Tips to Heal the Planet and You

If you're anything like I am, you want to continue to breathe fresh air, drink pure water, eat uncontaminated food, and live free of toxic chemicals, pollutants, or worry about global warming and the legacy we are leaving for generations to come.

On this Earth Day I am reflecting about simple "green actions" you may not have thought about or tried before, that can help reduce your carbon footprint. Since all people and the planet are interconnected, the choices each of us makes impacts the planet's healing and health as well as our own.

To green the environment and improve our quality of life, please read and consider

Tips to Heal the Planet and You

Walk for health and planetary healing. Run, jog, stroll by foot or bicycle to improve well-being and cut down on fossil fuel consumption.

Green your transportation; board public transportation whenever and wherever it’s available. Bus, subway, tram, or rail is less expensive and better for the environment than running a car. If you must drive to work, car pool. Make your next car a hybrid.

Plant trees, drought resistant vegetation, and a veggie garden. When you grow and eat food for self-sustainability, you contribute to the earth's and your healing.

Replace grass with xeriscape landscaping. Drip irrigation and using water retention containers are water savers. An added benefit is that this type of garden is much easier to maintain than ones with grass and lawns.

Suggest family members cut down on the number of minutes they spend in the shower. Short showers are better for your skin as well.

Refrain from buying water in plastic bottles. Carry a reusable stainless steel or glass water bottle. Instead of reaching for a one-use plastic bottle read this... 

"According to the Container Recycling Institute, 100.7 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in the U.S. in 2014, or 315 bottles per person. More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year.”

If you buy a large supply of water to use at home, take the same half gallon or gallon glass jugs to be refilled again and again.

This year switch over to products that are biodegradable. Carry a reusable water bottle, and use your own washable cloth shopping bag wherever you go. Swap Plastic-

top-ways-to-convert-to-greener-lifestyle

The process used to make, store, dispose of, and just be around plastics can be extremely harmful to living things. Plastic bags, bottles, to-go containers, designer plastic coffee mugs and drink containers, plastic housewares, and fishing nets pollute the planet and the plastic used lasts for thousands of years. 

Plastics are dumped in landfills, oceans, and toxic materials from them winds up in our ground water. The fumes and chemical emissions from plastics contaminate land, sea animals, wildlife, men, women, and children. 

Exposure to plastics has been linked to health concerns affecting people, sea creatures, plankton, and the food chain around the world.

Speak, call, write, and use social media to alert manufacturers, 

politicians, and community, state, and national governments. Express 

your concerns about the direct environmental link between your safety 

and health and the use of plastics.



Advocate for products made from biodegradable materials and ones that 

use minimal packaging. Buy stock and products from companies that 

don't contribute to global warming. Use your buying power to show 

companies you care about reducing the world's carbon footprint by 

supporting those manufacturers, distributors, and stores who care too.



Here is additional reading:

consumer-products-safe and eco-friendly, and what's not from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).


Before you go, please take a moment to comment about your green 

efforts or mine, and share the word about Tips to Heal the Planet and 

You.


Wishing you a Happy Earth Day and best wishes for a year filled with 

daily efforts to conserve, reuse, recycle, and think and act greener!


The quote for today is from Margaret Mead:
"We won't have a society if we destroy the environment."


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Smart Ways to Green Your Lifestyle

Earth Day is tomorrow, and I've been reviewing possible ways to double up on my efforts to live greener. I assure you most of my eco-friendly ideas can be implemented easily, but make a big difference in protecting the air, water, soil, and living beings in a world that struggles to retain its quality of life.

Unless each of us takes a more active role to halt global warming, we and the planet are in deep trouble. 

Even if you don't think this is true, the steps I suggest saves money, conserves natural resources, and are simple to accomplish.

Start from where you are today. When you embark on a green adventure, you're sure to find that many of these actions simplify living by removing clutter from your office, home, and mind. Join the green crowd and make behavioral changes that you and your family can be proud about.

1. Curtail impulse spending by being more mindful and shopping with a list. Make new purchases only if you really need the item. This practice reduces the amount of clutter you accumulate and cuts down on the amount of junk that’s eventually dumped into a landfill. 

2. Plant a tree. This action fights global warming big time, by taking carbon dioxide from the air and cuts down on both heating and cooling costs. Trees also hold the earth in place, prevents soil erosion, runoff, and improves water quality. Trees make your home more desirable, adding as much as 15% to its resale value.

3. Study labels. Don't assume that if a household product is marked "natural" or "green" it is.  Commercial cleaning products can contain limonene (the chemical that gives it a lemon scent). This toxic chemical hurts the lining of your lungs and environment, when it enters the air and water stream. Lemon scented dusting polish can react with other gases in the air to make formaldehyde, which is a carcinogen. Choose fragrance free products or mix up a homemade, environmentally safe olive oil or jojoba oil scent- free furniture polish instead. Buy minimally packaged biodegradable ingredients in bulk. Products made from these ingredients can be stored indefinitely, conserving gasoline, time, energy, and money.

