Commit to growing a small amount of food this year. Plan a larger garden for your backyard, join a community garden or, if you live in an apartment or condo, commit to growing small scale.
Grow Food
Grow tomatoes or strawberries on your balcony; herbs in your kitchen or you can even do a small amount of sprouting in the kitchen. Each food item that we grow ourselves directly contributes to reducing greenhouse gases.
Think About Your Water
Celebrate World Water Day on March 22 by watching a water film or reading a water book. Consider Flow, Blue Gold, Thirst, or reading Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America by Chris Wood, Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke or even the esoteric The Hidden Messages in Water by Dr. Emoto. Water is an increasingly hot topic as global fresh water shortages are expected to increase with climate change and as some parts of the world continue to overconsume a diminishing resource.
Earth Hour
Send a strong unified global message by turning your lights out for Earth Hour on March 28th from 8:30-9:30pm. Around the globe, citizens and communities will vote for the earth in the world’s first global election and demonstrate their concerns about climate change. Last year more than 50 million people participated. This year the target is to reach more than a billion people around the globe
Use Recycled Toilet Paper
Soft toilet paper use is worse than driving a Hummer, living in a McMansion or eating hamburgers, according to information recently released by Greenpeace. America is the worst nation on earth for toilet paper consumption. The UK Guardian Newspaper reports that Americans use about three times more toilet paper per person than the average European, and 100 times more than the average person in China. Stop wiping your ass on old growth forest and use recycled toilet paper.
Take Down A Fence
Fences, walls and gates have created a false sense of ownership while simultaneously fostering a disconnection from, and a lack of responsibility for, anything beyond our immediate environment. Unless you have livestock, take down your fences, walls and gates. Meet your neighbours and know your community. We need each other now more than ever and we cannot solve our global challenges unless we work together.
Clean Or Replace Filters
The simple act of cleaning and/or replacing old filters on your furnace or air-conditioning unit can save an estimated 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. It will also keep your house free of dust and improve indoor air quality.
Find Your Farmers Market
Spring is in the air in the western hemisphere and time to make a commitment to buying local food. Buying local (and consuming less meat and chicken) significantly reduces your carbon footprint. Remember that the average North American meal travels 2,400 km to get from field to plate and contains ingredients from 5 countries in addition to our own – that is a lot of food miles used to transport your food unnecessarily long distances. Frozen food is no better as it uses 10 times more energy to produce. Buy fresh local produce from your community Farmers Market.
Advocate For Change
Politicians can’t read your mind, so make a point of writing one letter, signing one petition or making one phone call each month to let an elected official, corporation or local store, know that you support green change. Every little bit helps.
Share Information
Have you discovered something interesting, helpful or perhaps life changing in the eco-world? If so, then tell someone else about it. This is how revolutions happen, person-by-person, community-by-community, until mass amounts of people are mobilized.
Take A Local Vacation
For Spring Break, consider not flying anywhere exotic and instead opt for a vacation close to home. Explore your own city, take a bicycle holiday and if you must go somewhere, take a low impact holiday by driving or travelling by train or bus. The Sierra Club’s Green Life website makes the comparison, “For a family of four, a round-trip transatlantic flight creates as much greenhouse gas as driving for a year”.
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