Love Your Mother

Happy Earth Day all! My hope is that you spent today doing something kind for your mother earth and you were able to step outside and enjoy some fresh air and beautiful sights in your neighborhood environment. There is not much in terms of Earth Day celebrations here in San Antonio but I remember when I lived in CA I would attend the Earth Day Festival in the Bay Area each year. It was always an eclectic mix of new-agers, Native Americans, the birkenstock crowd as well as folks just interested in living a healthier and more green lifestyle. I always walked away from the event with lots of ideas, books, samples and a plant or two. We are so blessed to live on our planet and we tend to take her for granted. With the wide distribution of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" a while back, my hope is that more earth-dwellers are taking a closer look at what we all can do to help our planet heal for our own future as well as for the next generations. A goal of mine over the past several months has been to make small changes in my home in order to create a more ecofriendly environment. In this blog entry, I offer a few suggestions for you to implement in your own life that will make a significant impact:

Shed some light: By this I mean change out your incandescent bulbs for the energy saving Smart Bulbs. The stats are that each bulb changed will save 70-75% energy as compared to an incandescent bulb and last 10x longer.

Get good and clean: Next time you need to replenish your laundry soap or household cleaner, choose the earth-friendly variety. It may cost a bit more than your usual brand, but you will need less to do the same job and the ingredients are phosphate free and typically made of fruit enzymes.

Don't be idle: Instead idling in traffic while waiting for the train to pass or for your child to come out of school, take action and turn off your engine. Ten minutes per day less of engine idling will keep 550 lbs of carbon dioxide out of the air each year. For more info go to www.enginesoff.org.

Toss your paper: Recycle your newspaper and other paper products. Each stacked foot of recycled newspaper in the bin conserves a 40 foot tree! In your home switch over to recycled paper products such toilet paper, paper towels and napkins.

Look for deals the second time around: When it's time to buy a new outfit, why not go to your local consignment shop to check out their bargains? Not only will you save some green in your wallet, but you will be extending the life of a great outfit.

More easy to apply suggestions:

Check out what you can do in your very own neighborhood or town by going to www.earth911.org. Enter your zip code and check out how you can better your own community.

Watch the beautiful and moving series "Planet Earth" on the Discovery Channel for some additional inspiration for reasons to love our mother earth.

Check out Simran Sehti on her show "The Green" (go to www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen for listing) for some great ideas on how to live more green.

Don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the page to click on this week's youtube video (it will play at the top of the page once you have clicked!) Please click on the second square--being a newbie at this stuff I was unable to edit the video clip to not include the first one!

Thought for the Day: What can you do today to create some change and improve your environment? For example, how about taking your own coffee cup to your favorite coffee shop this morning instead of getting the paper to-go cup which will only end up in the trash? Remember it just takes a few small changes to reap huge benefits when it comes to helping our planet.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855