Water

     Hey. This week's theme/challenge concerns water and water pollution. This is a significant topic because water is used in our everyday lives and is essential to our survival. After all, life did begin in the water itself. 

     Our top priority as a species is potable water. Did you know that only 2.5-2.75% of all water is fresh and 1.75-2% of that water is frozen within glaciers? Our life creating water is being harmed and abused by our species and we need to do something about this serious issue.

      Water pollution is not only throwing trash in the ocean but much more. Oil spills on surface waters are a huge danger as they harm us humans, animal species (marine life and land animals), and the environment. Another cause of water pollution is fossil fuels. As an example, the exploitation of tar sands can be so harmful. There is a lot of waste that is dumped into clean water surfaces. They may also interfere with sources such as underground aquifer systems that supply a lot of our drinking water. This interference is mostly occurring because tar sands or petroleum can be found underground as well. 
      Farming can be as harmful to our waters as well. Many farmers use pesticides, chemicals and fertilisers on their crops that later on get washed by the rain finally leading, to streams, rivers lakes and other water compounds. Although this may seem unlogical at first, air pollution can lead to water pollution as well. Acid rain is one of the consequences of air pollution. Chemicals in the sky interfere with the water cycle and contaminate the rain, eventually polluting whole ecosystems and water sources.Toxic waste such as chemical and radioactive waste is often dumped into lakes, rivers and ocean contaminating them and creatures living by. Finally, plastics and garbage being thrown into oceans is a harmful type of water pollution as well. This trash kills so many innocent creatures daily, and wildlife.

     How can you help?
1. Educate yourself and others concerning this topic,
2.Supporting the idea of laws and boundaries to companies and industries that pollute waters.
3.Supporting the idea of fining such industries in cases of water pollution. 
4.Not creating as much trash, by looking into alternatives (ex: no more plastic bottles and bags)
5.Using less water generally to conserve as much as possible (shorter showers...)
6.Contacting authorities and taking a stand.
7. Signing petitions protecting these water sources and marine life.
8.Not supporting industries that pollute waters by not purchasing their products or services.

Thank you so much for caring and keep making the world a better place<3
Love Stella<3

Climate Change...Catching Up

Hi. I want to apologise for not posting in the last couple of days.I had the idea of catching up on last weeks challenge concerning climate change. I decided I would post a speech I wrote for English class concerning climate change. I feel like it really captures the whole topic. Please do not use this or take it. It is written by me: Stella Eleftheriotis

You have probably fantasised about your future several times. Maybe you have thought about your first day of college, your career, the type of family you would like to have, and much more.  I am assuming that harsh and dangerous weather patterns such as flooding and extreme heat waves were never a part of your master plan. Today I will be talking to you about climate change. You may be thinking: Why should I care? Well, you should because climate change will affect our whole planet and all its creatures including every single one of us.

     Firstly, what is climate change? Technically it is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time, but what is causing climate change in this case? This is when I introduce the greenhouse effect, sunlight is reflected off of the Earth or is absorbed by it, but what happens when there is a barrier not allowing that sunlight and heat to escape back to space? The answer is climate change. And the barriers are the greenhouse gases such as water vapor, methane and the most popular carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases are produced by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas for the purpose of creating electricity. Of course, there are other ways of producing electricity, but humans would rather put the whole planet on the line to make some money. Sadly, this all boils down to the selfishness, greed and lack of empathy humans possess.

     The one thing that is worse than the reason why climate change is occurring are its consequences. Climate change is responsible for harsh conditions such as flooding, harmful weather patterns, the endangerment and extinction of animal species and far more. As Ice caps continuously melt at a rate of 13.3% per decade, sea levels rise, causing flooding, the destruction of ecosystems and loss of habitat for many creatures. Our planet will be entirely consumed by these waters in less than 20 years if we continue at this same rate. There are also many harmful consequences when exploiting the main cause of climate change. The exploitation and use of fossil fuels not only pollutes the air, but is also the main causes of water, soil and sound pollution. Our planet is in serious danger and if we do not solve this problem, our lives will be at stake as well.

