I find myself at times when sitting on an airplane, enroute to whatever destination, often reflecting at what we as humans have done to this Earth. As I look out the airplane window at the vastness of this landscape we call nature, I try to think about what mother nature is thinking or trying to tell us.
Is she trying to send us messages through the wind howling cries, or express her saddness through the downpour of rain, or expressing her anger through the fury of a tornado or hurricane? Whatever expression it may be, one thing is for certain, nature does speak to us, but we often times have chosen to refuse to listen. We continue on with our destructive ways by turning forests into stripmalls, blowing up mountain tops to extract coal to power each of our homes, and pollute our air, water and rivers. What is it going to take for us to wake up and realize what we are doing?! I am just as guilty...
Returning from an environmental and energy efficiency conference, one clear message resonated through many presentations - "Change Their Future" that had images of children surrounding this theme. We are at a point in our lifetime where we have the power to change the course of how we leave this planet for our children. Like a teacher who teaches young minds, I feel that i have the power to educate my family and friends about what each of you can do to make this planet a better place for our kids. Please do not misconstrue this as preaching; but an opportunity to learn what you can do. Each of us have the power to make a difference and given my profession, I have chosen to extend my knowledge to you. One thing I hope I do not do is become too preachy with my passion in a way that dissuades you to act. But with all the simple small things we all can do collectively, you'd be surprised at what an overall impact we can all truly make. Here are some things:
- buy energy efficient light bulbs and appliances
- use cloth grocery bags, instead of plastic (Plastic is BAD). Canvas bags hold a ton more groceries and never break
- RECYCLE - this is by far one of the easiest things you can do!!
- Plant a tree
- UNPLUG everything you aren't using
- BUY A CLOTHES RACK and hang your clothes on there to dry vs the dryer. Even if you do this with SOME items it makes a difference
- Shut off the water while you brush teeth and don't LINGER in the shower while water just runs down the drain
- Use Vinegar and Water to clean windows, counters etc.
- Use old stained wash clothes to wipe stuff and clean stuff up and then just toss into the wash
- Run all your errands at once so you don't keep going back out and burning up gas!
- Cloth diaper your baby even if it's PART of the time and use 7th Generation diapers for disposables which use recycled materials.
- Buy recycled toilet paper and paper products
Many of you know how passionate I am about the environment and I attribute this to my upbringing in Vermont. The hours I spent outside building forts, playing in the woods, climbing trees, running through the fields and jumping from hay bale to hay bale. I want my children to have the same fond experiences of nature as I had. I am reading a great book right now that I feel every parent should read. "Last Child in the Woods" which addresses today's children being detached from nature because they are so connected to the Wii's, Xbox's, video games, computers, etc. Their world is magnified on a computer or TV screen, rather than opening their doors to a world outside that awaits for them to discover. Get your kids back out into nature! I hope Caroline, Jack, and Lauren will look back fondly on their childhood and remember the camping trips, the annual OBX trips, trips to Vermont, etc.
My hope is that my family and friends out there will continue to allow me to educate and inspire them to do something proactively. Even if it is just one of you, than I know I have succeeded. However, I hope I am able to reach tenfold!
8 comments:
John- I am totally there with you. Some of the things we've done to make little changes-
UNPLUG everything you aren't using...those little LED lights burn up energy
BUY A CLOTHES RACK and hang your clothes on there to dry vs the dryer. Even if you do this with SOME items it makes a difference
Shut off the water while you brush teeth and don't LINGER in the shower while water just runs down the drain
Use Vinegar and Water to clean windows, counters etc. BUY PLANT BASED earth friendly products that don't harm and contaminate the earth
Buy canvas bags which hold a ton more groceries and never break to take to the store
If you do get plastic bags RE USE them somehow
Buy milk in glass bottles and take them back for a deposit and get new ones
Reduce paper towels - use old stained wash clothes to wipe stuff and clean stuff up and then just toss into the wash........
Run all your errands at once so you don't keep going back out and burning up gas!
