HAPPY EARTH DAY weekend!!

We are big fans of making small changes that can have larger impacts, so I thought this would be a good post to send out. Hope you can find some good tips, ideas and actions to help you, your family, your community make a difference.

Here are some BASIC TIPS from some of my previous years posts: Little things do make a difference: turn the water off while you brush your teeth, fix leaky faucets or running toilets, put cans and bottles in the recycle bins, clean your air filters to help with efficiency, turn down your thermostat when you go to bed, turn off your lights when you are not using them and unplug appliances, wash laundry on cold not hot settings, take shorter showers, even driving within the speed limit cuts down on gas consumption, which helps the planet.

Clean out your closet—I am sure you have something to donate. There are plenty of people who could reuse your items and be grateful for them. -[look below at the fashion article. Who knew our clothing industry causes so many problems. I knew there were problems, but Wow!!]

Change out your light bulbs for energy efficient ones. Even if you begin to change one at a time, the investment will pay for itself in the years to come. Compact fluorescent light bulbs last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use at least two-thirds less energy.*science 

Sign up for paperless bills by paying them via the internet.

Ride your bike when you can, instead of driving your car. 

 If the weather is nice open a window or door and let the fresh air in & turn off your air-conditioning. This will help conserve energy & bring in a little breeze.

Some incredible DOCUMENTARIES and VIDEOS to get you inspired: Some of my personal favorites…

IF you have NOT seen “My Octopus Teacher” you need to watch it! It won awards. It is a personal, beautiful journey of a cinematographer finding his own inspiration in a relationship with an octopus. It is a wonderful film. Even if you are not an ocean person—worth the watch.

Any of “The Planet” videos take you on an exploration of wonder and beauty.

Prince Ea videos He has a lot of great videos with some good wisdom. This one, “Dear Future Generations, Sorry”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLJscAlk1M

Follow the Frog is always a favorite. so funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIkOi3srLo

There are also so many documentaries online about Forests [Intelligent Trees–fascinating], finding balance in Nature, Big waves, animals, making a difference, etc. Find something that you are drawn to learn about, some topic that gets you excited to help you make a difference in your community.

There are also so many people on social media doing little things to make a big difference. Find their stories, share them with your communities. [One Malhar Kalambe The difference ONE can make. Young 24 year old cleaning up India]

OTHER WAYS TO TAKE CARE & CELEBRATE OUR PLANET

Pick up trash as a family or community—Spring clean your community. I am sure wherever you are there is some trash to pick up. Grab a bag, some friends or family and make it fun!! Turn it into a race to see who can get the most amount in a certain time.

SEND a positive MESSAGE to friends and family and invite them to jump in on making change—one person, one act at a time. Make a personal video about what you are doing for Earth Day and post it.

Cut down on eating meat: I am not against people eating meat, its your personal choice, but cutting down may help the planet. FYI The United Nations have concluded that meat production is responsible for around 18% of global CO2 emissions. 5,214 gallons of water are required to produce a single pound of beef, and the EPA estimates that more than 27,000 miles of US rivers have been polluted by livestock waste.  *huffingtonpost

Start a garden or plant a tree—get outside and plant something!!

Give some LOVE to woodland friends—make a bird house, make some homemade bird feeders, my favorite is throwing out some peanuts (in shells) for our local Stellar Jays and squirrels.

JUST Get outside and go on a walk, a hike, a bike ride & turn off your television, computers, games. 

Go on a nature scavenger hunt look for details out in nature.

ADMIRE NATURAL ART:

Check out the beautiful nature artist Andy Goldsworthy: Go to Google Images and type in Andy Goldsworthy—amazing. He also has numerous books. Inspiring Natural pieces he creates.

Ansel Adams is a favorite of mine. Probably because he helped preserve and save our parks with his photographs. One of the twentieth century’s most ardent champions of the park and wilderness systems, Adams also helped preserve additional natural areas and protect existing ones through his photographs, essays, and letter-writing campaigns. The famed photographer’s majestic landscapes were formative in establishing national parks across the United States.

There are tons of nature artists on social media—whether its rock formations, sand art, sand castles, snow patterns…there are so many talented people out in nature. Check them out and be inspired. Go out and make your own natural Mandela or natural sculpture.

GET EDUCATED. DID YOU KNOW?

Styrofoam takes 50-100 to begin to break up in the environment! Yikes. That is a long time. Make sure you think twice about buying this cheap stuff because it is really hard on our planet.

It takes 400-500 years to begin to break down water bottles, so make sure you recycle them. It takes 100-200 years for aluminum or tin cans.

Make sure you recycle glass bottles because it takes even longer for them to break down. They are like a manmade stone that never goes away. They have not even been able to determine how long it takes.

Did you know fishing line is one of the worst things we can leave behind. Fishing line not only takes 600 years to begin to break down, but many animals get injured by swallowing the line or getting tangled in it.

-learned about these things at a Las Vegas aquarium

FASHION Recycle, Buy used Clothing to help the planet. Why? The Average US Consumer Throws Away 81.5lbs of Clothes Every Year. In America alone, an estimated 11.3 million tons of textile waste – equivalent to 85% of all textiles – end up in landfills on a yearly basis.

The Fashion Industry is Responsible for 20% of Global Waste Water

Wow! It Takes 20,000 Litres of Water to Produce One Kilogram of Cotton Besides being a huge source of water pollution, fast fashion also contributes to massive quantities of water being wasted every day. If this is difficult to picture, just think that about 2,700 litres of waterare needed to make just one t-shirt, which would be enough for one person to drink for 900 days. Moreover, a single load of washing uses between 50 and 60 litres of water.

Here is the rest of the article that lists additional fashion issues for our planet. https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/

MORE IDEAS TO HELP SAVE THE PLANET

Sierra Club’s 100 ways to help. https://www.sierraclub.org/toiyabe/100-things-you-can-do-save-planet

WWF https://www.wwf.org.uk/thingsyoucando

HOPE these ideas help you to make better decisions in your daily life that will help take better care of our beautiful planet.

Peace. Love. Light and Happy Earth Day! -H