     We have been aware of the issue of climate change and our being responsible for it for decades, and not enough is being done concerning the support of change and difference. For these reasons we need to act now. Many of us hold scientists accountable for solving these issues, and may believe that one little non-ecofriendly action won’t hurt that much, but if we all think this way, an accumulation of actions occur. Many small actions build up to one big one. This concept is not the issue, but it is how it is being used that is the issue. What if we used this in a positive manner? If everyone were to start performing small eco-friendly actions in there day to day lives, once again an accumulation would occur and this would result in one large positive difference. But what are these positive actions? There is a range of things one can do to reduce the effects of climate change and lower their carbon footprint. Of course, the ultimate solution would be to switch to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind powered energies, but that cannot be directly changed from home. By supporting the idea of a carbon tax (which is a fine for emitters of greenhouse gases), and contacting authorities such as the government you can make a huge difference. You can become a vegetarian or vegan, or take more eco-friendly transportation methods such as biking. Even by generally consuming less and only buying what you need you can make a bigger difference than you think.

     In the end, we have to look at the theme of environment VS economy. Which is more important? We only have one home that we know of, the beautiful planet Earth. Is our whole planet and existence really worth the money? Will money give us the oxygen we breathe, the crops we grow and all the elements essential to our survival as a species and as living creatures among many more? Money has no value compared to these necessities. It is literally dead trees, or is also known as paper. This is why we must act now, before we lose everything that is of true value for ourselves and generations to come.

By Stella Eleftheriotis

I hope you liked this. Thank you for caring and keep making the world a better place.

Solutions! 🌱

Hey everyone, it's Julia! Today I'll be talking about climate change. Wow! I know, an environmental blog talking about climate change, what a shocker! Well, it's a very important topic and a lot of old posts have to do with the subject, so what I'm going to be doing is listing the top posts that help prevent climate change the most. I'll post the link to each individual post so that you don't have to go scrolling forever. 

1. Adopting a different diet: http://1actaday.blogspot.ca/2017/01/eco-friendly-diet.html?m=1

2. Consuming less: http://1actaday.blogspot.ca/2017/03/less-is-more.html?m=1

3. Eco friendly traveling: http://1actaday.blogspot.ca/2017/01/eco-friendly-travelling.html?m=1

4. Using less electricity: 

http://1actaday.blogspot.ca/2016/11/electricity-use.html?m=1

5. Buying/making things with less packaging (2 different links)

http://1actaday.blogspot.ca/2017/03/do-it-yourself.html?m=1

http://1actaday.blogspot.ca/2017/03/use-less-packaging.html?m=1

6. Sign petitions: If you feel powerless in decisions the government takes that have an impact on environment, signing petitions can help. This is a link to a website that has a lot of different petitions concerning the environment and ones that have to do with other political issues. 

I hope you have a great week and tune in for Friday's post 😘❤️

Climate Change

     Hey everyone! Stella here. This week's challenge involves the concept/issue of climate change. Climate change is a very serious issue that must be acted on immediately. This is why it is the theme chosen for this week's challenge.

     Firstly, what is climate change? Climate change is the consequence of the greenhouse effect. Sunlight reaches our Earth nd bounces off it or gets absorbed by it. When a barrier such as greenhouse gases (Co2, Methane, Water Vapor), are released into the atmosphere, the heat produced by the sunlight is trapped and results in temperature change. 

     It is our fault as humans that these harmful gases are released into the air. Fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil are burned to produce electricity even though there are long-lasting and renewable sources available. This is al done because of money. It is so sad to see so much greed and selfishness that can be associated with one species...us humans. 

     We must all think of the long term consequences climate change would cause. Is it really worth the money? This brings us to the whole idea od Environment VS Economy. Which is more important? Will money provide clean air, water, and soil? Is it really the biggest priority. I happen to think that our one and only home is, therefore, we must act now. 

     Don't know how to make a difference? Julia will be posting solutions and ways you can make a difference tomorrow. Make sure to stay updated!!

     Thank you for caring and keep making the world a better place!!

