Earth Day is today. As is the now annual tradition on this day, I would love to hear what people can do to help the environment. What you do to help. Anything that has to do with the earth, I would love to see it here.
Simple things that I do that make a big difference. Take my own bags shopping. Recycle everything I can rather than throw it away. Compost my leftover veggies and lawn clippings. Leave A/C and heat off as long as possible by opening windows, putting on a sweater, etc. Planning my car trips to be as efficient as possible, meaning several errands in one trip with a route that is efficient. Parking at Starbucks, etc rather than going in drive through. Lots more, but there's a few.
Pretty much the same things as TotallyDistracted listed. I also try to support local restaurants and farms, try to reduce packaging on my purchases, and I try to buy from companies that are green or are environmentally conscious.
@rejectedcarebear - I have some of those tubey light bulbs. One burnt out last week and while trying to replace it, it burst open. Have you seen the instructions on how to clean it up? How it disperses mercury in the air? It was an hour ordeal to clean everything up properly (including locking up the cat).
@SusanB, those damn things scare me. You have to clean it up, put in a different bag to dispose of (which I forgot how) and air out the room. Personally I am not convinced that they save more energy. Personally for me, the risk of mercury vs health, not worth it.
@Patricia LMAO! I remember those days and yes, you do save A LOT of water doing that!
We are a family of 5, and try to do as much as we can. We were lucky, our town let everyone turn in their recycle container for a larger one for free. We were also able to do that for the 'yardwork' one as well. Only thing is they don't take glass. Trying to figure out what to do about that one.
We recycle as much as we can, reuse what we can, and finish things up. The boys are pretty close in size, so they can double use shirts and shorts and such.
Donate gently used clothing items to charities that could use them. Items that are still useable but not totally ruined but still in good condition, for an emergency type clothing, I donate to the local battered womans shelter, so women and children who have escaped could at least have jammies and something for the moment.
I try to use my own grocery bags as much as possible.
Even though things are pretty close to me, I try to plan my outings accordingly. Sadly, because we are a family of 5, I need a bigger car, and well that comes with crappy MPG.
The easiest one is, grilling, a lot. Could be a saves energy thing or a Texan thing, either way, yummy! And doesn't heat up the kitchen.
We were able to switch our electric billing to revolve around the price of natural gas, and choose a portion of our 'energy' from green sources. Helps a bit, and saves us a lot. I wish solar pannels were in our budget, can't afford them yet. Would love to go with a tankless water heater, but they really don't work well with hard water. And one day, would love to do the geothermal, but due to lack of $$ not yet.
We are sliding back into a drought in my area, and even though it is ugly looking, we don't water our lawns when we hit 'drought' stage. Like I said, ugly looking, but the grass in TX normally goes goes dormant in the summer. it stays green because people water it.
Is it as much as we could be doing? Prolly not, but it is a start, and we try to add to what we can do.
ooh also we try to buy locally, and take advantage of the Farmers Market to support local farmers.
We don't own a car. My husband walks to work, my son walks to school. The only problem is my daughter: she has to take a cab or public transit to the university. Sometimes she has to walk, but it's a long haul. We own a summer home for vacations, and we can take a bus there.
We don't flush pee.
Fluorescent lights everywhere. I don't see well, so I love them, anyway.
I actually work for a gov't agency where we help with financing of pollution control. Does that count? I try to recycle as much as possible, plan my trips in the car, shop in thrift stores and then re-donate, Since I have my own bathroom if I'm just tinkling I don't always flush and it's one of those water saver things. My shower head is also a water saver which has been VERY hard to get used to because I have thick hair.
We recycle everything. Car trips are planned for shortest route and so you end up heading home, not the other way. We plant a garden of hummingbird and bee friendly flowers as well as two huge trees that the bees simply cover. I admit we have a pool, this is Vegas, but it is solar heated. We keep our heating and cooling settings on the lean side, sweaters in winter and a portable little fan in summer. We also grill, I don't like turning on the oven in summer. We don't have any grass, and we have a quarter acre, all desert landscape. When we dug all the irrigation ditches for the backyard I sifted every shovelful of dirt and saved all the rocks that didn't fall through the mesh and used them in the landscaping. Our car has great MPG, and I try to combine any errand I might have with my husbands so we travel together. We donate anything that we think someone else can use, this includes cleaning products and old towels to the animal shelter. If you have unwanted plants in your yard Habitat For Humanity will gladly take them.
