Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do…
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Cree Indian Proverb
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... First Earth Day Poster
NASA’s Earth Day Video Contest
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... via NASA - Islands of Four Mountains
Happy Earth Day all! The last several weeks have been incredibly hectic on my end. We’ve spent time traveling with our college bound twins to make final visits to various accepted student dates and on each visit, looking around college campuses and the surrounding areas, I was reminded of the beauty of the American landscape and, by extension, of our earth. Today, coming back from a visit to the Northwest, I looked around at the airport and marveled at the array of stores and stuff and the enormous amounts of energy expended at airports. So with this in mind, I approached my earth day post from a practical perspective. Below are ten things we can do to conserve energy, support our environment and cut down on waste. The accompanying photos from NASA showcase the magnificence of the earth. Come back for the photos! 🙂
AT HOME
♥Make note of the day your family decides to rethink energy use. Fix leaky faucets, buy less, recycle, run dishwasher when full, buy low volume toilets and shower heads. Create a goal and reward for the family by using a portion of money saved for an outing or treat.
♥Plan your food menu before leaving for the supermarket. This is huge as a shopping list can curtail our temptation to overspend on food that gets wasted.
♥Make a family fun evening exercise of searching for draughty areas in the home and sealing any exposed gaps or holes.
♥Create a plan of buying or making crafty switch-off stickers for the light switches, plugs and phone chargers in your home and have the family go from room to room placing them.
♥A very important energy saver is carpooling during the school year. Team up with other parents; your children’s friends parents and organize outings in turn. We do a version of this at home.
“Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values…. God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.” Charles A. Lindbergh
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... via NASA - Nile River Delta at night
Earth Day 2011: TenThings to Do... via NASA Florida Peninsula horizons
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... via NASA - Lake Naivasha, Kenya
Lyrics for the Earth Day Anthem (Wikipedia)
Joyful joyful we adore our Earth in all its wonderment
Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love through out all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love through out all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Again,Turn off lights, Recycle, Conserve water & energy, Minimize use of bottled water, Public transport or drive fuel efficient cars, Start a compost heap with household leftovers, Grow some of your own foods, Go green… What habits have you decided to change for Earth Day? More Below.
“To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.” William Blake
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... via NASA - Sandy Cays; tidal flatlands & channels in Long Island and Bahamas
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... via NASA - Image of the desert
Earth Day 2011: Ten Things To Do... via NASA - The water planet
AT WORK/SCHOOL
♥Start up a green library so students and staff can lend each other their read books. The recycled reads can then be donated to charity for the benefit of others.
♥Replace the vending machine with a water fountain and have shared potluck sandwich lunches where each team member brings in a different salad ingredient for a varied wholesome lunch for all
♥If feasible create a compost container for extra food remains and develop/support a local garden. Each of us produces about two tonnes of wasted food emissions.
♥Encourage energy savings and printer awareness with email messages and signs like ‘Do you really need to print this?’ Then have staff compete to change the energy culture at work and give out awards to efficient teams.
♥Talk to your organization about conservation and change; talk at the school assembly, office meeting, even your congregation, to find ways to cut down on the carbon footprint of the community.
What are your thoughts? What are you doing for Earth Day? Do share. Thank You! 🙂
What are your suggestions on reducing waste and conserving energy? Do share
Positive Motivation Tip: Be a change maker by managing your carbon footprint, supporting the environment and contributing to Earth Day efforts.
Related Articles
- Earth Day (flatchat.wordpress.com)
- Earth Day Freebies: The Best Free Earth Day 2011 Promotions (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Did You Know? It’s Earth Day! (ellen.warnerbros.com)
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: Photo of First Earth Day Poster, via Wikipedia. Florida Peninsula, Island of four mountains, Lake Naivasha, Kenya, Sandy Cays, Nile River Delta, Image of desert, The water planet, via NASA
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
Trackbacks
- 7 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day « Spirit Lights The Way
- Earth Day 2012: Five Ways To Make Every Day Earth Day… | Mirth and Motivation
- Reflections: Honoring Earth Day 2013 | Mirth and Motivation
- Motivation Mondays: Earth Hour #Connect2Earth | Mirth and Motivation
- Motivation Mondays: Protect Our Earth | Mirth and Motivation
Love the opening proverb and the Earth Day poster.
