OK its Earth Day – Now What?

Happy Earth Day, are you wearing your environmentally-friendly hemp t-shirt, while standing on that rug made from recycled tires? Did you go out and hug a tree?

No – I didn’t think so.

You don’t have to do wild, crazy or zany things to celebrate Earth Day – a day marked on the calendar since the 1970’s to promote the environmental movement.

Little simple things make a world of difference.

Just take a stroll through your home to start. Look up at that bright thing – no not the sun, your lights. Are you using low energy florescent bulbs, or the older, more power-hungry incandescent ones? Today would be a great day to change all your old light bulbs to the newer, greener versions – and that won’t cost a whole lot, or take a lot of time.

While passing through your kitchen or bathroom, think about paper. Do you use recycled paper products for such things as toilet paper and paper towel? No? Go out and get some, if you have the non-recycled stuff you can compare the two and see there really isn’t much difference, aside from one being better for the planet and our home, the Earth.

Speaking of towels, what do you use to clean your home? Do you use environmentally-friendly all natural products, or ones courtesy of the chemical industry? Earth Day is a great excuse to change your cleaning ways, by getting all natural cleaning agents (you’d be surprised how much you can clean with a little white vinegar and some baking soda).

And while you are replacing your cleaning agents, you can take away all your hazardous waste to proper hazardous waste recycling facilities – most municipalities have these, allowing you to freely drop-off toxins so they don’t end up in our landfills. They take things like ammonia, paints and paint thinner, old batteries, some even take old and broken computers and other techno-toys which don’t work anymore, but contain heavy metals that could contaminate our world if just tossed in the trash. Contact your local government for information about local hazardous material recycling or reclamation programs today, to celebrate Earth Day.

Good thing Earth Day happens in spring, ‘cause you can do a lot of environmental spring cleaning right from your home. You could even call up a charity or two, and donate all your old clothes that you were going to throw out – lots of fabrics have been treated with dyes and chemicals which contaminate local water tables when thrown out. By donating them, you help others, while keeping your drinking water clean.

Water – it is a fundamental resource for all life to exist, just look at all those water bottles lying around. What a waste. Wouldn’t it be easier – and better for the environment to get a water filtration system, than purchasing water bottles en mass? You can install a water filter on your kitchen and bathroom faucets, or even simpler, buy a water filtration pitcher and just fill it up from the tap. Either way, you’ll have fresh, clean water, and only have to toss out a water filter every couple of months, instead of going through on average about 25 plastic water bottles per person per month.

While we’re in the wet works, take a look at your toilet – is it one of those old clunkers that takes forever to refill after a flush? You can save on your water bills, and help the planet by purchasing a low-flush toilet. Some local municipalities will even give you a rebate on your water bill when you send them a copy of your invoice showing you purchased one, so you’ll not only use less water, but get back some of the initial funds you spent to get the new toilet.

Don’t forget to wash your hands – are you using environmentally-friendly, biodegradable soaps? No?

See – there are lots of little things you can do right at home, to better your world on this Earth Day.

Happy Earth Day!

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Everyday Should Be Earth Day

Only two days to go until Earth Day – the spot on the calendar when the world recognizes the need to be more environmentally-friendly.

First held on April 22, 1970 by a group of hippies hip to the need to generate more interest in our home, planet Earth, it has since been celebrated in over 170 countries across the globe, by billions of people. Some consider Earth Day the birthday of the environmental movement, some use it to begin their own environmentally-friendly resolutions, and some just go on not knowing or caring.

Truth is Earth Day should be every day – well to a degree. While any excuse for a party is often said to be a good excuse, we shouldn’t need to party to think of the Earth.

When our homes are in need of cleaning or repair, we don’t think twice about it, we just do it. That should be the same sort of thought process for being environmentally-friendly – when we do things which affect our home, planet Earth, we shouldn’t need to think about it, we should naturally just do what is best for our home.

As advanced as space travel has come in over four decades, we still have nowhere to live but here on planet Earth. Missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond are still in their infancy – actually American President Barack Obama canceled the mission to the Moon just last week, during his re-tooling of the American Space Program and NASA’s funding.

So finding another planet to live on isn’t in the cards, at least not in our lifetimes, or even the lifetimes of our kid’s kids, and maybe not even then.

Over the course of this week, the media will sing and dance with stories about the environment. There is a story today on CNN.com about a man not only trying to sell electric cars, but trying to create changes in society to put in place the infrastructure to support those fully electric cars (by having charging stations at all work places, and even having robotic battery swapping stations to swap out discharged batteries for fully charged ones.)

Saw an advertisement the other day for a special Earth Day Brita Water Filtration Pitcher – nothing really different about it other than it is green in color. The ad didn’t specify if the company was donating any of the proceeds of the sales to an environmental cause.

Even locally here, recently there was a story about how the Mayor of Toronto, Canada, was holding his annual city clean-up, where the city supplies garbage bags free to residents volunteering to pick up litter.

All of these are great at getting our minds into the environmental framework – but in order for us to really achieve a liveable city, town, or village, our daily actions need to always be environmentally-friendly.

