Ecology, Eco-friendly, Sustainability, Renew, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle, and any other slogan you can think of that relates to going Green, the environmental movement, preserving and sustaining life on earth – I’m all for it, always have been. I was one of the first Floridians to buy a solar panel for my rooftop in the 1980’s.

Clean up the Earth

I grew up in a conservation conscious, recycling, upcycling, composting family. In 1970 I was 13, finishing 7th grade, and my friends and I organized a local land clean up to participate in the First Earth Day. Just a bunch of girls picking up trash on the side of the road but the newspaper covered it.

It’s easy to stand for something when you’re young and idealistic. It can get harder depending on the circles you move in. I’ve quietly stood by my love for nature and environmental causes for a long time, reducing my carbon footprint in subtle ways. Now it’s time to step it up a notch or two.

• 14 billion pounds of garbage (mostly plastic) is being dumped into the ocean every year.
• Over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals are killed by some form of pollution yearly.
• Approximately 40% of the lakes in America are too polluted for fishing and swimming.
• 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into US water every year.
• More than 3 million children under age five die annually from environmental factors.
• The US with about 5% of the world’s population produces an estimated 30% of the world’s waste, and uses 25% of the world’s resources.

For Generations to Come

Thanks to my husbands diligence we recycle, and he replaced all our light bulbs with CFL’s. He’s also good about reminding everyone to turn off the lights. We have gas efficient cars and don’t drive too far most of the time. We are conservative with water and paper use, don’t use air conditioning and keep the house below 70 degrees in winter.

We are mostly vegetarian and buy local produce as much as possible. Our house is small, but it’s old, so not as energy efficient as we would like. We rarely buy new clothes, toys or gadgets or anything else for that matter. We’re not big spenders and most of our furniture are hand me downs.

Even with conscious effort to reduce our carbon footprint it’s still higher than we would like. How can we preserve this beautiful planet for future generations to enjoy? The most important thing I believe each of us can do is to keep making new efforts in whatever way we can, and to educate the next generation. At Earth Day Network Energy Center you can learn lots of ways that you can go greener.

Here is a family I really admire, for making this cause their life’s mission and taking it upon themselves to educate others: Ecowomb.com 

I’m so grateful to my own parents for their support of conservation initiatives, and for taking personal responsibility to recycle and reuse whenever possible. My mom consistently composted for 40 years. They also provided a good example for my own children.

Every Day is Earth Day

In the 1970’s we were in the minority, we were sort of rebels. Now there are so many resources for learning how to go green, and so many ways to support preserving the planet. But over consumption of resources and needless waste continues to multiply more rapidly than our concern for the future.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s take care of the earth every day even if it’s just one small effort. Here’s some ideas: 52 Ways to go Green

 http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/

http://greencirclenc.com/sustainability-partners/

http://www.sustainability.com/