of you to must bring indoor green plants in your room or sitting area to have a good fresh feeling of air in the room.

4- Go Organic

To wrap things up, everything you buy for your home decorations must be made from organic material. Either it's a beautification piece or anything you go with for a home stylistic layout, you would need to sure that it is made from organic natural material which means eco-friendly as well. 

Besides these 4, there are many other things you can do to decorate your home by recycling, reusing and reducing approach.

Conclusion

To wrap things up with this brilliant environment-friendly homed decoration idea, we got to know that we can decorate our home while giving back to nature.  We have to go with these natural ideas to make our homes fresh and free of any pollution. Using these natural items in our decoration ideas would help us a lot in decorating our home in an environment-friendly strategy.

What is Climate Change?

 Now everyone’s talking about climate change. But first of all, what is climate? And why is it changing so fast? Our climate is the earth’s normal weather over a very long time period. It usually takes hundreds, or thousands of years for the climate to change. But recently, our climate has been changing much faster than before. All these changes make life difficult for our fauna, flora, and for people around the globe. And the biggest cause of climate change is human activities Including you and me. When we use fuel, like oil and gasoline, or remove forests to make space for cities or farms, we release greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. These greenhouse gases cause our climate to get warmer day by day. Normally, when the heat from the sun warms our planet, some of the heat reflects back into space. But greenhouse gases act like a big sheet, trapping some extra heat in it. This extra heat can cause all sorts of problems for our planet; and the plants, animals and people who live here. Our glaciers and snow are melting faster. Our oceans are getting higher, and warmer. And our weather is becoming more extreme; with more heatwaves, harsh winters, prolonged summers, heavy rainfalls and strong hurricanes.

 

 Luckily, many countries around the world are working together to fight climate change. And there is a lot of easy steps you and I can take to help too. Like reusing, reducing and recycling things instead of throwing them out; instead of driving, ride your bike or take the bus; use less electricity; and eat homegrown vegetables and fruits if possible. You, I in fact everyone can make a difference at their level to fight climate change for our future generations.

Easy and Simple Ways to Help the Environment: At Home and at Workplace.

Helping the environment does not have to be a task. In fact, we can do several simple things throughout our daily routine at the workplace and at our home, ensuring that we are doing our best to protect our planet. Several things outline in this article we can do to live a greener routine.

AT HOME

1:Use Eco-Friendly Product

The product that we use for cleaning purposes at home has a dangerous impact on the environment and our health as well. They may aggravate respiratory problems and skin rashes. Also, release some toxins in wastewater dangerous for marine life. Switching to homemade alternatives such as those that are recycled, natural and release less toxin is the best choice like vinegar, salt and alum.

2:Composting

To make food waste more effective and environmental friendly, composting is one of the best methods we can use. Composting works by breaking down your food waste in a way that can be used to enrich the soil. Composting bins are available all over the world in different sizes and ranges, that can be kept in the kitchen for ease. These bins are designed to be kept indoors so not bad order and no decors problem existed. These bins have evolved to fit a more eco-friendly and modern lifestyle. Food that goes to the disposal area increases the waste and can also lead to heavy emissions in the environment. Composting is one of the best ways we can do to help the environment at home.

3: 3 R's in the Environment

The principle of recycling, reusing and reducing products and material is often called the 3 R's. We can apply this principle to all household items such as electronics, clothing and furniture. We can share all of these items with our friends, family, sell online, and transform fabric into new. Get creative!

AT WORKPLACE

1: Travel Greener

The daily journey to and from work can be a significant contributor to greenhouse gases worldwide. But there is a way you could make it eco-friendly or even favorable to your health by walking and cycling to your work. You may also consider group travel and switching to electric vehicles. Remote working is also an option if your company is encouraging. Explore what would be the best alternative for you and take measures even in small ways!

2: Purchase Second-Hand Items

If you are running your own organization, you may choose to purchase items, appliances, and second-hand materials. This reduces the number of materials that go to the landfill. If you don't work personally, you could encourage your boss and colleague to buy second hand where possible and switch to the items that are recycled, reused and reduced. Even implanting the 3 R's principle could be a great way to start.

3: Turn It Off

When you and your teammate are out of the room, be sure to switch off electronic appliances and anything else unnecessary. With small but productive changes and a proactive approach, you can make a big difference to the environment whether at work or at home!

These simple and easy ways help the environment at home and at the workplace.