Well it’s a magical day here on our planet– it’s Earth Day. We hope you are all planning to do some serious celebrating. Perhaps you are going for a hike– or even doing something outstanding like a beach clean up!
But we have to admit that here at Low Impact Living we’re a bit conflicted about Earth Day. It’s excellent that we all take this day to give praise to our planet, of course. But shouldn’t we all be living an “Earth Life”? We’d like to encourage all of us to move from celebrating one day on to embracing a year-around approach to living that gives Mother Nature a big high five of support.
To quote a popular election refrain these days, “Yes we can.” Here are seven things we hope you’ll agree are pretty easy to do on an on-going basis. If we can all integrate these seven simple steps into our “Earth Life” we will really be friends of our favorite planet.
1. Give up bottled water– for good. Drink from a glass at home, take your own reusable jug or bottle to the gym, and encourage your office to get a water filter or a water service. Americans throw out over 40 million plastic bottles each year and over 80% end up in landfills. If everyone on your block stopped using bottled water you could probably cut out 5000 bottles each year.
2. Buy green power from your utility. You can pay a few extra dollars each month and support power generation from renewable, clean sources like wind, water and biomass. Click here to learn more about programs in your area.
3. Eat meat (at least) one fewer day per week. Raising animals for meat (particularly beef) places an incredible strain on our natural resources. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, one pound of red meat is responsible for 20 times the land use, five times the water use, and three times the greenhouse gas pollution compared with a portion of beans or pasta.
4. Take reusable bags to the grocery store. No more paper or plastic. Just good old canvas. The average American uses over 500 plastic shopping bags a year– but you are not an Average American!
5. Fly one time less each year. Plane travel is one of the greatest sources of carbon emissions (and global warming). Maybe you could drive or take a train to your destination. Or consider planning a vacation closer to home. To learn more about the impacts of flying, click here.
6. Buy less stuff. New products require the destruction of trees, the use of petroleum for plastics, shipping, packaging…our incessant chain of production and consumption chain is one of great threats to the sustainability of our planet. Can you use that sweater another year? Maybe you could swap some furniture items with a friend. Perhaps you can you get something on Craig’s List rather than at Toys-R-Us?
7. Make sure you are recycling as much as possible. You need to know your city’s rules. We’re amazed by the number of people in our city, Los Angeles, who don’t know they can recycle ALL types of plastic and styrofoam. You may be able to recycle more than you think! Please click here to learn about how to recycle to the max where you live.
If you read this list and say, “Oh for heaven’s sake– that’s child’s play! I’ve done all that!” then we salute you. If you want to take your Earth Life game up a notch, please check out some of these other bigger steps you can take to embrace eco-friendly living.
And if you have good ideas for how to embrace Earth Life, please share them!
Original post by By STEPHEN MILIOTI
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