Vegan, recycle, all natural everything (EVERYTHING: tp, laundry detergent, bath/body/housecleaning - no chemicals in my apt), LED lights, no A/C, no car. All used clothing and furniture.
I recycle diligently, and belong to Freecycle. I used to compost when I lived in FL; I need to start a compost bin here. My trash went from two full bags a week to one small one from composting/recycling.
We use canvas bags for shopping, walk if possible, every lightbulb is energy saver eco bulb, turned down the brightness on the TV by 10% - you don't notice the difference but it saves a lot of energy, nearly everything is recycled - our local council here in Scotland is very good actually and everything is recycled, including garden waste being composted then the householders can go pick up a couple of bags of compost for free and the food waste gets sent to a biofuel power plant and powers the civic buildings.
We try to repurpose as much as we can, we use Freecycle and never throw anything out that could be given to a charity shop.
I think it's all BS. We live in the country and are green without even meaning to be, since we're on well water and have no trash service.
We are good stewards of our land, but in no way shape or form do I believe in global warming. They were sure in the 70s we were going to freeze in the coming Ice Age or else starve to death by 1990, so pardon me if I take everything what passes for "science" these days tells us.
Behold the coming apocalypse as predicted on and around Earth Day, 1970:
"Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." — Harvard biologist George Wald
"We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation." — Washington University biologist Barry Commoner
"Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction." — New York Times editorial
"Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years." — Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich
"Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born… [By 1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s." — Paul Ehrlich
"It is already too late to avoid mass starvation," — Denis Hayes, Chief organizer for Earth Day
"Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions…. By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine." — North Texas State University professor Peter Gunter
"In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution… by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half." — Life magazine
"At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable." — Ecologist Kenneth Watt
I was pictured in my hometown newspaper on the very first earth day in 1970. My Mom told me I pitched a fit, because I did not want my picture taken, but it turned out ok. I still have the picture, and I was wearing an lacoste dress and ked tennis shoes. Those were the days!
I'm vegan and I use public transit which I think are super easy ways to make a fairly decent sized impact but...I'm also unable to have children (I doubt I would if I could anyway) and I think that's my greatest contribution to the planet.
solar panels on the roof, wood burning stove attached to the central heating, recycling, buying second hand furniture, wearing clothes until they are worn out instead of a new wardrobe every season, separating the trash.
Does helping the inhabitants of the earth count? If so I'm trying to get this off the ground and if anyone agrees with and likes the idea, please spread it around.
When we lose someone we love, we want them to live on somehow. These same people are usually given gifts at certain times of the year (holidays, birthdays, etc.).
My idea is that those days you would buy those departed people a gift, make a donation in their name to their favorite charity. That way they still live on in name and they are helping others even after death.
I came up with this this past February when my mother's birthday came up. (And thank you again for all the prayers and words of support when she passed away December. You guys helped make it a much easier time for me and my father.) I decided to send a donation to her favorite charity, St. Jude's in her name and thought "what if everyone did something like this".
Sorry this was so long and not directly "Earth Day" type things, but like I said, if you'd like to spread this idea, I'd really like to see it become something. I guess it's another way my Mom can help out the world and be her legacy in a way.
Thanks- Chris (finally revealing a bit more about me lol)
We do the same things on Earth Day that we do everyday, because they're the right thing to do. We recycle as much as we possibly can. We carpool. We turn off the (energy-saving) lights. We use rainwater in the garden. Lots of little things.
Your diet affects the environment! Go veg or vegan -- I forgot the source but I read for about 1 pound of beef, almost 16 pounds of plants (usually corn) are used. Cut out the middle and that is 16 lbs of food that is available. It would help world hunger as well, but that's a different topic.