     Love Stella<3

     

Pesticides 💀

     Hey.Today's post will consist of pesticides💀and their harmful effects on honeybees🐝.
     
     So, as you know, pesticides are super harmful to bees🐝, but why? Well, firstly they pretty much consist of toxic chemicals🌀 that are harmful to their health and the crops🌱 they are sprayed on. When pesticides are sprayed on plants/ crops they can get everywhere including the pollen✨, nectar and reproductive systems of plants which are all targets to honeybees. 

     Once the honeybees actually attain plants🌸 that have been contaminated with these harmful chemicals, they can not only hurt themselves, but the entire colony🐝. Usually, pesticides will individually affect the honeybee that gets into contact with ghe contaminated plant 🌱by messing with it's tracking, circulatory🤔 and memory systems making them forget their way back home🏡 to the hive, but in many cases, symptoms can be spread throughout the bees😕. When one bee returns to the hive carrying harmful chemicals🌫, all the other bees get impacted ad well as the queen👑. If you didn't know, honey🍯 is produced through the regurgitation of pollen over and over again as the honeybees take turns. Imagine how easily chemicals and pesticides🌀 can spread from that kind of contact and transmission! 

     Many studies have shown that a specific type of pesticide🌀is the main cause of colony collapses💀 They are called: Neonicotinoids. Sadly, this type of pesticide is used too often and can justify the occuring endangerement of the honeybee🐝. This is another readon why buying healthy, organic🌱 and local foods is the way to go. That way you are eating healthier 🍽and saving the bees. I mean is pesticides are harmful to honeybees, what makes them safe for humans😷? 

Thank you for caring and keep making the world a better place😘

Love Stella❤️

Bee fun facts!

Hi everyone, it's Julia again! So today I'll just be letting you in on some fun facts about bees 🐝: 

1. Bees have been around for 100 million years. Ancient Egypt was the first place where people started beekeeping. 

2.  There are three types of bees in a hive: the Queen 👸🏼, Worker and Drone. 

3. A colony contains on average 50,000 bees!! 

4. One colony pollinates 4,000m2 of fruit trees 🌳 and makes an average of 14kg of honey 🍯!!

5. Bees pollinate 80% of the United States' crops. 

6. Honey had many health benefits: it has antiseptic, antioxidant, and cleansing properties.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you decide to partake in some of this week's challenges! ❤️😘

What would happen if honeybees went extinct?

     Hey. Stella here!! So, I wanted to write a post concerning the consequences and effects that a honeybee extinction would cause. As you most likely know ( I mean I hope you do ), honeybees are in huge trouble. This is mostly because of...once again...drum roll, please.............US HUMANS!!. Yup, humans are at fault once again.

    Firstly, there are many pesticides that can alter a bees state of mind, making it confused and unable to return to the hive, eventually dying. Also...of course, climate change and finally loss of habitat.
     Now I would like to give you some information about the consequences of all this like I mentioned earlier.

     What would happen if honeybees went extinct? 

1. 70% of the crop species that 90% of people in the world consume would no longer be available.

     What this means is that we would most likely not die because of a honeybee extinction except we would have a very boring, non-nutritious variety of food.

2. A variety of plants will begin to die out.

     This is bad, not only for the plants that are dying ( this is really sad because our planet is beautiful and diverse), but also because it would mess up the whole food chain. What happens to the animals that eat those plants? and the animals that eat those animals? A great example is almonds. Almonds would pretty much not exist if honeybees were to go extinct. Almonds are used in many feeds for animals such as cows and chickens. Eventually, this would cause fewer cattle and less dairy, eggs and meat for the human population (although I believe we should all be at least vegetarians).

3. Around 200 billion dollars created due to farming and the bees would go out the window.

     Although I am not a huge fan of the whole idea of money and its value and the economy being the number one priority, this is an issue as well. I believe that changing our beliefs and values for money is something that can change slowly day by day, but if the bees go extinct, drastic changes would occur. Industries would not have time o adapt and change their systems and in the end that would affect people the most. We would have fewer jobs, less food and less money to support our families.

