365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge

Climate change impacts your daily life, your health, and the environment you live in. Whether you realize and are willing to see it or not. As it’s one of the biggest current planetary threats, many people are feeling grief, loss, and frustration about our situation, leading to depression or anxiety. These negative emotions are caused by learning about the consequences of climate change. When these are presented negatively, it triggers negative eco-emotions like: eco-depression (feeling miserable) eco-anger (feeling frustrated) eco-anxiety (feeling anxious) Eco-anger is the emotion that most likely inspires us to actions toward a healthier planet. In my article, I explain this in more detail for you to learn more: https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/974f07cb-5cd2-46c8-832d-c7c583309d64?utm_source=url-copy&utm_medium=wdht-web-app-share&utm_campaign=erlijng Negative eco-emotions are becoming more frequent due to climate change (credit:  chanintorn.v  on  Shutterstock )

Did you know seaweed can be a sustainable solution? In this article, I explain 5 surprising ways how seaweed can be put to good use: https://medium.com/the-environment/how-seaweed-can-be-put-to-good-use-a13dac4716fa?sk=6424c74a47bc3d2eaad298dd602621cb Seaweed can be put to good use in many ways, even cosmetics (credit:  HstrongART  on  Shutterstock )

Excessive amounts of chemicals and nutrients in the environment due to human activity and naturally occurring parasites affect the health of fish. Importantly, while both pollutants and parasites affect fish, pollutants can also directly or indirectly influence the number of parasites that in turn harm fish! This is an additional reason to reduce the number of pollutants in the environment. In this article, I explain how pollutants can increase or decrease the number of parasites and explain what we can do to reduce pollution: https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/548b5589-c6af-4ce3-aa3f-2e6247f17b63?utm_source=url-copy&utm_medium=wdht-web-app-share&utm_campaign=erlijng A fish parasite ( Lamprea ; credit:  Gena Melendrez  on  Shutterstock )

I'm excited to have been invited to the Shaffordshire Libraries' Book Chat event! The event is part of the Green Libraries Month, so we will be talking about my book "A Guide to a Healthier Planet". The event is fully booked, so in case there is a recording, I'll let you know! And good news: you can have a peek inside and learn more about the book straight away at https://www.sustainabledecisions.eu/guide-to-a-healthier-planet

Burning fossil fuels contributes a lot to recent changes in our climate. That is why finding alternatives is critical. There are many options; one of them is using coconut waste. Here I explain how this works: https://www.erlijn.nl/link/scicomm.php?l=0ee5cd7756 Coconut waste can be used to replace fossil fuels (credit:  KPad  on  Shutterstock )

Lets use knowledge and skills for the good! Everyone of us has a huge set of knowledge and skills, gathered over many years of life experience. This also means that each of us can decide whether we use these knowledge and skills for the good or not. Just like we decide to use knowledge about friends to invite them to an activity they will enjoy. I'm using lots of knowledge and skills for the good, for example by: - using my scientific background and writing and language skills to make science understandable for all of us - using my knowledge about cyber-security and educational skills to train people without a job to become an expert in this field too - using my knowledge about how to care well for our planet and personal development skills to inspire others to live more environmentally too - using my knowledge about proper communication and digital skills to deeply connect with people from all over the world - using my knowledge about environmental sustainability and IT and my pre

🌿 Let's focus on a greener future! 🌍 Setting positive goals is key to a healthier planet. Instead of thinking about what we don't want, let's envision where we want to go and how a more sustainable future looks like. Just like a driver focuses on staying on the road and where he/she wants to go rather than on avoiding obstacles at the off the road. I'm doing this for example by: - helping scientists in the field of #nature and #sustainability to share their results with us in a way we all understand - going litter-picking every week to keep the neighborhood clean - traveling by train and bike instead of car and plane - eating very little meat Just to name a few. Let's put our energy toward these goals and watch our actions drive positive change! PS: The image is generated by AI and shows my mental image of me steering toward a healthier planet.  

Important: The key element of your happiness is the quality of your relationships. So, even when advertisements makes you feel that you that you need XYZ to become happier, think about it: Do you really need it? Here are ideas how you can improve the relationships with people around you to increase your happiness: 1. giving sincere compliments to brighten someone’s day (a sincere compliment is when you are truly impressed, not meant to flatter, preferably about personality traits or accomplishments) 2. expressing your appreciation in a way they understand (this can be words of affirmation, spending time together, giving a gift, doing something for this person, touching them if the type of relationship is appropriate to do so) 3. listening (engaging with the other, without judging and using both verbal and nonverbal cues to show that you understand what they are saying) 4. showing genuine interest in the other person (for example by asking open-ended questions, listening more than you t

When thinking about climate change and its consequences, many first think of rising sea levels and higher temperatures. While these can indeed be consequences, there is a much more wide range of consequences. For example, it affects our bodies in many ways as well. In this article, I explain how climate change affects our skin, eyes, and mouth and what we can do against it: https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/41c79956-9f37-400b-9f56-b25ce5dc04a2?utm_source=url-copy&utm_medium=wdht-web-app-share&utm_campaign=erlijng Climate change impacts different body parts, including skin, eyes, and mouth (credit:  Kitthanes  on  Shutterstock )