Reducing meat consumption means you are not supporting the (disgusting) farming that pollutes, uses water, etc. Trust me, I live in an area with plenty of chicken farms. It's gross, smells horrible, and breaks my heart when I see a poultry truck. A few moments of searching brings up a ton of information on all of it. Plus, plants are better for your body anyways.
We also use less water, less paper products, recycle, compost our plant waste, don't use heat/ac, etc. I usually forego shampoo as well.
I compost, use it to grow organic food from seeds, eat the food, compost the scraps, save the seeds, and repeat :) If you've never done this, you can start with something simple like basil (all year long). Kids love to watch the seeds turn into real food.
We do most everything everyone else mentioned plus, we volunteer with several environmental/service organizations. We've spent the last several weekends doing prairie restoration and very soon will turn to the first of several river/waterway cleanup projects. My kiddo, a friend and I helped put together a zoo exhibit about ways kids can help the earth last summer.
Shamefully, even though it is not the environmentally sensitive thing to do, I must admit that I am a paper towel whore. I use Way too many paper towels...they are just so damn handy.
Simple things that I do that make a big difference. Take my own bags shopping. Recycle everything I can rather than throw it away. Compost my leftover veggies and lawn clippings. Leave A/C and heat off as long as possible by opening windows, putting on a sweater, etc. Planning my car trips to be as efficient as possible, meaning several errands in one trip with a route that is efficient. Parking at Starbucks, etc rather than going in drive through. Lots more, but there's a few.
ReplyDeleteI grit my teeth and recycle. Mostly.
ReplyDeleteI reuse ziploc bags that I keep coffee beans and dog bones in (both in the freezer).
I let my kids boss me around about how to "save the environment."
When I get home I won't flush everytime I pee. I'm 7months knocked up, so that's saving a lot of water.
ReplyDeleteTotallyDistracted nailed it. Little common sense things that add up.
ReplyDeleteDo what digned does. Also have reusable water bottle.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I share one car and I'm working on bringing my own shopping bags. We have very energy efficient air conditioner and appliances.
ReplyDeletePretty much the same things as TotallyDistracted listed. I also try to support local restaurants and farms, try to reduce packaging on my purchases, and I try to buy from companies that are green or are environmentally conscious.
ReplyDeleteWe recycle everything our local center takes. Its a small town so we have to take it and sort it every week, but my son enjoys it.
ReplyDeleteI recycle and use those weird tubey light bulbs. I unplug stuff when I'm not using them (tv, chargers etc)
ReplyDelete@rejectedcarebear - I have some of those tubey light bulbs. One burnt out last week and while trying to replace it, it burst open. Have you seen the instructions on how to clean it up? How it disperses mercury in the air? It was an hour ordeal to clean everything up properly (including locking up the cat).
ReplyDeleteUm I not to litter
ReplyDeleteTake showers instead of baths.
ReplyDelete3-minute shower with water saving showerhead = 7.5 gallons water.
Full bathtub = 36 gallons water.
@SusanB, those damn things scare me. You have to clean it up, put in a different bag to dispose of (which I forgot how) and air out the room. Personally I am not convinced that they save more energy. Personally for me, the risk of mercury vs health, not worth it.
ReplyDelete@Patricia LMAO! I remember those days and yes, you do save A LOT of water doing that!
We are a family of 5, and try to do as much as we can.
We were lucky, our town let everyone turn in their recycle container for a larger one for free. We were also able to do that for the 'yardwork' one as well. Only thing is they don't take glass. Trying to figure out what to do about that one.
We recycle as much as we can, reuse what we can, and finish things up. The boys are pretty close in size, so they can double use shirts and shorts and such.
Donate gently used clothing items to charities that could use them. Items that are still useable but not totally ruined but still in good condition, for an emergency type clothing, I donate to the local battered womans shelter, so women and children who have escaped could at least have jammies and something for the moment.
I try to use my own grocery bags as much as possible.
Even though things are pretty close to me, I try to plan my outings accordingly. Sadly, because we are a family of 5, I need a bigger car, and well that comes with crappy MPG.
The easiest one is, grilling, a lot. Could be a saves energy thing or a Texan thing, either way, yummy! And doesn't heat up the kitchen.