4. No more cotton

     Why is this bad? Cotton is used for 35% of all fibre use, therefore, without cotton, we would have less good quality clothing and fabrics meaning a decrease in our quality of life once again.

     That is all I wanted to say! I hope this has inspired you to care and take action concerning the honeybees' endangerment. For ideas on how to help, consult the previous post written by Julia.

    Thank you for caring and keep making the world a better place!

     Love Stella

Sources: bbc.com, AsapSCIENCE

Bees🐝

Hello everyone, it's Julia. Today's post will be all about bees 🐝! If you haven't heard yet, bees have recently made it on the endangered species list. This is really awful because they are the ones that pollinate all of the Earth's plants 🌱. If bees were to go extinct, the agriculture industry would crash which would mean we'd also die because we'd have no food! So how do we prevent this from happening? Well, I'll be giving 4 different ways to help raging from easy and inexpensive to a little harder and costly! 

1. Let your weeds grow! During spring time, many people spend hours in their front lawn pulling weeds, such as dandelions. Well, bees actually really enjoy feeding on these plants, so you can just relax inside and enjoy watching buzzing bees 🐝 go from dandelion to dandelion. 

2. Buy organic! Pesticides are useful for killing insects that feed on our crops, but they also hurt bees who are really there to help. Buying (certified) organic will mean that those harmful pesticides were not used. 

3. Plant bee friendly flowers 🌸! Unlike tip #1, this will need you to spend some time in the garden. Flowers such as thistles, sweet clovers, black eyed susans and sunflowers 🌻 are also great to plant for the bees 🐝 because they like to feed on them. 

4. Become an Urban Beekeeper! Urban beekeeping has become a new hobby that Stella and my school has actually started. It's basically adopting a hive and collecting its honey 🍯. We are both dying to get our own but it is a little expensive. If you're interested and live around Montreal, then here's a website that provides more info and sells the supplies. https://www.alveole.buzz/en/ 

5. This is an easy bonus challenge! Share this post to spread awareness 😝

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you've all been having a nice spring break! 

Love ❤️ 

Julia 

Do It Yourself

Hello! It's Julia and for today I'll be talking about zero waste toiletries. 

When buying products such as shampoo, body wash and conditioner, they will often come in plastic bottles that we throw out after use which becomes very wasteful. Also a lot of body washes, hand soaps and toothpastes that are supposed to exfoliate the skin actually contain something called micro beads. These are tiny pieces of plastic that goes down the drain and ends up finding it's way to the ocean and pollute it 🌊. Products containing micro beads are now ban in the United States 🇺🇸, but in Canada 🇨🇦 it distribution will only be stopped by mid 2018😭😭 . So for now, just please try to avoid them. 

So these are some ways to reduce toiletry waste: 

1. Buy or make bar soap: this is perfect because it will have less packaging. If you make it, that will also mean that the soap will be more natural! Here's a recipe if you're interested: 

https://thethingswellmake.com/recipe/making-a-basic-beginner-soap-and-then-making-it-fun/#_a5y_p=5865261

2. Buy or make shampoo/conditioner bars: like the bar soap, shampoo/conditioner bars have zero packaging. I've used 2 from Lush before and they were really amazing! They outlast three bottles of shampoo/conditioner , so you'd also be saving money because they only cost about 9-12$. I also have a recipe for making them that Stella and I are dying to make. Here it is: 

Shampoo

http://www.humblebeeandme.com/shea-butter-citrus-shampoo-bar/

Conditioner 

https://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/ingredients/how-to-make-your-own-diy-conditioner-bar/

3. Buy in bulk: some bulk stores now sell body wash, shampoo and conditioner. Basically you would  just fill up a jar and reuse when done! 

Thx so much for reading!!! Once Stella and I get the chance to make some of the recipes, we'll definitely post pictures here and on our Instagram ( @_1actaday_). If you end making them we'd love ❤️ to know, comment or post a pic and tag us on Insta! 

