How can we, as environmental activists, engage our community members into being more mindful of their carbon footprint?

Environment   Apr 14, 2016 by Nicole

Throughout my life, I have witnessed many people overlook their negative impact towards the environment by carelessly littering, misplacing garbage in wrong bins, and more. Similarly, people have difficulty in committing themselves to reduce their carbon footprint.

I have personally attempted to spread awareness of the environmental consequences of their actions in order to change their habits, but some still do not change. I am still looking for a way to effectively encourage others to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Nagging people to eat less meat, carpool, and other parameters is not enough to make them actually do what they're told. 

Toronto's laws against littering does not eliminate the appearance of garbage that is unfortunately common outside. The littering fine does not seem to be well enforced and is thus not taken as seriously, since I often see Torontonians litter in parks, community centres, and so on.

Picking up the trash all over the city every Earth day is counterproductive as well. The action brings many people together for a good cause, but it does not stop the source of garbage that citizens are cleaning up after. We cannot fix a problem unless we fix its source.

Perhaps stricter rules are needed to make a community more dedicated in improving the environment. I heard of a "green" school that has very strict rules against not-so-environmentally-friendly products such as the ban of plastic water bottles. Rules that protect the environment would then provide a more Earth friendly moral compass for people.

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