Earth Mama’s Random
10 11 Ways To Honor Earth!
1. Resist the urge to
buy the latest high tech coffee making device, especially if each cup
results in single use disposable plastic trash. So many ways to make
great coffee with just beans, water and heat. If you must buy something
new—my favorite low tech version is the Aeropress (found at World Market) for kitchen or camping, and tiny little paper filters can be cleaned and reused!
2.Plant a tree—I know you have heard it before, but it is important to repeat often. Trees are the lungs of the planet.
3.
Contact one elected official per week. Now it is EASY by phone or email
to let them know you are a person who votes and you want GMO free
foods, meaningful organic labeling, attention to climate change issues,
protection for pollinators, better recycling programs and any other
important issues you feel strongly about. Keep message short and to the
point. And be polite. Let them know that there are voices like yours,
otherwise all they hear is money interest lobbying from corporate
polluters.
4. Carry small reusable food containers in your car
and one in your backpack or purse. Use these for takeout and leftover
portions from restaurants. In a year's time you can avoid use of piles
of Styrofoam® and plastic. Model the idea for friends and you'll have a
bigger impact. Decorate them to personalize for gifts.
5. Stop
using disposables in your home. Cloth napkins, real plates. Get out the
real dishes for a crowd! Let doing dishes together become part of the
holiday fun. Your grandma would be proud.
6. Re-frame your brain
to think of ways to re-purpose items before disposing. Toilet paper roll
tubes makes great plant protectors in the early spring garden, then
they decompose right into the soil! Dry cereal wax paper bags can be
reused for wrapping sandwiches for lunch and to cover food in microwave.
Etsey
and craft websites are filled with good ideas of making beautiful
useful things out of discarded item! Old roof gutters become artistic
planting troughs for herbs.
7. STOP before you print and ask yourself if you will read it more than once...
Ink cartridges, besides being expensive, require gallons of petroleum to manufacture, fill, transport and print.
8. Try growing something new this year. A row or pot of lettuce or spinach is easy—easier than driving to the store!
9.
Plan your driving, limit the trips. If you forget the bread for
sandwiches, make a salad instead. When you feel like taking a drive,
try taking a walk instead.
10. USE the cloth shopping bags. Keep a
stack in your car and replenish when needed. Yay, Hawaii for banning
plastic bags from the islands. They can see first hand the damage it is
doing to the oceans. I hope someone bans the K-cup coffee plastic next!
11.
OK, I could not stop at 10—Recycling is now like basic hygiene. This of it as bathing and flossing for the planet.
And
“Only Take What You Need, uh, huh, Only Take What You Need!” (from Around the World with Earth Mama CD)
NO ONE is doing this all perfectly, but we can ALL make an effort to do a little better for the Earth each day.
Love your Mama, your great Earth mama. Thanks for all you do for her in your life.
Happy Earth Day!