We were able to switch our electric billing to revolve around the price of natural gas, and choose a portion of our 'energy' from green sources. Helps a bit, and saves us a lot. I wish solar pannels were in our budget, can't afford them yet. Would love to go with a tankless water heater, but they really don't work well with hard water. And one day, would love to do the geothermal, but due to lack of $$ not yet.
We are sliding back into a drought in my area, and even though it is ugly looking, we don't water our lawns when we hit 'drought' stage. Like I said, ugly looking, but the grass in TX normally goes goes dormant in the summer. it stays green because people water it.
Is it as much as we could be doing? Prolly not, but it is a start, and we try to add to what we can do.
ooh also we try to buy locally, and take advantage of the Farmers Market to support local farmers.
Ooh I totally forgot the easiest one.. Buy recycled paper products! paper towels, printer paper ect.. sadly will not go the toidy paper route :( LOL
ReplyDeleteWe don't own a car. My husband walks to work, my son walks to school. The only problem is my daughter: she has to take a cab or public transit to the university. Sometimes she has to walk, but it's a long haul. We own a summer home for vacations, and we can take a bus there.
ReplyDeleteWe don't flush pee.
Fluorescent lights everywhere. I don't see well, so I love them, anyway.
I actually work for a gov't agency where we help with financing of pollution control. Does that count? I try to recycle as much as possible, plan my trips in the car, shop in thrift stores and then re-donate, Since I have my own bathroom if I'm just tinkling I don't always flush and it's one of those water saver things. My shower head is also a water saver which has been VERY hard to get used to because I have thick hair.
ReplyDeleteNewLife, the govt. agency part doesn't count because it's paid for with my tax dollars A govt agency that helps finance pollution control...geez.
DeleteHonestly, I think if we all do a little bit, it all adds up =)
ReplyDeleteWe recycle everything. Car trips are planned for shortest route and so you end up heading home, not the other way.
ReplyDeleteWe plant a garden of hummingbird and bee friendly flowers as well as two huge trees that the bees simply cover. I admit we have a pool, this is Vegas, but it is solar heated. We keep our heating and cooling settings on the lean side, sweaters in winter and a portable little fan in summer.
We also grill, I don't like turning on the oven in summer.
We don't have any grass, and we have a quarter acre, all desert landscape. When we dug all the irrigation ditches for the backyard I sifted every shovelful of dirt and saved all the rocks that didn't fall through the mesh and used them in the landscaping.
Our car has great MPG, and I try to combine any errand I might have with my husbands so we travel together.
We donate anything that we think someone else can use, this includes cleaning products and old towels to the animal shelter.
If you have unwanted plants in your yard Habitat For Humanity will gladly take them.
Vegan, recycle, all natural everything (EVERYTHING: tp, laundry detergent, bath/body/housecleaning - no chemicals in my apt), LED lights, no A/C, no car. All used clothing and furniture.
ReplyDeleteI'm a total pain in the ass.
I recycle diligently, and belong to Freecycle. I used to compost when I lived in FL; I need to start a compost bin here. My trash went from two full bags a week to one small one from composting/recycling.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's true but I read an "exposé" online about Wholefoods by a disgruntled employee (so take it for what it's worth) who claimed that WF stores take those recycle collection bags in the front of the store and promptly chuck them in the trash when they are full! Again, don't know if it's true but employees also claimed that a lot of their deli food was prepared off-site by Sysco!
We use canvas bags for shopping,
ReplyDeletewalk if possible, every lightbulb is energy saver eco bulb, turned down the brightness on the TV by 10% - you don't notice the difference but it saves a lot of energy, nearly everything is recycled - our local council here in Scotland is very good actually and everything is recycled, including garden waste being composted then the householders can go pick up a couple of bags of compost for free and the food waste gets sent to a biofuel power plant and powers the civic buildings.
We try to repurpose as much as we can, we use Freecycle and never throw anything out that could be given to a charity shop.
I think it's all BS. We live in the country and are green without even meaning to be, since we're on well water and have no trash service.
