Tag Archives: earth day

Resolve to Make Small Changes

I’ve been posting a few small steps people can take to be more environmentally friendly in their lives. I’d like to suggest that you make it a resolution.

That’s the idea behind Hip Mountain Mama’s One Small Change. Their idea is to have people make one small change in their lifestyle each month until Earth Day, blogging about the change they make each month. Or if you don’t have a blog you can post comments about it at their site sharing the changes you’re going to make.

You blog throughout the month about the change you make and how it’s impacting your life, then summarize the entire experience on Earth Day, April 22, 2010.

I’m thinking on doing it myself, although it would be challenging. Many of their suggestions I already do regularly. Others I can’t do as a renter. And then there are things that relate to stuff I rarely do anyhow, such as printing things out.

Bringing more plants into the home sounds fun to me, although my husband should be worried that I can even think it. I’m a little hooked on an orchid my mother gave me and if more get into the house there could be trouble. They might start taking over.

Oh, wait. I have a soon to be toddler. Talk about a home’s natural defense from going overboard on plants of any sort!

Seriously, we aren’t perfect and I’m sure I can find some areas to work on. I’ll be giving this a go.

How about you? And you? And YOU?

What to Do for Earth Day?

Today is Earth Day. These days I find it to be an interesting combination between environmental concern and consumerism. So many companies take the opportunity to greenwash.

That’s not to say there aren’t good things to buy for Earth Day. If there’s a truly green change you’re wanting to make it’s a good time to do it.

For example, you might choose to use more energy efficient lightbulbs, such as CFLs. You might change laundry detergents. You might switch from a gas powered lawn mower to a push mower. You might buy a composter and start composting. You might switch to a low flow showerhead.

You get the idea. Just be sure that you’re really making an environmentally sound choice, not falling for greenwashing. There’s a lot of that out there.

If you’re living a generally green life already, you may feel like there’s not much to be done to improve your home, at least not within your current budget. That’s fine. There’s plenty more you can do.

There are Earth Day events in most communities. Some will be today, others on the weekend. Last year, for example, my family and I attended an event where people were able to help plant trees in an area that had burned in a wildfire. Our kids were too tired that day to help, but they enjoyed the educational parts of the event and a short hike through the nature reserve.

You can also encourage people you know to get more involved. One day doesn’t do much for the planet, but if you can use it to get people who aren’t thinking about the environment to consider it more, you could help with the problem. These things take time, after all.

Earth Day on Other Blogs

Since I don’t have any particular plans for Earth Day, I thought I’d take a look at what other blogs are suggesting. Perhaps it will inspire me or one of my readers.

Environmental Graffiti suggests Five Fun Things to Do For Earth Day. Well, the coffee one would be easy for me. I’m one of those people who doesn’t drink it. Oops, I guess that means it doesn’t count!

Crunchy Domestic Goddess has some ideas for Making Earth Day a Family Day. I like her suggestion about water consumption, as that’s already been a topic of discussion in my home. The city we live in is doing a really big push to get everyone to cut back their consumption by at least 20 gallons a day.

TreeHugger is noting that even the comics are going green for Earth Day. Take a look, enjoy the laughs.

The Good Human wants us to Make This EarthDay A Real Earth Day. He suggests things as simple as not buying anything. I can handle that one easy.

NatureMoms Blog is having a Gorgeously Green – Earth Week Giveaway. You can get a copy of Gorgeously Green: 8 Steps to an Earth Friendly Life just by commenting on her blog.

Groovy Green also has a giveaway. Theirs is the Filter For Good Earth Day Giveaway. You can win a Brita faucet filtration system and a Nalgene bottle. It’s to promote the FilterForGood.com website.

Crafting a Green World has some suggestions in their post Happy Earth Day Eve. There are plenty of ideas for those who feel the urge to get creative.

Even NASA’s going green for Earth Day. While launching rockets is messy to say the least, if it weren’t for NASA we wouldn’t know nearly as much as we do about our planet and what’s happening to it. Despite it all, I’m still a fan. Blame my dad. He tried for years to get into the astronaut program. It pretty much rubbed off on me.

The Mother Load is celebrating Earth Day by discussing some of the changes her family has made. Have you taken all these steps yet?

Of course, there’s a lot more going on. Care to share posts you’ve made about Earth Day?

Any Plans for Earth Day?

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Anyone have plans?

I don’t so far. We already went to an early celebration over at Blue Sky Ecological Reserve about a week ago. The kids had a lot of fun. They ended up too tired to help plant trees or even hike very far, but they got to see a rescued possum, tortoise and some other animals.

Besides, we’d hiked about 4-6 miles there the week before that. Not quite sure how far because the trail indicators said about 4 miles, but when my husband looked it over online he came up with about 6 miles. Lots of trails to pick from, so we probably just didn’t go the short way.

We do have a lot of things we do regularly anyhow. We garden. If things go well, my husband gets a new job so we can stay here, we really want to plant a fruit tree in the yard. No budget to do so otherwise.

We open blinds during the day when the weather is nice so we use less electricity. That will stop working in the summer, when it’s keep the blinds shut and cover the windows with sheets or cardboard so we don’t need to use the air conditioner.

We compost. Recycle. Try not to buy things we don’t really need.

So, no particular plans for Earth Day. But I think we’re off to a decent start most of the year anyhow.

What are you doing?