Earth Day Every Day!

Welcome to Earth Day 2007! Earth Day is every day, really...ever since the Big Blue Marble, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and the anti-litter commercial with the crying Native American I was hooked. Hooked on a place so incredibly beautiful with never ending things to discover. I wish more people were hooked on nature. We're destroying it...fast. We need to embrace it and preserve it for ourselves and future generations...

We've all heard "if every person just does one thing". I'm calling BS on that one. Why can't each person do more than one thing? Why can we all do lots of things? Environmentally conscious options are nearly mainstream - they're everywhere - they're affordable and often free! So I'm calling out to all my blog readers - don't do "one thing" - do as much as you can starting now so that when we visit the parks and preserves with our children they can experience the wildflowers and trees, the frogs and the fishes and all else that creates that sense of wonder in all of us...

• Recycle paper, cans, glass, plastics - most communities have pick ups or drop off locations to make it easy;
• Change your light bulbs to the new energy efficient kind - and don't forget to recycle them or include them with your household hazardous waste - do not throw them in the trash;
• Shut off the lights when you leave a room;
• Turn the water off when you're brushing your teeth or shaving;
• Use Energy Star appliances;
• Drive a high mileage, low emissions vehicle - doesn't have to be hybrid to make a difference;
• Use organic lawn care and gardening methods and products - they work just and well, and in the long run they work better than hazardous chemical based methods;
• Plant native grasses and flowers - after establishing they are far hardier than other ornamentals because they evolved for your climate - that means they ultimately use less water and work to keep them beautiful;
• Buy organic and locally grown produce as much as possible - buying organic sends a message that we don't want all of those unnecessary chemicals in our food and buying local supports local family farms and reduces the pollution needed to get that food onto your table;
• Don't litter (major pet peeve);
• Collect roof run off in a rain barrel to water plants and gardens;
• Take your kids outside, show them nature, let them explore;
• Ride your bike or walk instead of driving - to work, to the store, to the park.
• Eat less meat and eat naturally, humanely and sustainable raised meat - meat production is very resource intensive.

What are you all doing to reduce your footprint on the Earth?

Jacek and I drive a low emissions vehicle. It even qualifies for conservation parking at work! We're selling our second vehicle. We try to bike to the store to a friend's house when we can. We are almost done replacing all of our light bulbs with high efficiency bulbs - even our outdoor floodlights on the patio. We bought a small dishwasher for our small kitchen so we use less water to wash our dishes. Our neighborhood put a huge recycle dumpster in a nearby park so we started recycling everything - and reduced our trash by about two-thirds! We take our old paints, chemicals and florescent lights to household hazardous waste collection sites. We shut off the water when we brush our teeth. We collect rain from our garage roof to water our plants and gardens. We now have 2 compost bins and are considering adding a third. We have a native prairie garden in the backyard that attracts lots of birds, bees and butterflies. We grow and organic veggie garden every summer. We use organic lawn care methods and products. We buy organic and local produce. We eat far less meat and when we do eat it we buy naturally, humanely and sustainable raised meat and seafood. We spend time outdoors as much as we can.

Here's to Earth Day - Every Day!!!