ReplyDeleteWe are good stewards of our land, but in no way shape or form do I believe in global warming. They were sure in the 70s we were going to freeze in the coming Ice Age or else starve to death by 1990, so pardon me if I take everything what passes for "science" these days tells us.
Behold the coming apocalypse as predicted on and around Earth Day, 1970:
"Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." — Harvard biologist George Wald
"We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation." — Washington University biologist Barry Commoner
"Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction." — New York Times editorial
"Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years." — Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich
"Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born… [By 1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s." — Paul Ehrlich
"It is already too late to avoid mass starvation," — Denis Hayes, Chief organizer for Earth Day
"Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions…. By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine." — North Texas State University professor Peter Gunter
"In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution… by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half." — Life magazine
"At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable." — Ecologist Kenneth Watt
I was pictured in my hometown newspaper on the very first earth day in 1970. My Mom told me I pitched a fit, because I did not want my picture taken, but it turned out ok. I still have the picture, and I was wearing an lacoste dress and ked tennis shoes. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteI'm vegan and I use public transit which I think are super easy ways to make a fairly decent sized impact but...I'm also unable to have children (I doubt I would if I could anyway) and I think that's my greatest contribution to the planet.
ReplyDeletesolar panels on the roof, wood burning stove attached to the central heating, recycling, buying second hand furniture, wearing clothes until they are worn out instead of a new wardrobe every season, separating the trash.
ReplyDeleteDoes helping the inhabitants of the earth count? If so I'm trying to get this off the ground and if anyone agrees with and likes the idea, please spread it around.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lose someone we love, we want them to live on somehow. These same people are usually given gifts at certain times of the year (holidays, birthdays, etc.).
My idea is that those days you would buy those departed people a gift, make a donation in their name to their favorite charity. That way they still live on in name and they are helping others even after death.
I came up with this this past February when my mother's birthday came up. (And thank you again for all the prayers and words of support when she passed away December. You guys helped make it a much easier time for me and my father.) I decided to send a donation to her favorite charity, St. Jude's in her name and thought "what if everyone did something like this".
Sorry this was so long and not directly "Earth Day" type things, but like I said, if you'd like to spread this idea, I'd really like to see it become something. I guess it's another way my Mom can help out the world and be her legacy in a way.
Thanks- Chris (finally revealing a bit more about me lol)
We do the same things on Earth Day that we do everyday, because they're the right thing to do. We recycle as much as we possibly can. We carpool. We turn off the (energy-saving) lights. We use rainwater in the garden. Lots of little things.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see 2 vegans on here!!
ReplyDeleteYour diet affects the environment! Go veg or vegan -- I forgot the source but I read for about 1 pound of beef, almost 16 pounds of plants (usually corn) are used. Cut out the middle and that is 16 lbs of food that is available. It would help world hunger as well, but that's a different topic.
Reducing meat consumption means you are not supporting the (disgusting) farming that pollutes, uses water, etc. Trust me, I live in an area with plenty of chicken farms. It's gross, smells horrible, and breaks my heart when I see a poultry truck. A few moments of searching brings up a ton of information on all of it. Plus, plants are better for your body anyways.
We also use less water, less paper products, recycle, compost our plant waste, don't use heat/ac, etc. I usually forego shampoo as well.
I compost, use it to grow organic food from seeds, eat the food, compost the scraps, save the seeds, and repeat :) If you've never done this, you can start with something simple like basil (all year long). Kids love to watch the seeds turn into real food.
ReplyDeleteWe do most everything everyone else mentioned plus, we volunteer with several environmental/service organizations. We've spent the last several weekends doing prairie restoration and very soon will turn to the first of several river/waterway cleanup projects. My kiddo, a friend and I helped put together a zoo exhibit about ways kids can help the earth last summer.
ReplyDeleteShamefully, even though it is not the environmentally sensitive thing to do, I must admit that I am a paper towel whore. I use Way too many paper towels...they are just so damn handy.
I didn't know this was earth day. I can save a tank full of water by going outside to pee. Will that help?
ReplyDeleteWhat Lady Bird said: don't litter.
ReplyDelete