4. Switch from chemical cleaning agents to household staples like soap and water, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and elbow grease. Here's an excellent recipe for homemade lemon oil furniture duster and polish from Annie B. Bond.  Lemon Oil Furniture Duster and Polish

5. Carry a reusable stainless steel or glass water bottle instead of reaching for a one-use plastic bottle. Our landfills are overflowing with toxic additives from plastic bottles. Plastic doesn't biodegrade for at least a thousand years. Making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. That figure doesn't include the oil needed for bringing those bottles to market and the gas you use to get it to your home or office. If you drink the recommended eight glasses of water a day from the tap, it costs about 49 cents per year; that same amount of bottled water is about $1,400. Here's more about H2O. How to Save Water, Money, and Empower Yourself

6. Reuse, recycle, and conserve daily. Carry reusable shopping bags to the market, department stores, specialty shops or anywhere and everywhere you shop. If you do use plastic bags for veggies and fruit, reuse them (wash and air dry after each use). Hang clothes to dry. Use cloth instead of paper to mop up spills, dust, diaper baby, and to replace paper napkins, etc. Here's an example of one way I re-use and recycle.

6. Join up with Leonardo DiCaprio and many of us, who agree that climate change is occurring at an alarming, accelerated pace. We believe it's important for us as individuals and in groups to work to reduce our carbon footprint. Here's a link to a blog post I wrote about the topic last year. Divest from Fossil Fuels/Reinvest in Eco-friendly Ones. Here's a link to the DiCaprio Foundation, that addresses the same issue. Leonardo DiCaprio Joins-More-than-400-Institutions-Pledging-to-Divest-from-Fossil-Fuels/.

7. Take an earth-saving moment to reflect about how many new ways you can live greener.  Read this post, published a few weeks ago, for additional ideas.  Eat Less Meat and Save Our Planet.


Did you pick up a new green tip or two today? Please comment below. The more we exchange ideas the better off the planet will be! 


The quote for today is from Robert Swan, Explorer and Environmentalist:

“The greatest danger to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it ... The last great exploration on earth is to survive on earth. So as I gaze out the window into my future, I hope to see Antarctica in my midst. I only hope that our children’s children will see it in theirs too. When you gaze out of the window into your future, what do you see?"

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Photo Challenge That Illustrates Why I Live Green

I've decided to Take the Change the World Wednesday Challenge and snap photos this week of those things I love, enjoy, cherish, or want to preserve. 

I've included photos which show some of the reasons why I think it's important to live green. I invite you to get your camera out and start snapping too. Post the photos on your blog or share them with #CTWW (link below). If you'd rather not, just take photos to remind yourself of why you live in an Eco-friendly way. 

Every time I've made a small change in my daily life and live greener, I'm contributing to a global effort of common people to make significant strides in helping to save our planet from devastating effects of global warming. Climate change with severe weather extremes has already destroyed homes, killed men, women, and children, and left people starving and with no clean water to drink.

Here's one mess I'd like to change or prevent, that has been captured in the clip art below.

This photo wasn't taken by me, but it does show exactly what is happening to some parts of our planet.

Now here's the good part. Following are some things that I'm doing to conserve, reuse, recycle, and live green 

1. reusing glass jars from foodstuff as storage containers
2. recycling rubber bands that come from store-bought vegetables as an office supply
3. using large food cans, tires, and jars as garden planters
4. using china, glass, silverware instead of paper goods at large gatherings and at small parties too. If I don't have enough of my own dishes or glasses, I ask guests to bring their own.
5. taking my stainless steel thermos bottle along with me for water instead of drinking from plastic throw away water bottles. Just to illustrate plastics' impact on our environment, here's a statistic that may floor you. In 2012, the United States generated almost 14 million tons of plastics as containers and packaging, about 11 million tons as durable goods such as appliances, and almost 7 million tons as non-durable goods, such as plates and cups. See more on this from the Environmental Protection Agency.
6. recycling hangers as mobiles, and for other arts and crafts projects
7. exercise by walking in my neighborhood or doing yoga at home instead of driving to the gym, park, etc.
8. donating my time, money, and energy to the cause of reducing my carbon footprint. I have spoken out to elected officials, government agencies, written blog posts and articles, and contacted companies that manufacture products that are environmentally friendly or harmful and will continue to do this.

I spotted these beautiful flowers in a neighbor's yard, while out for my morning constitutional. Aren't they gorgeous? If climate change made it any warmer here in Arizona, I doubt I would be able to walk outside or see beautiful things like this. I bet this type plant wouldn't even be able to grow so well.

Here's a picture I snapped at a botanical garden. Aren't the plants beautiful and what about these delightful creatures? The earth's water supply is finite. If climate change continues at its rapid pace, I'm worried there won't be enough water for people and animals to survive. In some third world countries, this is already the case.

Don't forget to read what Reduce Footprints and guests @ #Take the Change the World Wednesday Challenge say about this topic. Please comment by email at obloggernewbie@gmail.com or reshare the blog on social media.

Be well. Live well. Lead a colorful, yet green life!

Here's the quotation for today:

"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man." Stewart Udall

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