4 Ways Modern Lifestyle is Affecting the Environment

As humanity continues to advance into the future, our lifestyle also has been taking major steps to modernize itself. You don’t even need to go back too much in time to see how much our lifestyle has changed – just take the example of 15 years ago. There wasn’t anything called a “smartphone” back then, there were much fewer buildings and greenery surrounding everything.

All of it has changed – the only jungle that we see daily is the concrete man-made jungle, people have become obsessed with their smartphones to the point where they can’t imagine their life without them, and the diversity and animal life that was present years ago have disappeared into extinction or into some corner of the earth where life is still green. We might not realize it at first but if we take one look around us we will see how our modern lifestyle is affecting the environment severely. This has affected our planet to such a level that experts say the harm we have done cannot be undone at least for another century.

According to alternativi.fr, humanity needs to rely more on environment-friendly products and lifestyles rather than the industrial and urban life that we have been living for the past years. There are several ways modern lifestyle affects our planet’s environment. In this article, we’ll tell what exactly these ways are, how they affect our environment and how we can resolve them.

1. The modern lifestyle wastes considerable electricity

We might not realize it initially but the increasing number of carbon emissions that we see in news and documentaries are actually the cause of our lavish and modern lifestyle. In our daily life, we all waste electricity, directly or indirectly. Even if the electricity we waste is negligible in number, if we consider that there are billions of households like us who waste the same amount of electricity, the number suddenly becomes a lot more impactful and drastic.

All this wastage of electricity means the wastage of energy that was created by burning up fossil fuels, which indirectly means that the more we waste electricity, the more we waste our environment’s resources. A modern lifestyle in a city especially consumes and wastes a lot more electricity than a normal rural lifestyle. Most modern households have AC’s, too many lights that families forget to turn off, and power-hungry appliances that are constantly switched on. While we aren’t suggesting throwing them all away, we do recommend every millennial household to limit their power consumption to save valuable resources for future generations.

2. Reliance on non-renewable sources of energy rather than renewable sources

The power to supply our modern lifestyle comes from non-renewable sources of energy which are limited in number and will run out one day. Also, using non-renewable sources of energy such as fossil fuels increases the amount of air pollution, water pollution, and even soil pollution. Air pollution leads subsequently to a higher number of carbon emissions which then leads to the depletion of our ozone layer and causes global warming.

Global warming is currently the number one threat because it’s melting the polar ice caps causing the sea level to rise. Experts predict if global warming isn’t stopped, most major coastal cities like Mumbai, New York, Rio de Janeiro, etc. will be underwater by the end of this century. To stop that, it’s important to utilize the energy provided by the planet which is hydro, wind, and solar energy wherever possible.

We can contribute to the cause of renewable sources of energy by switching to electric cars that don’t use petrol or diesel for fuel, using solar energy panels on our roofs, and cutting down on electricity wherever we can. If everyone does these simple steps, in the coming days, the planet would be in a much better place than it is now.

3. Over-usage of animal products

Modern lifestyle is accompanied by modern fashion. Many people have no problem with using scarves made out of fur, using ivory products, and displaying animal trophies with pride. All of them are well aware of the fact that these products come from brutally skinning animals, killing rare wildlife like elephants and rhinos for their horns and teeth, and illegally hunting animals – their justification is they are just buying the products and not doing the killing themselves.

The thing is, buying the products of illegal poachers is exactly what motivates them to kill more animals for more profits and thus, buying the products that came from killing an animal is essentially the same as killing the animal yourself. Poachers have hunted rhinos for their ivory to such an extent that an entire species was almost driven to extinction because of it. To save the wildlife of our planet we must curb the sales of such products wherever we see them and not let them be incorporated into our modern lifestyle. Only then we’ll able to live co-existing with the wildlife of our planet.

4. Rampant deforestation to accommodate man’s luxury

We have come to a point of living where the luxury in our lives has become directly proportional to deforestation. The more luxurious we try to be, the more trees get chopped without consideration. The prime examples of this are mass-producing furniture factories. These factories cut trees and jungles rampantly so they can accommodate the ever-growing supply of furniture. As trees are chopped inconsiderably, their numbers also decrease which has caused the prices of wood products to hike.

Naturally, as most modern furniture manufacturers are opting for cheaper material alternatives such as plastic or fiber, solid wood has become a sign of luxury. That’s why many people gladly buy solid wood furniture as a way to show off their wealth from manufacturers who only care about profits and not the environment. Deforestation is also done by the housing sector to clear land for building the houses of wealthy individuals and also by the coal sector to produce charcoal for heating.

At this rate, there won’t be enough trees to satiate the oxygen supply of the planet. It’s our job to ensure this doesn’t happen by buying furniture from reputable and environment-friendly brands and planting trees in our yards and our neighborhood wherever we can.

Conclusion

There are many ways that the modern lifestyle affects the environment and it’s our job to ensure that we curb the damage as much as we can. We hope this article helped you out and if it did, please consider following our website for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.