Today is Earth Day. If you do not know what that means, it is a day set aside for people to do things in honor of our earth. Honor it by not doing the things that cause it to become polluted or harmed in any way. It is not just about not littering or burning garbage outside. It is a lot more than that. And it is not something that should be done just for one day, but for the rest of your life. It should be Earth Day every day!
Composted Dirt
What type of activities can you do that will save our planet? It may not seem like one person will make a difference. But it will! When my husband would mention doing things differently to his mother, she would always say, "Just follow along with everyone else. One person can't make a difference." She was so wrong! One person CAN make a difference. One person DID! Gaylord Nelson, the senator for WI and founder of Earth Day, made a big difference. He started the fight for saving our earth back in 1969 by fighting for environmental legislation. If that one person hadn't started doing that, how far along do you think we'd be by now?
If you start doing a few things that would make a difference, your children will learn to do it also. Then maybe you would influence your friends and other family members. Your children may influence their friends. It becomes a learned behavior that is passed on from one person to another. Pretty soon everybody is doing it. Not only that, but it is a healthier way to live. Be aware of the corporations you buy products from. If they don't care about our earth and people, why should you give your hard earned money to them? It is the future of your children and their children, you are protecting now!
What kind of activities would make a difference? Here are some you can do easily, wherever you live:
- Use less water. Turn the water off while you soap up in the shower. Only turn the water on when you need it to rinse off.
- Plant a garden and eat from it all season. Plant containers if you don't have a yard.
- Water your garden with rainwater. Put containers out to collect rainwater.
- Compost all your raw vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings, leaves, etc.
- Use less energy by changing over to energy efficient appliances and lights.
- Buy local food from farmers' markets and small nearby farms. Vegetables, fruit, dairy and meat.
- If you knit or crochet, but fiber from local spinners.
- Try to cook from scratch as much as possible. Do not buy processed foods if you can help it. Not only is it better for your health, but less packaging to get rid of.
- When you shop, study the packaging of each product you buy. Try not to bring home all that plastic packaging and containers to have to dispose of after it is opened.
- Plant a tree in your yard every year for Earth Day! A good way to remember it.
- Drive less. That is easier to do with the cost of gas going up. Do all your errands in one day and make your appointments on the same day also.
- Recycle everything possible. Don't buy anything that cannot be recycled or used in another way.
- Shop from thrift stores or trade with friends and family. Buying new is a waste if you can buy the same things secondhand. Whatever you do, don't be wasteful.
Grow your own food!
Gaylord Nelson, would be pleased I think to see Earth Day being celebrated in 2012. Would he be pleased with how far the war for preserving our earth has come? I don't know. It has come far but could be further along. It is really an ongoing type of consciousness for all citizens of our earth.
Addressing the Earth Day 1970 audience in Denver, Nelson proclaimed, "Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human being and all living creatures."
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole
Information source: Nelson Earth Day
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