We have wonderful public transport and school buses, so while some parents do drive their children to school, many, many catch public transport (in large herds, unfortunately for us working types who also catch public transport).
I was stunned the first time I went to the USA at the volume of the toilets! What a waste of water! Plus the dual-flush systems didn’t seem to be in either – they are a mandatory part of the bulding code here. Mind you, we had to, due to severe drought conditions. Staying with my girlfriend in Kansas, it was water EVERYWHERE!
Yes thre is much we can do!
some political movements are making cynical jokes about
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Cree Indian Proverb
I so have to put my thinking cap on! When I visited Scotland I found they were much better at conservation than we in Canada..toilets et al….Thank you for this lovely tribute to all things earth!
Chris
Eliz, I have to run to work: i just got hired full time Security Yesterday. I will post tonight. Love ya, Great post as usual. You light up my brain and thinking skills. ♥ Jackie
Love the Cree proverb. I think I’ll post that over my door at school. I sent away for an Earth Day Poster for the lunchroom that had pictures of how to recycle by kids bringing in paper bags instead of plastic; reusable bags; paper lunch trays, etc. It completely gets ignored! I have lunch duty and try to scramble around dispersing food that other kids intend to throw away. It’s sickening. Like Jackie says, “You light up [our] brains” and thank you for that!
I think we would do well to repost this at least once a month…such great points…and most of them are really easy to implement. Some, like water fountain instead of soda or juice vending machines, will encounter a lot of opposition from the American business sector…which makes so many of the decisions and has so much influcence because, especially in this country, $ is the bottom line and many of the lines in-between. 🙁
Absolutely LOVE the photos and the quotes…thank you Eliz…honestly, if I could only read one blog, this would be it. 🙂 Thank you for all of the work you put into it for us.
We are always aspiring to be ‘greener’. I really think awareness is the key. As Maya Angelou says, “When you know better you do better.” amen.
Thanks!
Another way to save energy is to eat more meatless meals ~ growing fruits, veggies, and grain to eat directly is much easier on the planet than growing grain to feed cattle, pigs, and chicken.
Thanks, Eliz.
Those are all such great ideas! Many of us do take for granted the beauty of what’s around us.. and we won’t realize it till its too late…
Wonderful suggestions! I especially liked the idea of making conservation efforts into fun family activities! Great to teach the younger generations to be aware!
Your first “At home” list is something we do all the time. And we walk to school, even in the rain. Our little family was even featured on a website promoting walking to school with our full raingear on. 🙂 Great ideas, and I loved the pictures!
Beautiful post, Eliz. We started doing our grocery shopping online and having it delivered. It’s amazing how much waste we cut out and I can’t say I miss the trolley rage that seems to go on in the supermarket either. Thanks for the fantastic ideas on other things we can do to contribute 🙂
One of the things I was stunned about in the USA particularly, compared with here, was the use of paper products. I also remember reading about an American family in a “greening” article who were starting (I fell over at that point, sorry guys) to use crockery and cutlery!! Paper plates, paper towels, disposable this, disposable that. The only time most Australians would use disposable plates would be at a BBQ. Even then I avoid it if possible.
Also use more eco-friendly cleaning products. We have an Earth Choice brand which I use for many things. We really do not need all these harsh chemicals – we are killing off our immune systems half the time, not to mention changing the environment.
When buying replacement household electrical items, buy the most energy efficient you can afford. My washing machine is also water efficient (although I do force it onto “Full” when I wash linen – bad me).
During the worst of our water restrictions we were supposed to have 4 minute showers. It can be done! Save the shower water in a bucket to use in the garden. We have kits you can get to redirect your washing machine and other grey water to the garden too.
http://www.water.vic.gov.au/saving
Sorry – 😆 – I got on a roll there ………
There is so much we can do-to help our planet – earth. I really like the quote: “Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values…. God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.” Charles A. Lindbergh
I agree with Penny – I really like the Charles Lindbergh quote. This was a great post and the NASA pictures were stunning!
I believe I am ready to put in a small garden on the side yard of our new (to us) house plus set up our little homemade compost heap…I’d like to grow tomatoes, lettuce (when cooler), radishes, and herbs.
yes thanks !!! i like this 🙂