Make Good Choices to Protect Our Earth Every Day!

Every day, you make choices that affect the world around you. When you think about how your choices help or hurt the Earth, you are practising sustainability. Sustainability means taking care of the Earth so it stays healthy for future children.

You can start learning about Making Choices and how small decisions add up to make a big difference for our planet.

Sustainability means meeting your needs today without harming the ability of future generations to meet their needs. When you make sustainable choices, you help keep Canada's air, water, forests, and land clean and healthy.

Think about it this way: if everyone uses up resources too fast, there will not be enough left for children who come after you. Making good choices now protects the Earth for tomorrow.

You can help protect the environment by practising the three R's every single day. These three actions help you create less waste and save natural resources.

• Reduce means using less stuff so that less garbage is created. For example, using both sides of a piece of paper reduces waste.
• Reuse means using something again instead of throwing it away. You could turn an old glass jar into a pencil holder!
• Recycle means turning old materials into new products. Placing a cardboard box in the blue recycling bin is a great example.

Reducing is the most powerful of the three R's because it stops waste from being created in the first place.

Canada has many natural resources, and it is important to know the difference between two types. A renewable resource is something that is naturally replaced and will not run out, like sunlight or wind. A non-renewable resource cannot be replaced once it is used up, like coal, oil, and natural gas.

Choosing renewable energy sources like sunlight helps Canada be more sustainable. Using non-renewable resources carefully is also very important because once they are gone, they are gone forever.

You can make sustainable choices at home, at school, and in your community. Here are some great examples:

• Turn off lights when you leave a room to save energy.
• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth to conserve water.
• Ride your bicycle or walk instead of riding in a car to reduce air pollution.
• Pack your lunch in reusable containers to reduce plastic waste.
• Compost food scraps like apple peels so they turn into rich soil for gardens.

You can also learn more about Caring for Our World to discover even more ways to protect nature every day.

Composting is when food scraps like vegetable peels and bread break down naturally and become rich soil that helps plants grow. Many Canadian cities have green bins to collect food scraps for composting. This keeps waste out of landfills and puts nutrients back into the earth.

Conserving water means using less water so that Canada's lakes and rivers stay healthy. Even though Canada has many lakes, clean drinking water takes a lot of energy to prepare safely, so saving water is always a good choice.

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples have practised sustainability for thousands of years. They showed respect for the land by only taking what their community truly needed from nature. The Métis people of the Prairies used every part of the bison so nothing was wasted.

This traditional knowledge teaches you that living in balance with nature keeps the land, water, animals, and plants healthy for future generations. Their sustainable practices are an important part of Canadian history and culture.

Sustainability is a shared responsibility. When many people in a community each make small positive choices, the combined effect is enormous. You can explore Community Problem Solving to learn how working together creates the biggest positive change for the environment.

When you share what you learn about sustainability with your family and friends, you inspire others to make better choices too. Even you can be a powerful advocate for the Earth!

Sustainability: Taking care of the Earth so it stays healthy for future children. It means making choices today that do not harm the planet for people who come after you.

Reduce: Using less stuff so that less garbage is created each day. For example, using both sides of paper reduces how much paper you need.

Reuse: Using something again instead of throwing it out. For example, washing and refilling a water bottle instead of buying a new one.

Recycle: Turning old materials into new products to reduce waste. Placing cardboard in the blue recycling bin is recycling.

Energy: The power that runs your lights, machines, and electronics at home and at school. Saving energy by turning off lights helps protect the environment.

Composting: A natural process where food scraps like fruit peels and vegetable cuttings break down and become rich soil that helps plants grow.

Renewable resource: A resource that is naturally replenished and will never run out, like sunlight that shines every day on the Canadian prairies.

Non-renewable resource: A resource that cannot be replaced once it has been used up, like coal, oil, and natural gas that take millions of years to form.

Carbon footprint: The amount of greenhouse gases that a person's daily activities release into the air, such as driving a car or using electricity from fossil fuels.

Conserving water: Using less water so that Canada's lakes and rivers stay healthy and clean for people, animals, and plants.

Carpooling: Sharing a car ride with others, which lowers the amount of pollution released into the air.

Your learning journey about making good choices connects to many important topics. Here is how they all fit together:

Before exploring this topic, you built your foundation with Making Choices and Finding Solutions. These topics helped you understand how to think through problems and pick the best option, which is exactly what you do when you make sustainable choices.

This topic connects closely to Caring for Our World and Protecting Our World, where you discover specific ways to keep nature safe and healthy. You will also explore Sharing Earth's Resources and Using Earth's Resources to understand how people depend on the Earth's gifts and why sharing them wisely matters.

When you study Human Effects on Nature, you will see how people's choices good and bad change the natural world. And with Community Problem Solving, you will learn how working together as a group makes the biggest difference for the environment. You can also explore Making Decisions to practise choosing wisely in many different situations.

After mastering this topic, you will be ready to explore Decision Making, Environmental Protection, Making Change, and Sustainable Development. These topics build on what you learn here and show you how to take even bigger steps to protect the planet.

You can practise sustainability every day with simple actions. Try starting a compost bin at home, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store, or planting a small garden to grow your own vegetables.

At school, you can turn off classroom lights on sunny days, print on both sides of paper, and share what you know about the three R's with your classmates. Every good choice you make adds up to a big positive difference for Canada's environment.

You already explored Making Choices and Finding Solutions, which gave you the tools to think carefully before acting. Now you can use those skills to make choices that protect the Earth.

As you move forward, you will use everything you learn here to tackle bigger topics like Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection, where you will discover how communities and countries work together to keep our planet healthy for everyone.