Green acres is the place to pee! (1)

Part One of Three.

 

I know that not everyone can build a yurt on 1-20 acres and live sustainably, creating their own food, electricity, clothing, and collecting their own water. But, everyone CAN do a few things to save what is most important to them...their lives.

Here are a few easy tips that I've learned over the past few years that will cut down on waste in the landfill, water usage, and the use of electricity:

1.) Turn off that light, unscrew it, then replace it with an energy saving light bulb. I know there has been some media hype about these bulbs containing mercury (they do) and in the long run being more harmful to the environment (they're not). My grandmother was watching this new story with me not long ago and then said "That's bullshit, when I was 8 or 9 we used to bust thermometers so we could play with it. Whatever amount that was in that thermometer far outweighs the amount in that light bulb and, as you can see, I am not a mutant." I know this story is a little scientifically useless but when common sense kicks in everyone will see that energy efficient bulbs last 5 to 7 times longer and have a less devastating effect on our already fragile environment. {Not to mention the amount of mercury in the bulb is virtually harmless, the government has a tendency to overreact to anything the FDA (or other shiftless layabouts) have deemed harmful}

Bliss Tree

2.) Carry a refillable water bottle. Come on now, they cost all of 99 cents at the local five and dime. How many bottles do you think get heaped up on "Mt. Dayton" daily because we are too lazy to unscrew a cap and drink from the tap? Hundreds or thousands of these bottles in ONE CITY a DAY!? Yes...that is correct. More go to the dump than to the recycling center. Don't get me wrong, I'm practical like everyone else...when I go out to Starbucks (a guilty pleasure of mine) I buy the Ethos like everyone else. I'm not trying to come off like a snooty von snoot here, I'm just trying to get everyone to do a weee tiny little bit for the state of our planet. So, if you know you're going out in the hot hot sun or on a run, walk, or jog...remember your water bottle is your friend and you can buy convenient carriers to clip on your belt loop or waistband!

3.) Buying jewelry sounds like something completely unrelated to the Earth for most people. The unfortunate part of that mistake is that our jewelry making material COMES from the Earth. Buying recycled or vintage jewelry saves so many resources it's not funny. Buying gold or diamonds for example. To produce your typical .33 ounce 18k gold band (think wedding bands here) requires 13,000 gallons of water and leaves a residual 20 TONS of cyanide-laden mine sludge. If only 1 in every 1000 people bought antique or vintage jewelry it would save a total of 2 MILLION TONS of mine waste and 1.37 BILLION GALLONS of drinkable water! (a precious commodity as only 3% of all the water on Earth is fresh water) For more information on the distribution of water go to this website: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html

More to come tomorrow!