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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Eat Less Meat and Save the Planet

Eat Less Meat and Save Our Planet

Do you realize how much your food choices matter? Not only do they impact your health and sense of well-being, reducing your consumption of meat by half and eventually switching over to a 100% whole food low fat plant based diet, will make a major contribution to your wellness and the planet’s survival as an inhabitable place to live.

I’ll show you why my research, common sense, ethical and spiritual considerations, and environmental power of this lifestyle change are key reasons to eat less or no meat.

In her Paper, “Food Matters How What We Eat Affects Our Health and the Planet” by Roni Neff PhD., Research and Policy Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) states, “Many of the leading public health threats of our day—including climate change, environmental contamination and resource depletion, hunger and malnutrition, and the obesity epidemic—have strong roots in the current food and agriculture system.” "Food Matters"

To expand on this, here’s an excerpt from a report published in 2009 by Worldwatch Institute. Animal agriculture contributes more to greenhouse gases than the global transportation sector—that’s every single car, bus, plane, train, etc. on this earth. It reads, “Livestock currently amounts to 18 percent of the global warming effect—an even larger contribution than the transportation sector worldwide.” The document, by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang is available here:

“Livestock and Climate Change”

A report from Florida International University researcher Brian Machovina confirms, "Reducing animal-based product consumption is realistic if we can offer delicious, convenient, plant-based foods that people want to eat." He continues, “Growing crops, including fruits, vegetables, legumes and soy protein would increase the number of food calories available for people by as much as 70 percent on the agricultural lands currently in use. Soybeans contain twice the protein of beef, pork or chicken, and 10 times more protein than whole milk.” Cultivating produce requires less land than what is used to raise livestock. In an article by Evelyn Perez, see what this research mentioned above shows. "Eat less meat, save the planet"

The World Health Organization (WHO) is getting into the act too. In November, 2015, WHO announced that they were classifying processed meat as a carcinogenic and red meat as "possibly carcinogenic," and the amount and frequency of meat consumption today is alarming. 

We need to cut consumption of meat at least to half, as a start. Even if there were no health concerns like the fact that 17% of all commercial cow meat has been injected with growth hormones and even more is laden with pesticide residue, ethical reasons are plentiful. Untold numbers of people are hungry and starving in the world. Terrible conditions for raising animals prevail in commercial farms, with infringement of animal rights, and pollution from industrial factory farms etc. Raising animals for food is distasteful, for moral as well as environmental reasons. Destruction of natural resources like land, water, and soil, and rising greenhouse gas levels result from this type of operation.  Food Democracy Now Blog.

When you eat less meat, your health improves, and you cut down on medical expenses. Eating a vegetarian or vegan diet that is whole food (not processed or fast food) can save you big bucks too.

To conclude, I plant this seed.

 "A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter. What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet."

     -- John Robbins, author of "Diet for a New America", and President, EarthSave Foundation, Santa Cruz, California
Link to EarthSave

Before you go, please take a moment to comment on my post. Please share what you do to improve your eating habits and efforts you've made or intend to make to reduce your carbon footprint. 

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