Earth Hero app offers actions to reduce plastic in our everyday lives
Earth Day 2024, which was commemorated yesterday, focused on reducing plastic waste and the Earth Hero app can help.
Plastic harms human health and the ecosystems we rely on for survival. The free Earth Hero app helps people transition away from plastics in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a habitable Earth.
Earth Day 2024’s theme, Planet vs. Plastic, focuses our attention on the world’s reliance on this ubiquitous, fossil-fuel-based material that harms human health and the environment.
Plastic is toxic and can take up to 1000 years to break down, yet production is expected to double by 2040. Recent studies reveal microplastics in human organs, and most alarmingly in human placentas and breast milk, meaning that mothers are passing microplastics to their babies before birth.
“New evidence from a pilot study suggests babies, perhaps more than any other demographic group, might be more susceptible to ingesting microplastics. Researchers discovered that median levels of some microplastics were over 10 times higher in baby feces than in that of adults.”
On top of harming human health, plastics, particularly microplastics, pose several aenvironmental risks.
The chemicals in plastic build up in ecosystems, damaging and polluting soil and groundwater. Fish, seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals ingest plastics, which can lead to starvation, suffocation, drowning, and increased susceptibility to disease.
To reduce the serious health risks of plastics and protect the planet, we must work together to curtail plastic production and switch to safer materials.
Earth Hero, a free climate action app, offers a collection of actions people can take today to reduce plastic pollution at work, at home, or in leisure time.
Earth Hero is a non-profit organisation, founded by Ben Gerhald and climate scientists Dr Peter Kalmus and Dr Annette Olson, with the goal of mobilising one billion climate activists across the globe to ensure that earth remains safe and habitable.
Peter Kalmus, Nasa climatologist and Earth Hero co-founder, said, “Earth Hero makes it easier for new activists to engage, for experienced activists to organise, and for everyone to create as much change as they possibly can. As a climate scientist, I’m terrified of where civilization is heading, but with a billion climate activists we can end this climate nightmare.”
Built by a global, volunteer community of concerned scientists, developers, communicators and designers, the free Earth Hero app helps people take immediate action on the climate emergency.
With hundreds of actions to choose from, all based on science and data, users discover how they can protect the planet one step at a time and take political action to demand policies in line with a habitable earth. As users complete an action, they see their emissions decrease in the app. This feedback helps people understand that their actions matter and are impactful. — Earth Hero.