[JeanLynn81]

April 22nd is Earth Day!
Now's a great time to start thinking of ways to save our planet.
Do you recycle? Use organic products?
Or do you want to, but was waiting for the perfect time to start?
Earth Day is perfect for that!
Let's all do our part to ensure that our children have a clean healthy planet to live in, in the future.

According to scientists, in human years, the planet Earth is about 80 years old! So that means every harmful thing we do to her is going to have more of an effect than on a 20 yr old.

Let's name some things we can do to pamper our favorite planet!

1. recycle
2. go organic
3. carpool

Please add onto this list! Thanks!

[MissyChrissy]

Need thread! I'm sorry I didn't see this before. Did you see how all around the world the major tourist sites turned off their lights? It was cool...they even shut down the empire state building's lights.

I'd encourage anyone who hasn't already done so to watch Inconvenient Truth. It's not really political-Al Gore isn't asking for votes. He's presenting the science behind Global Warming.

We have all florescent lights in our house. Every single one of them. I'm a stickler about shutting off lights when leaving a room. I copied Arnold Schwarzenegger's policy of unscrewing a light bulb that's been left on with no one in the room!

We have a minivan, but it's only driven when 5 or more of us have to go somewhere. My dh has a 4 cyl pickup, and I have a 4 cyl car that are our daily drivers. My car (a VW) is only a 4 passenger-thus the need for the minivan. I get 30-ish mpg with the VW.

I've researched solar power. It's too expensive for set up right now, even with tax breaks & such...so now I'm looking into a windmill. Seriously.

I do not believe in trading in cars just 'cause they get high mileage. I say, drive them till they're REALLY dead. Like, if you've had to walk or call for a tow truck 2-3 times in a 6 month period, it may be time to start looking. My VW has 210,000 miles on it, and my dh's truck has just about 300,000 on it. The reason for this is it pollutes the air MORE to produce the new "reliable" cars Americans insist on buying every 3-5 years. All the plastics, upholstery, electronics, metal...all various factories contributing to air pollution...more so than my older catalytic converter ever could produce. My minivan I just bought-used. I'll NEVER buy new. And I plan on having this van till at least 2013. It'll be 10 years old.

I can't think of anything else right now that we're doing. We've always recycled. We're planting 10 trees this spring. If I think of more, I'll be back!

[barefootbookslady]

My 6 year old daughter goes through the house, yard, neighborhood picking up garbage "to keep the Earth clean". She's always had a fascination with garbage! By sharp contrast, her sister got it when she was 11 months old and did not touch "dirties" ever again! I can't believe how different kids can be!
Another thing we can do is to unplug all of our un-used appliances - yes, the TV, toaster, DVD player et al when we are not using them. These are still drawing power and since most of our electricity comes from burning natural gas we are really going to be in trouble in 2035 when we RUN OUT of this resource! No kidding, I know a man who sources natural gas and the projected supplies are far less than the demand.
I recently learned about Freecycle in my neighborhood - it's a webbased group where people post things as offered and then others take them. I now freecycle with a great company that makes handmade paper journals out of the trimmings of a bush in Nepal. No cutting down trees and they pay a fair trade wage to the women who make the paper. I get my books wrapped in bubblewrap and cardboard boxes and he reuses them to ship his product. No need to even recycle because my waste is his need!
Educating all generations is key - my grandmother watched Oprah (I'm so glad, she was not listening to me!) on Friday with my kids and they both left with a new perspective. I like to make global concientiousness fun for my kids - we have a new book out called The Whole World which talks about how the world is in Our hands, Her hands and His hands. It is great when children know that their contributions really count. So, I guess I'll just be asking my 6 year old to wear gloves or wash her hands in cold water more frequently when she is doing her part to save our Whole World!
Go Mom's - together we can make a difference! Recycle, reuse, and renew

[JeanLynn81]

I read a story about how people get vegetable oil from resturants, then boil it, and they can run their car on it.

Does anyone know how this works?

[barefootbookslady]

It's called bio-diesel and certain parts of California are really doing a good job using it. I guess there are certain types of car engines that are compatible. I'm sure if you did a search you may find out some more technical information but these people in West Marin have cooperatives and some event keep a supply in their garage. I think it is not so combustable but not sure. I see cars frequently that have bumper stickers saying they run on vegetable oil. Pretty neat to reuse!

[QueenAngie]

Never heard of running cars on it before - great concept!

Happy Earth Day! We talked about this on Friday at work. People were picking up trash, recycling, and planting trees to mark the occasion.

We recycle weekly with our garage day.

What about you?

[MissyChrissy]

I totally forgot about this one-I've been doing it so long...I reuse my grocery bags until they're too ripped up/stretched out to hold anything.

[pattiewrites]

We took the kids to an Earth Day festival. They calculated their carbon footprints and we learned a lot about organic gardening. We are going to plant a vegetable garden as soon as it gets warm enough. (May 25 is the planting date here). We learned about composting and eating locally grown foods. We've been trying to eat locally grown whenever possible and we figured what's more local than the back yard?

We recycle, reuse, try to limit packaging in what we purchase and the girls are always turning off the lights, even when I need them! We watched an Inconvenient Truth with our kids and they are very into this topic right now.