Are you proud to be an American? If you are, chances are you hold the country’s flag in very high regard. You wouldn’t let it touch the ground, you would bring it to your local American Legion or VFW if it was “tattered and torn.” Chances are you would wear your red white and blue proudly on your body, you would get involved in projects to support veterans new and old and send packages to soldiers. You would take time out of your week to reflect on the sacrifice of our soldiers. With pride comes respect and reverence – this is something most people who are deeply connected to their American pride understand.
How about this: are you *proud* to be a citizen of this earth?
Are you aware of how your daily life impacts the earth? Seems a bit melodramatic, but when you add up all the lives and all the days, you get to a point where it’s big enough that 9,000+ bloggers are shining a light on the issue in an effort to affect change.
Climate change is the topic for this year’s Blog Action Day, and we’re hoping to reach out and encourage our readers to take pause and consider what’s happening around you and what you can do to lend a hand.
People use the word “GREEN” so much it makes me want to vomit. No, scratch that – PROJECTILE vomit. It’s so overused and so under-analyzed. If you thought hard about it you could probably claim to be green for the littlest reason, and I honestly think a lot of companies and individuals hang their “green” hats on that baseline effort. Winning sales by claiming GREEN is lame – and I challenge people to do their homework and hold companies to higher standards.
The idea is not to do as little possible and claim to be earth friendly. Individuals and companies alike can take some time to look at everything and try to go beyond the minimum. I’m definitely no angel when it comes to conservation and preservation, but I’m arming myself with some knowledge to get in the game and try to make more of a difference.
Interested in seeing some of the effects of Global Warming? Click to the Top 100 Effects of Global Warming. Take it with a grain of salt, but be warned, some of this stuff is scary (and I’m not just talking about the possible eradication of pinot noir – read down to the parts about malaria, famine, natural disasters).
There are a number of resources on the internet for you to gauge your personal, household or company’s carbon footprint. Check out some carbon calculators here:
At the end of some of these calculators, you are provided with options to offset your carbon footprint. The first option typically seems to be making a donation – which is a very worthy and noble course of action. But my first suggestion is to look at ways to minimize your impact on the earth. Some things I can speak to that you might want to try include:
- Carry a tote bag to work every day with your meal(s) instead of grocery or brown bags.
- Invest in reusable grocery tote bags or at the very least, use plastic and bring them back to the supermarket for recycling
- Recycle cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum and any household items that your city/town encourages.
- Buy one bottle of water on Monday and reuse it through the week, refilling it from the water cooler
- Save on gas and oil whenever and however possible. Carpool, buy more fuel efficient cars, use public transportation.
- Save energy and water when you can. Unplug electronics, don’t just power off. Don’t keep the faucet running when you don’t need it.
For more ideas, visit Scientific American and be sure to click through the 4 short pages of solid information.
It’s October, it’s getting cold here in New Jersey. You can bet your ass I’m freezing mine off when I emerge from underneath the very fluffy, very warm comforter in the mornings now. But I’m resigning myself to the goal of sucking it up for as long as possible before begging for us to start up the heat 
That’s just one thing I’m going to try – but there will be more.
This blog is all about spreading good karma around the world – how about we take some time to read up on the world itself and see how we can respect and nurture it?
No bit of difference is inconsequential.
earth egg image copyright azrainman
