Happy 40th Birthday Earth Day!

Wow – what a great response to Earth Week!  Between the discussion at mothers’ club and then the Earth Day party, we’re off to a great start!  At first glance, it’s sad that we still have Earth Day.  You would think that after 40 years, we’d have figured out how to live in harmony with mother nature.  But there is hope – every one who says YES I’m going to do something today.  YES I’m going to talk to people about this today.

Tremendous Sphere of Influence

We moms have a tremendous sphere of influence.  There is power in sharing our knowledge with one another. Our lively discussions were filled with great ideas – none really too difficult to implement.  When we each make small changes, they add up to big change. 

Talk to your friends! Think of the impact you can have if you tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends and so on and so on…(now you’re all remembering the suave commercial from the 1970s).

This comes down to changing habits – about realizing the current way is poisoning us our children and our planet. Change your buying process.  Besides looking at value, look at the price of convenience.  In the long term, is this product better for me, my family and the planet?

Great Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch

We have become a throw away society.  There really is a garbage patch of plastic bits out in the Pacific Ocean. Watch this for a quick intro to this issue.  Here’s another link to see Captain Charles Moore  on David Letterman in March.  Part II of it is here.  (see my earlier post for a link to Moore movie) We contribute to it  every day.  Each time we unwrap something and throw out the wrapper.  From a sandwich at the deli to a new toy that’s got so much security on it you wonder if it’s got gold in it.

You are what you eat

Here is a reality check. The less we spend on food today the more we will spend on “health” care tomorrow. Technically it’s not health care, it’s disease care.  It is a fact.  So choose how to spend your dollars wisely.  It’s better to spend more on quality foods, aka organics, than to spend less for more quantity.

Allergies – it is not normal to have so many allergies. Between our exposure to chemicals and our ingestion of genetically modified foods, our body burden has tipped that we are now more sick than ever before.  Our bodies cannot work fast enough or hard enough to eliminate the toxic brew inside of us.

Check out http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/Home/  Download the non gmo shopping guide. Watch Jeffrey Smith’s video – it’s 83 minutes but it extremely informative!  Organic foods are not genetically altered – another great reason to go organic!

Eat locally grown!  Buy local – everything from cheese to wine to produce. Less fuel costs associated when shipping locally.  Local CSAs are where you sign up for the season at a local organic farm.  Even just buying from local farmers market and not organic is better than paying for produce from around the world.  Buy in season. Who said we should have strawberries all year round??  Shinn Winery out East is only winery east of Mississippi to make organic wine.

Composting – create compost pile in yard. Or get red wiggler worms to eat through your kitchen scraps.  They turn your trash into gold for your garden and lawn.

As a side note – Check titers for immunization before getting booster. If your child has enough titer in the blood, a booster shot is not necessary.

Key words – look for biodegradable, organic, non-gmo. Unfortunately green or natural means nothing on a label nor does a cute baby or lush farm scene.  Stay away from corn, soy, cotton (cottonseed oil), canola and sugar unless it’s organic.

There is hope!  We all just need to make a few adjustments and we need to spread the word!

It’s about the 3 Rs – Reduce, Recycle, Reuse

• Reduce the use of chemicals – everything from lawn care to eating organic.  Cleaning products and personal care products are LOADED with chemicals.
• Reduce bottle water consumption. In 450 years, the plastic water bottle will still be breaking down. That’s over 22 generations.  Think about that. Try tap water for a change.  Water from the tap is fine if you filter it.  Filter your sink and refrigerator water link.  You can also get a reverse osmosis filter under sink or whole house.
• Reduce plastic bag consumption! Plastic trash bags just clog up the landfills, poison wildlife and are way too ubiquitous.  Use reusable shopping bags when ever you can.  Check out for school fundraiser – Mixedbagdesign.com  also teracycle.com  send back those juice pouches!
• Replace your lightbulbs with CFLs.  CFLs are four times more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescents. A 22 watt CFL has about the same light output as a 100 watt incandescent. CFLs use 50 – 80% less energy than incandescents. Replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb. If everyone in the U.S. used energy-efficient lighting, we could retire 90 average size power plants. Saving electricity reduces CO2 emissions, sulfur oxide and high-level nuclear waste.
• Reduce energy consumption with simple things at home:  don’t boil a whole pot of water for one cup of tea, cover the pot and it will boil faster.  Run dishwasher and washing machine with full loads.  Lower your water temperature to 120 degrees.  Look into tankless water heater or solar panels.  Wash clothes in warm, not hot water.  Install programmable thermostats for heating and cooling – no use heating a house when no one is home.  Drop the heat 5 degrees when you go to bed.  Turn off power strips, unplug chargers that suck up phantom energy.
•  Reduce your CO2 emissions.  Try to combine your errands and trips about town.  Plan more and drive less. USA has only about 2% of crude oil reserves in the world and consumes 25% of all oil production in a year.  Lighten your load – clean out the car and dump excess weight.
• Reduce paper consumptions:  reuse sponges  – wash in dishwasher.  Use microfiber cloths which can be laundered for hundreds of times – stop using papertowels so much
• Reduce air pollutants.  Use an air purifier to get rid of toxic air.  Also houseplants make great air purifiers! 

Bits and Pieces

GREEN WASHING is the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources. It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing. The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product, to give the feeling of nature, for example putting an image of a forest on a bottle containing harmful chemicals.

Purchase from companies that have always had an earth friendly philosophy.

STOP – Stop Throwing out Pollutants – check with your town.  Find out how to dispose of hazardous household waste properly.  Things like adhesives, alcohol,antifreeze, lighter fluid, cleaning solvents, degreasers, herbicides, paint remover, pesticides, photo chemicals, insect sprays, pool chemicals, solvents, stair or varnish or wood preservatives. 

Check out different green websites like benefitsofgoinggreen.com.  Check out Sunday’s paper – new section GreenStreet LI.  

Watch my blog, posts and emails for new information everyday.  Let’s try to make small changes each day.  21 days to form a habit!

Wangari Maathai, nobel peace prize winner, says in “Dirt! The Movie” on PBS  – like the hummingbird trying to put out a forest fire, everyone should do the best they can.  That’s all we can do.  The best we can.  What are you going to do today?