Five Ways to Make Every Day Earth Day
Posted
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:54 PM
by
Romo
In honor of Earth Day, here are five every-day suggestions for earth-friendlier living, plus one plug for the green forums at Blogiversity.
- Don’t dispose of non-biodegradable chemicals down the storm drain. In most municipalities, water that enters storm drains is not treated before being discharged. What that means is any chemicals you put down the drain can re-enter the waterways to pollute groundwater, rivers, etc. Contact your county or city waste utilities to find appropriate disposal methods for products like paint, paint thinner, motor oil, or lawn and garden chemicals.
Seek out alternatives to using landfills. Landfills threaten groundwater when rain filters through the decomposing debris and carries toxins away with it. Even seemingly innocuous materials like paper contribute to this when dioxins (leftover in the paper from the process of whitening or dying paper during its manufacture) or lead (still found in printing ink) come into play. One easy alternative: Make use of local recycling facilities.
Look for corn products that are labeled “non-GMO”. GMO corn threatens the biodiversity of corn overall when GMO genes cross-pollinate with more old-fashioned strains in neighboring areas. Biodiversity within single crops is crucial to preventing disasters like Ireland’s potato famine. The trend towards GMO crops is also suspected to be a factor in the recent dramatic decline of multiple pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
Shift away from factory-farmed meat, dairy, and eggs that rely on antibiotics and hormones. These substances, fed to livestock and poultry, make their way into run-off, ultimately polluting both soil and groundwater. Additionally, many leading biologists now link artificially high levels of estrogen in waterways to the declining reproductive abilities of various species of wildlife. Finally, these substances also make their way from the food you eat into your body, which in turn bears the burden of eliminating them. Most, if not all, major American grocery chains now stock options free of added hormones and antibiotic.
Conserve energy and resources by using the simple everyday techniques popularized in the oil crisis of the late 1970s: Turn out the lights when you leave a room. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth. Turn down the thermostat on your hot water heater. Don’t use the extra rinse or hot air dry features on the dishwasher. Don’t stand in front of the fridge with the door open. Wash full loads of laundry and use a clothesline in place of the dryer. Combine errands in the car rather than making multiple short trips. Take a bike ride for those emergency runs to the grocery store. If you find yourself in the position to do so, extend those habits into bigger leaps: Live near the places you shop, work and play. Consider a commuter carpool. Shop local. Invest in energy-efficient appliances. Buy green-energy credits if your utilities offer them.
And, as promised, the gratuitous plug!
- If you are looking for others in the Blogiversity community who are thinking about similar things why not go check out the forums? The forums are a great place to share your knowledge, opinions, and questions on various topics--including... (wait for it...) greener living!