PLANT A FOREST

ECOGREEN CHRISTMAS IDEAS FOR GIFTS

Do you really want to save the planet and the lives of your children and grandchildren?
Then buy gifts that don't destroy nature.
Make the right choice.

Here are 10 supportive and sustainable gift ideas:

Books printed on recycled paper, notebooks and diaries made from recycled paper.

Gift voucher from an NGO or a non-profit organization.

Gift certificate from WWF, Greenpeace or SeaShepherd.

Give a tree.

Fair trade products.

Cosmetics not tested on animals
Sustainable and natural clothing.

Today more than ever it is important to choose consciously because our choices as consumers are the only possible tool to be able to really change things. Unfortunately we tend to forget it (me first of all) and let ourselves be carried away by compulsive buying, but we must learn more and more to ask ourselves questions when we buy goods or services, because only in this way can we hope to leave those who will come after us with a better world.

Almost all of us, however, these days find ourselves asking for a few more sacrifices from our wallets for gifts, decorations, lunches and dinners with family and friends.
It is undeniable. On the other hand, we all think it is very important to make our loved ones happy and spend time with them, so we don’t want to give it up, but at the same time we shouldn’t be willing to give up even limiting waste, especially in a period of emergency and economic difficulty. like what we are experiencing.
Therefore, in the search for a compromise, unfortunately it is often the environment that pays the price, which becomes the aspect of our expendable Christmas. That’s why we decided to give you some tips to save a few euros without giving up the magic of Christmas and without having a negative impact on our planet!

Zero waste Christmas decorations.
For the decorations, we choose decorations in glass, wood, fabric, paper, cork, or colored sales paste, perhaps to be made with the children (no plastic). 
Another solution is dried fruit, marzipan or chains of popcorn which, after Christmas, we can put on the terrace to refresh the cold and hungry birds. 
The only fundamental ingredient is your imagination, let your imagination run wild! With recycled paper, recycled objects or simple twigs you can create wonderful Christmas decorations. From tree ornaments to centerpieces to wreaths.
You can use:

– balls made with beads recycled from old clothing,
– pine cones collected in the woods with cones of silver paper inside to make them sparkle,
– bows cut out of fabrics no longer used
– glass angels to hang on the door or on the Christmas tree instead of the usual plastic ones
– papier-mâché rosettes at the entrance
– solar-powered outdoor lights and bulbs

THE AGE OF TRASH

The Brazilian TV series 3% is a wonderful science fiction transposition of the logic of the Wasteocene. In the not too distant future, Brazilian society appears divided between a poor and devastated “hinterland” and a utopian and almost heavenly island, called the “off-shore” in the series. Technology is the main dividing factor between the two worlds: while the offshore is full of all kinds of futuristic gadgets, the hinterland has the appearance of a giant favela, where people survive on leftovers. 3% represents the contrast between clean and modern on the one hand and dirty and obsolete on the other. If the guiding principle of offshore is science, DIY seems to be the most important knowledge inland: being able to reuse / reinvent what has been discarded is a crucial skill for those forced to live in a landfill. social and material. So far, the series is not too different from other post-apocalyptic tales; perhaps it is only more explicit in its representation of socio-ecological relationships based on waste. 3% becomes more unique and interesting when explaining the procedures that select those who can move to the island. Using science fiction to describe the neoliberal creed of competition and meritocracy, the authors imagine that every year all citizens who turn 20 can participate in a complex and manipulative series of tests, “the Process”, through which some will be selected. and moved offshore. From the perspective of the Wasteocene, the Process is a key device, because it creatively illustrates, albeit quite realistic, the internalization of wasting relationships that reproduce waste people and places. In this sci-fi dystopia, there is even a sort of religious cult of the Process, which makes all individuals in the hinterland completely “governed” and obedient to the logic of injustice that separates those who deserve more from those who are discarded. At the beginning of the third season, Michele, one of the leaders of the rebellion against the system, openly declares that for the rich who live offshore the rest of the population is simply waste. Violent repression is a key tool in 3% as it is in the Wasteocene: people do not easily accept being treated as waste and forced to live in socio-ecological landfills. Nonetheless, epistemic and cultural repression is also an important tool to keep the system running. In this sense, the idea of ​​the Process is extremely powerful, because it involves all the arsenal of neoliberal lies about deserving “a better life” thanks to one’s skills and hard work. As Bauman (2008, p. 158) argued, this discourse of merit assumes that those living in the global socio-ecological dump are victims not of injustice but of their own inability to build a better life. The Wasteocene is not so much about the rubble of the hinterland, to follow 3%, but rather the extent to which the rubble is the by-product of unjust socio-ecological relations but normalized by an almost religious celebration. At some point in the series, it becomes clear that the devastation of the hinterland is the direct consequence of the prosperity of the offshore. After all, every paradise needs a hell so much that its own is created.

TRASHED

This film was released in 2012 when Greta Thumberg wasn't there yet and when many laughed when it came to the environment and pollution. Jeremy Irons toured the five continents to show what was happening but apparently the film didn't stir any conscience as we worsened the environmental situation instead of improving it. I hope that we can all understand that we have little time and that soon we will no longer have air, water or even food. And it won't happen in the distant future but tomorrow.

https://youtu.be/5z2s_klZkFg