What I Can Do For the Earth

It's been bothering my conscience for a very long time. Everything I do is contributing to the detriment of the earth and I need to make some serious changes to offset this.

I was just watching on PBS, a National Geographic program called Strange Days on Planet Earth, "Dirty Secrets". It was about different species of animals dying from mysterious illnesses or other unknown causes. Researchers investigated and found that the causes lead directly back to us. Bacteria linked to sewage that had been dumped into the water was causing serious diseases in fish and had the potential to wipe out 50% of the population or more. What was especially horrifying to see were baby albatrosses that had died because their guts were swollen with plastic garbage. Apparently the currents from the ocean were carrying tons of garbage from our coastline and putting it out thousands of miles in the middle of the water where it floats forever. The plastics will take hundreds of thousands of years to disintegrate. Adult albatrosses hunt for food in this area and they were bringing back the garbage to feed their young. The documentary showed scientists pulling out old pacifiers and plastic beads from young bird corpses. It was sickening to say the least and heartbreaking for sure, but it is not just the birds that are being affected. The fish and sea life beneath the ocean are being greatly affected in detrimental ways too. It made me sit up and take notice.

It has been a slow process but we have been converting all of our light bulbs in the house to the energy saving flourescent ones. We, of course, have been recycling paper, glass and aluminum but unfortunately, we can't recycle most plastics. Our thermostat was set to 64 degrees through the whole winter. I about froze to death but our heating bill was a lot lower. There was a time we were composting and I am definitely going to go back and do it again to reduce our garbage load. I'm also buying some cloth shopping bags so that I do not have to use plastic at the grocery store. Driving is a big problem. I consolidate my errands so that I can do it in one trip but living in the country makes it difficult to conserve on gas. We need a new vehicle next year and will be looking for a gas efficient model.

Since I have been remodeling my house, I plan to save all my old doors, windows, and two by fours and give them away to someone who can refurbish and use them .

I also want to pay attention to the products I use. At present, I am using all green cleaners in my house so they won't add any more toxicity to the environment. I just learned about bioplastics where potatoes can be turned into plastic silverware, carpet, fabric and recyclable plastic bottles. The UK and Japan have already been using this technology. Cornstarch can be used to make styrofoam like products too. The beauty of these are that they are biodegradeable, toxic-free and recyclable.

Each person, whether they want to or not, makes a big negative impact on the environment. I want to do what it takes to lessen my carbon footprint and just think if everyone did a little bit, it could make a huge difference.