It’s Blog Action Day 2009 and this year’s issue is climate change. Climate change affects each and every human, animal, and plant on Planet Earth. And it’s not just about the temperature going up a few degrees; climate change could cause famine, flooding, and even war.
So that’s the scary part, now here’s the exciting part: Every single person has the ability to make a difference. It doesn’t matter who you are, YOU can help save Planet Earth. Best of all, it’s EASY. Just remember that simple things can lead to big changes.
The Eco Women are all about the easy things each person can do to help Planet Earth. That’s what this blog is all about.
The Eco Women recently chatted with each other about Blog Action Day ’09 and what specific aspect of climate change they wanted to discuss today. They were unanimous in their agreement that it’s the little things a person does every day that make a difference. Every action you take can either positively or negatively impact the environment — Do you want to add more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere or do you want to reduce your carbon footprint?
Here are 10 easy actions for every person:
- Ditch the bottled water and get a reusable water bottle instead. The Eco Women promise you that there’s nothing magical or special about bottled water except for the way it magically takes money from your wallet. Plus there’s the environmental impact of creating and transporting and disposing of all those millions of plastic bottles.
- Skip the plastic grocery bags and take your reusable bags instead. (Don’t have any? Get yours here.) If you do forget, opt for paper bags over plastic. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the 100 million plastic bags that Americans use annually — think about how that negatively affects Planet Earth.
- Recycle, recycle, recycle. Duh.
- Park the car and walk, bike, or take public transportation at least one day a week or even just once or twice a month. Can’t park the car even for one day a week? Then drive smart and bundle your errands. Park your car in one place, such as the bank, then walk the two blocks to the library. You don’t need to move your car for each of your errands.
- Support local businesses.
- Eat seasonally and locally as much as is possible. Join a CSA or shop at your local farmers’ market. Best of all, grow some of your own food, even if it’s just a pot of herbs in your window. Finally, skip the fast food, which is really McCrap and instead cook for yourself.
- Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
- Go meatless at least one day a week. When you do eat meat and poultry, choose wisely.
- Use cloth napkins, even if it’s only once a day or a couple times a week.
- Ditch the paper towels and use washable rags and towels instead.
Any action you take to limit greenhouse gases is necessary and helpful.
Think this is all too much? Then try just one or two new things this week. Keep doing them over and over until they become a habit. Then, choose something else from the list above and start doing it. Once that’s part of your routine, try something new. Keep adding new Eco Actions and pretty soon you’ll out-eco even the Eco Women!
Tell the Eco Women: What have you started doing recently to help Planet Earth?
I did my Blog Action Day 2009 post earlier today that had 2 simple changes: hang your clothes out to dry instead of using the drier and take a 4 minute shower.
Plastic. Reduce the amount of plastic you buy/use. Plastic is NOT biodegradable. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. Every piece of plastic that has ever been produced is still in existence. Check out this video about the great plastic garbage swirl in the Pacific Ocean. http://vodpod.com/watch/1385931-capt-charles-moore-on-the-seas-of-plastic-video-on-ted-com
I’m proud to say that my family does just about everything on the list. We do use paper towels, but they are used only to clean up things like hairballs (sorry, I have 3 cats), raw chicken on the counter, and the turtle tank. Otherwise we use microfiber towels and they are fantastic! It’s so true what you said — it only takes a few small changes to make a big impact!
We started composting a couple months ago and I am amazed how much less garbage we produce. We’ve gone from three kitchen bags a week to only one or two.
We produce almost NO garbage anymore either, which is proof of how vigilant we’ve become about consumption and waste. Now, about finding a solution to all the PACKAGING things come in…
We are cutting out fast food in our diet (an occasional treat ~ maybe once every other week). We also recently joined a co~op that delivers organic, local vegetables and fruit ~ we love having fresh produce every week and knowing that it’s local makes it even better! It’s so delicious!
We’ve been a fan of the Brita filter for over 5 years.
We brew our own coffee at home and take it to work in insulated mugs.
We’ve started buying meat at our local Fresh Market. There’s less packaging when you buy it from the butcher’s case.
We bring our re-usable bags.
Apartment and condo complexes have just one big dumpster, so we were trashing our newspapers. This week we discovered that the local Elementary school has a newspaper recycling box in their parking lot!
We do a lot on the list as well. I love that your compost is really showing some great results!
Good suggestions. Here’s my post for Blog Action Day:
http://selfdestructivebastards.blogspot.com/2009/10/wake-up-humanity.html
Everyone else go make one too!
I did my Blog Action Day post today! Except where you actually *thought* about *ideas* I googled “lazy” and “save the world” and then copied and pasted. A for effort?
Sew true and, if we all do a little, it will do a lot, and we might even end up with a quilted network of deeds that will blanket the earth.
I really appreciate the real world advice. I think so often it is easy to get overwhelmed by the immensity of environmental problems and it is so helpful to have real ways in which to participate in a positive global change.