How old is the earth? Asking that question will bring a seemingly endless supply of answers. Truth is, no one truly knows exactly. Just suffice it to say that it is old, which means it is also very resilient. That is great news, because we sure do abuse it. In fact, short of Marvin the Martian using his Illudium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator to destroy our planet, it isn’t going anywhere. That said, even though the planet will live on no matter how much pollution is in its atmosphere and temperatures rise or fall, for life to continue to exist on it we have to consider how we are treating our home. “Going green” doesn’t have to imply political ideology or create divisions of one side against another. What it should mean is that we all love and respect this creation and want to do our part as fellow human beings to preserve it for future generations. There are roughly 7 billion people sharing one earth. All of them can’t help pitch in, but those of us who are able should certainly take simple measures that make a big impact across the entire globe. Use your search engine of choice to find literally thousands of ways to do so. To get your family started, here are 5 thoughts as to how we can care for this outstanding planet God gave us called Earth:
Start a Household Recycle Policy
Sit down with your children and brainstorm on the ways that your family can practice recycling the many things in your lives that could be used more than once. Of course, all plastics and papers should be recycled, and most if not all cities include recycle pick-up days. What else can your family use more than once? Certain clothing items, reusable cloth diapers, towels, and linens are some of the things that we could consider.
Environmentally Smart Diet Decisions
A popular trend and a wise one is something called “Meatless Monday.” As a family, designate the day of your choice as a meatless diet day. It is estimated that to produce just one pound of beef, it takes 1800-2500 gallons of water. In addition, 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed-lot beef, according to www.meatlessmonday.com’s listing of the environmental benefits. Check out their website for all the diet and environmental considerations of a day without meat, and consider making this a policy in your family. It’ll be good for your cholesterol too!
Home Conservation
Effective conservation is more of a mindset than any real inconvenience to daily life. Most parents teach their children to turn the lights off when they leave a room, to make sure the faucet is completely off when finished at the sink. Numerous simple habits that, if taken up by the entire family, will not only help the earth in conserving resources, but will save your family money using much less energy. We can turn the electronics off at night and unplug all the gadgets. We could turn off the water while brushing our teeth instead of leaving it running and we could take quicker showers. We can turn up the thermostat when we are not at home. Ask the kids to come up with their own ways to conserve energy and resources, and then implement the ideas.
Have a True Green Lawn
Americans are obsessed with our lawns. Many neighborhoods require minimum standards to keep up the property value of the homes. We use an extraordinary amount of water and chemical fertilizers to keep our lawns bright green and weed free. We can save money and greatly help the environment by changing some of these methods to be more earth and resource friendly. If your lawn needs to be watered, do so only in the early morning to avoid moisture lost to evaporation. Instead of using toxic chemicals to treat weeds, consider using more environmentally friendly ways to kill them. Allow grass clippings and leaves to act as the natural fertilizer and mulch that they are, but when you need to rake, do so by hand. It is great exercise and your leaf blower won’t be creating air and noise pollution.
Family Community and Environmental Service
Our children are full of great ideas when it comes to this subject. Ask them to come up with ways the family can serve the environment and the community and make it part of your monthly goals to accomplish those things. Planting trees, picking up roadside trash, and riding bikes instead of driving within reasonable distances are just a few suggestions.
