Ten simple steps towards a better world

1. When you go shopping, take your own fabric bags with you and so avoid plastic bags at the supermarket, at the fruit and vegetable counter too, and at the tills.
2. Only buy local and regional products, e.g. bananas from Madeira and not from Costa Rica; potatoes, vegetables and fruit from your area (max. 50 km) and seasonal: i.e. strawberries in spring, mangos in the late summer/autumn, broccoli and cabbage in winter. Only going shopping once a week reduces the amount of travel and CO2 emissions.
3. Think about what sort of diet you want: organic and ecologically produced foods are good; they protect the soil and your body from poisons like pesticides, herbicides etc.
4. Only buy fish and seafood fresh from the fish market and get exact information about where the fish comes from and how it was caught: from the seas or from aquaculture, with a trawl net or in a traditional manner. Start an aquaponics system in your flat…
5. Only buy meat from your local butcher and get exact information about where the meat comes from (in restaurants too!), and where sausage and ham come from; what the animal husbandry was like, and how the pigs, chickens etc. were fed. Avoid industrially reared animals, avoid hormones and meat containing antibiotics, because it will make you ill.
6. Avoid fast food, from supermarket freezers too, no ready-made pizzas, no fish fingers, no frozen vegetables, just fresh pizza and fresh vegetables.
7. Buy clothes in second-hand shops in your neighbourhood. In general, avoid products that have travelled long distances and contain non-natural fabrics (e.g. polyester, acrylics etc.) If these products remain on the shelves (no demand) and if they can’t be sold, they will not be re-ordered (less demand for products that are harmful to the environment).
8. Discover the origins of life. Plan to plant trees in the autumn. This begins with sowing in the late summer. Gather acorns, chestnuts, walnuts, almonds and pine nuts, collect the seeds and stones from your fruits (e.g. from fresh mangos, avocados, persimmons etc.) and put them in a flower pot. After a year, in the autumn of the following year, look for a suitable place for planting them out in nature: in your garden or next to footpaths and streams, after the first long rains.
9. Think about whether choosing to live in a town is really the right choice for you and your children. Wouldn’t life be healthier in the countryside, in a village, with nature all around. Your life could be calmer, less stressful and healthier, with no noise, exhaust fumes or planes landing and taking off. You would have your own garden and could determine the quality of your fruit and vegetables yourself. There are lots of houses standing empty in rural areas. So, what’s stopping you from discussing it with the family?
10. Filter water and avoid drinking water from plastic bottles. You will avoid rubbish and poisons for your body from the PET bottles. Only drink filtered tap water or water from glass bottles.