We need to constantly act in the best interests of ourselves, and our planet.
From simple every day purchases such as light bulbs, batteries, and dish washing soap, to the big ticket purchases such as cars, homes, and appliances, they all need to be products which are environmentally-friendly. Instead of letting the water run, leaving the lights on when no one is around, or even just leaving your battery chargers plugged into the wall when nothing is being charged, even the teeny-tiny things make a world of difference.

Earth Day is a great excuse for a party, so let’s celebrate. But don’t leave behind your environmentally-friendly thinking cap.

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Furry Weather Forecasting

Tomorrow we learn from a four-legged furry creature whether or not we’ll have another six-months of winter. That is if you believe in the four-legged furry creature.

February 2 is Groundhog Day, where weather forecasters take a back seat to the noble cousin to the hedgehog – the groundhog – watching to see if it sees its shadow and hobbles back into his hole-in-the-ground-home, signaling another six-months of winter. Though if you’re a sun lover like me, you’re hoping the groundhog doesn’t retreat from fear of it’s own shadow, which means spring is just around the corner.

With all the people huddled around the poor animal’s burrow, it may turn and run away from the flash bulbs, television cameras, and weirdos dressed in tuxedos, winter coats and toques long before it can make its weather prediction.

Every year, the groundhog’s groundskeepers dress-up just for the occasion, only to get smeared with dirt and mud as they reach out and grab their precious four-legged furry creature to pose them for the news media gathered around.

Although the February 2 tradition goes back to the eighteenth century, if someone tried to grab the four-legged furry creature back then, they’d be lucky to be alive. European folk lore claims that a bear was used originally, and later, a badger replaced the bear.

According to the stories passed from generations, the celebration began as a medieval Catholic holiday called Candlemas, where a sacred bear was used to predict either the end or the continuation of winter. Though some historians say it goes back to the Pagan festival of Imbolc, which is the official change of seasons in the Celtic calendar, which just so happens to be February 2 as well.

Whichever historian you believe, Groundhog Day has taken roots in North American society, especially in towns with large Amish populations.

Some communities base their entire towns on this one day, using their groundhog as a community mascot. Gifts hops are adorned with stuffed groundhog toys of all sizes, restaurants name items on their menus after their groundhog, you can even buy groundhog candles in some towns, perfect for seeing your own shadow.

Though the question remains, who to believe? Weather forecasters with satellite, global positioning systems, RADAR tracking of weather patterns, and earth scientists, whose ear is constantly listening to their scientific gadgets and gizmos to generate not just weather forecasts, but also a deeper understanding of our planet, OR a rudely awoken four-legged furry creature that lives underground?

Despite all the mistakes weather forecasters seem to make – sometimes I wonder if they just look out the window to make their predictions – I’m putting my money on them and their informants, the earth and atmospheric scientists.

Besides, with all those bright camera lights beaming down on the furry four-legged creature, it is bound to see its shadow no matter what.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Every year the shopping malls and other retail establishments seem to put out their Christmas decorations earlier.

This year, Halloween had just finished, and almost immediately many stores had their jumbo candy canes, reindeer and snowman displays out. Even the fat jolly hold elf – St. Nick – could be seen in many store windows.

Image via Wikipedia

Understandably, with the global economy being in the toilet retailers want to get a head start and salvage something of this year. And for the retail industry, Christmas time is the make it or break it point in the life of the retail store.

Christmas sales account for over half of most retail sales. So if a retailer doesn’t make a lot of sales during the holiday season, they may lay-off staff, close earlier, or worse, even go out of business.

That’s part of why retailers jump at the chance to get into the Christmas spirit – and why it appears the Christmas decorations go up earlier every year.

Image by kaex0r via Flickr

Though the downside is we have to listen to Christmas music more, as we walk through the local malls and shops.

Music, incidentally, has been shown to have a psychological impact on us. Play the wrong music, and we’ll feel uncomfortable, often leaving the store in such a rush, we leave without purchasing what we intended to buy in the first place.

The adverse is also true, when just the right music comes through those teeny tin-sounding loudspeakers in the local mall, we’ll stay in the store longer, and be more likely to purchase not only what we originally wanted, but many other things which we really didn’t need.

Still, the holiday season appears to come earlier and earlier every year. So much so, that by the time the holidays arrive, we’re literally “Christmatsed Out.”
So much for the holiday spirit.

I actually like the holiday season, it is one of two times in the whole year I get to tell people what I want or need – the other time being my birthday. I accept gifts for what they are no matter what I think of them, a gift is a nice thing to receive even if it isn’t something I normally would use or buy. But by telling those that usually get me a gift ahead of time what I need or want, really helps.
It helps my friends and family spend less time and money in the stores finding things that either don’t interest me, or for which I have no use for, while giving them guidelines as to what I would like and use.

Image via Wikipedia

It also gives me an excuse to ask my friends and family for suggestions as to what to get them. This way I spend less time and money in the stores, and I know they will really enjoy and make us of the gift.

Though it does take away SOME of the surprise – not all – SOME.

Everyone knows what is on the others list, but no one really knows what things on the list were purchased, and which ones were not.

Still, Christmas keeps starting way too early every year at local malls and other retail establishments. But I suppose that is all part of the holiday shopping season too.

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