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Minimalism and the Environment


Minimalism's Environmental Impact

Minimalism and the Environment

Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of Matt D'Avella on YouTube. He is a freelancer who produces high quality documentary-style videos about productivity, filmmaking, and most importantly, minimalism. Minimalism is a practice that promotes living more simply and only buying what brings joy to one's life. Most minimalists own less than the average member of western society. Learn more about minimalism by watching Matt’s videos or by watching the Minimalism documentary

Consumerism has a large effect on the environment because of a need for factories to pump greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Minimalism stresses passing on impulse purchases and paying for essentials and what offers happiness. If minimalists have less, it translates to less demand for goods, and therefore, fewer nonessential goods produced in factories. Less stuff is a simple way to lower one’s carbon footprint.

In Minimalism - A Documentary About the Important Things, most of the people who practiced minimalism had small wardrobes. It even mentioned Project 333, a method of wearing less by only having 33 items in your wardrobe for three months, hence 333. Americans are infamous for buying too much clothing, and a minimalist approach to clothing could help lessen the problem. 

An extreme aspect to minimalism is owning a tiny home. Afterall, what is the point of a giant place? Living in a smaller place means less energy to power it and fewer materials to build it. In comparison, large homes require lots of resources to construct and even more to power. It is safe to say that a smaller house has a smaller environmental impact.

Minimalism seems like an obvious practice: only buy what will make you happy. This lifestyle can lessen humanity’s impact on the Earth by consuming less. Deciding what is important in your life versus what you don’t need is a crucial step to solving the Climate Crisis. As minimalists like to say, “Less is more.”


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