Cloth diaper your baby even if it's PART of the time and use 7th Generation diapers for disposables which use recycled materials.
Buy recycled toilet paper and paper products
Gosh the list could go on but it's really not hard to make little changes.
UNPLUG is a big one........get outside- also if you smoke STOP THROWING YOUR BUTTS ON THE GROUND!
OK I preached for ya John!
I cloth diaper, and I'm not sure I'm really making that big of an environmental impact. It's just a couple of more loads of laundry a week, and the diapers can be re-used from child to child, and then passed on, so I guess it does make a difference.
I'm also slowly replacing my lightbulbs.
When we get new appliances, I make it a point to get energy star ones.
I use a lot of vinegar in cleaning instead of putting chemicals all over my house.
And I recycle.
Ok, I'll weigh in here. John, you're always after me. I thought of you again today and then kept a glass jar instead of throwing it away. I'm going to make an effort to recycle more than what we do now. We do some but not all. Not enough.
I've always been big on:
-turn off the lights when you leave a room or only turn on the light you need to use
-the H2O while brushing thing
-put more clothes on instead of turning up the heat or vice versa!
-reduce/reuse items such as containers that foods come in, finding a new use for things after they've served their purpose one way
-hand me downs!
and tell Manda the statistic of how many disposable diapers she's NOT putting in landfills John. That'll help her see that she's really making a difference!
Oh, and I do plant trees! We give them as gifts for special events in our family. And I love my other plants too.
One very windy day recently we had the top of a dead tree fall on the house. It was naptime and it scared Tracy and me. He said, "I should have cut down all the trees near the house. But it was you saying 'save the trees!save the trees!' And now look, they're falling on the house!"
So I save trees too, in my own way. :)
Disposable diapers take like 100 years to degrade.........so you are doing something really great!
John,
You truly are a "Stuart Little" for the environment! I don't think you realize the impact you have already made on so many people. In a non-preachy way, you bring incitement to this uber-critical issue that naturally causes people to pay attention and react.
Just yesterday, we were driving down the road and witnessed a teenage driver drop an aluminum can out of his car. What enraged us most, aside from the littering and environmental aspects, was the fact this kid made a conscientious decision to pitch this recyclable product out of his car. How did I know it was a deliberate act, you ask? Well, we were driving behind him at 20mph when he proceeded to open his car door and carefully drop the can onto the road so it wouldn’t bounce back and hit the cars behind him. He certainly was thoughtful for being such a jerk at the same time! For the next two miles, Jen and I discussed how we might approach him and “give him a piece of our minds.” Since we had the boys in the car, we thought it best not to approach his car for fear he might have a concealed weapon. Yeap, this is the world we live in! Instead, we explained to Tyler and Chase why it’s soooo important to reduce, reuse, recycle. I hope and pray my kids will never be so thoughtless as to deface our planet by littering.
Ok, so I have a little word puzzle for you …
“John is to the environment as Scott is to _________”
The correct answer is “aviation” and I’m guessing it took you all of 2 seconds to figure it out. Believe it or not, environmentalists and airplane nuts like me have something in common … reducing our carbon footprint. Most people might not know that the commercial airlines (in cooperation with the people who build them) are working especially hard to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. While some companies are motivated more by the economic benefits associated with fuel savings, Virgin Atlantic has become the leader in reducing carbon footprint. They recently completed a demo flight with a Boeing 747 that burned 80% bio-fuel. You can read about it here:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/virgin_atlantic_1.php
The critics say there isn’t reason to celebrate just yet … truly sustainable second-generation bio-fuels are needed. In my humble opinion, Sir Richard Branson should be applauded for taking the initiative without government or global mandates.
One final thought … please remind me to fly you over the Stafford County landfill (off Eskimo Hill Road) when we finally get you up. You will be alarmed at how it’s become the boil on the face of Stafford County. It has grown significantly in the 4 years I’ve been here and it can be seen 10 miles away.
Keep up the good work, my friend.
Scott
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