Love, 

Julia 😘😘

Use Less Packaging

     Hey! Stella here. I hope you are having a beautiful day❤️. So as I mentioned in yesterday's post, Julia and I will give you some inspiration and tips throughout the week concerning the idea of using less. 
What I will write about is a way of using and wasting less packaging when purchasing and eating food🍞.
     I am aware that this was the theme/idea for the challenge a few weeks a go, but a reminder and some new tips will not hurt. You probably eat food 🍽if you are anything like any human on our planet, and that food probably comes with so much unecessary packaging which is bad for you and the environment🌎. By purchasing less packaged foods, you are reducing your carbon footprint🌀, eating healthier, capreating less waste and of course using less! 

     Here are some ways to use less packaging when purchasing foods:

Buy in bulk:
     This may seem quite obvious, but not many people actually do this enough. Try finding a local store near you where you can buy various foods🍚, nuts and dry fruits🍍 without any waste. This way you are choosing healthier😊 options and are most probably supporting less polluting companies.

Have a Checklist: 
     When grocery shopping, having a checklist 🗒of what you need to buy is always a good idea. Firslty you are being more organised which is always a bonus, and you are avoiding over consumption. Also, by having a grocery list, you can focus on buying organic🌱, healthy and less wasteful/packaged foods. 

Bring a Reusable Bag🛍:
     Using reusable bags for any situation or cause is the way to go. Firsly, plastic bags are made of plastic which is basically petrolium☠, and if you didn't know, the extraction of this ressource is very harmful for the planet🌎. Secondly, after using a plastic bag, it most probably gets trown away into the trash🗑 and ends up polluting our soil and waters while harming many animal species. Finally, it's way more convenient and can be mire beneficial since it lasts long and will probably last almost forever.

Avoid Plastic Bottles💦:
     I' e talked about this a million times...let's make it a million and one! Plastic bottles are costly💸, are made of petrolium, contain harmful chemicals🌫 that affect our health, and pollute out earth ans oceans🌊Purchase a reusable bottle. Trust me it's worth it.

That is all I have to remind you of when it comes to using less when buying food🍞

A few other tips: 
Try using less electricity💡 ( turn off the lights when you exit a room, unplug apliances that aren't being used...)
Be mindful when using your things ( try not to waste any materials, avoid throwing things away and explore alternatives such as recycling♻️ or reusing)

Also Julia will be writing a post about using less of your toiletries🛢 and making your own istead of buying overpriced ones that come with way too much packaging. 

Thank you for caring and keep making the world a better place❤️

Less is More

     Hey everyone! Stella here. So I will be filling in on the post Julia did yesterday just to elaborate a bit more and clear things up. So basically, the challenge for every day if this week is to use less of everything. What I mean by this is to be more conscience when making your decisions every day. 
     The thing is, us humans use more than we need. We over-consume. This is a serious issue especially since it is the number one cause of climate change🌊. And yes, I know you may be thinking that fossil fuels are the main cause...which is right, but think of it...why do we need so much electricity 💡in the first place? To produce all the products that are advertised, sold and bought by us humans. We need to change our way of thinking. I am aware that this is difficult because we are practically born into our world being told that we NEED this and that we NEED that, when really, all we need is food🍞, water 💧and a roof 🏡over our heads. This is why this week we are focusing on using less. 
   There are many benefits to using less actually. Firstly and most importantly, you are making an enormous difference concerning the environment 🌱and your carbon footprint 🌀, secondly you are saving money 💸, thirdly you are valuing your belongings much more, fourthly you are not participating in the support of child labor 👧🏻as much as before (this will be explained throughout the week), fifthly you are getting rid of uneeded clutter and making your life less stressful....I can go on forever, but I believe you got the idea. There are so many more reasons to use and buy less than the opposite. I mean will that seventh sweater 👚really make your life better? I don't think so. So think more critically and carefully. 
     Throughout the week Julia ans I will be inspiring you to take action (hopefully), and will be giving you tips and ideas to make this a bit more fun and interesting while also giving a lot of information concerning many topics. Some being: the food, clothing, and toiletries we purchase. 
     Anyway, that is all I wanted to say, and I hope you have a beautiful day❤️

Thank you for caring and keep making the world a better place 🌎