I wanted to proclaim this, “Happy Earth Day,” but how can we be happy, when our planet is suffering from our pollution and exploitation of her resources. If you want to read more regarding the state of our planet, check out this link to the “Vox,” site and the article called, “7 things we’ve learned about Earth since the last Earth day.”
I’m telling you…..
Times up.
Mother Earth is dying.
We have to take action.
But what can we do?
Yesterday, instead of our usual Easter Egg hunt in our back yard, we took our children to nearby Ellison Provincial Park, for an afternoon hike. Instead of finding foil wrapped, chocolate eggs, we had our children count how many wild flowers they could find, how many varieties of lichen and moss were in the forest and asked them to identify the different kinds of trees they recognized along the way.
The animation and joy never left our children’s faces throughout the afternoon. After enjoying the lunch I packed; veggie filled sandwiches, kettle chips, carrots and snap peas, on rocks next to the lake, we headed up the mountain. With each oxygen rich breath, my mind felt clearer. Grace and William took the lead and were quickly out of sight, exploring ahead but the little girls stayed with us on the trail. They took turns reading the various signs, placed throughout the park’s trail, educating us all with wonder on the flora and fauna we were enjoying.
Then, around a bend, the rich, green colour from the trees and the ground dotted with yellow and white wildflowers ended, as we were hit with a stand of blackened and dead trees. The once lush hillside, now dry and desolate, the chirping, bird sounds distant. The little girls were horrified at the devastation left by a forest fire, which I’d remembered ravaged part of the park a summer or two ago. Their faces told everything they were feeling, great sadness. This was the perfect opportunity, as we walked through the bare and darkened land, to talk about the health of our environment and how global warming was affecting not just our area, but the whole world. It was also a time to explain about forest renewal after a forest fire, and remind them how resilient the Earth is with a little help from us.
I think before real change can happen in the world, we need people to fall back in love with our Earth. That’s why David Suzuki Foundation’s, “The One Nature Challenge,” is so brilliant. The foundation is challenging us to spend 30 minutes a day, for 30 days, starting on May 1st, 2019. Their goal is simple;
To reconnect human beings with nature for the sake of their health and mental well-being.
At the bottom of the web sites are these words; “If you love nature, nature will love you back.” Doesn’t that say it all? Check out the link above, if you want to read more about this challenge. You don’t have to head to the forest like we did yesterday, although that would be great if you could. For those living in an urban area, head to a park, sit against a tree, let the energy rise up from it’s roots and restore you.
On the drive home from our hike, our daughter Victoria exclaimed, “that was so much better than any old Easter egg hunt,” The rest of the kids chimed in agreement on that sentiment. Then we started talking about things we can do to really make a change to help our environment.
One thing we can do is be conscious consumers and this is my focus.
During a visit at the beginning of the year, I’d asked my sister J, if she and my brother in law, B, had made any New Year’s resolutions. She inspired me with her plan to reduce their use of plastics. In their quiet way, they are always showing me a greener path. Not purchasing food wrapped in plastic was a big one. We were talking about all the sorts of veggies that are wrapped and re wrapped in non-usable plastic. One being cucumbers. For J’s birthday, I went to our local Farm Bound store that supports the organic food industry and provided zero waste products. I bought her a net bag, some cloth bags for produce, or dried goods, and those really cool waxed paper sheets that can be reused and reused. They smell heavenly of beeswax.
I think watching what we consume is a crucial first step as we have power in what we choose to purchase. A real zero waste lifestyle is easier when we buy products already in nature’s wrapping; bananas, watermelons, cantaloupes, oranges, lemons, etc. And when we can’t do that, bringing along our own bags or jars to fill is a rocking way to move closer to zero waste. Eating primarily a plant based diet is another win/win.
Hey, and on the topic of win/win, we save money and the planet, when we make our own household products like laundry soap, cleaning products and shampoo, which you can find more about under my eco- living pages.. I’ve recently read that China is changing their plastic recycling policies. If we thought our plastics in our recycling bins were magically being turned into toys etc, we better wake up. If no one is doing anything with the over abundance of plastic, where is it going? It’s everywhere now, and worse of all, it’s in the oceans and on our beaches killing aquatic life.
I’ve been extremely conscious of our waste, in my haste to declutter our home, but I’m not fooling myself thinking all our stuff is just poof, going away….no, it’s somewhere on the earth. It makes me sick. I’d like to think our old clothes and toys etc are being used by others but more and more I read that that is not the case. As everyone is doing what I am in North America.
So finally, on this Earth day, we are doing the big, BIG, thing. Drum roll please, for I know it’s not going to be easy changing our lifestyle.
We have cancelled our garbage pick up.
I’ve been wanting to cut our garbage for a long time now but as long as that green, garbage truck rolls into our neighbourhood every Wednesday, making our can’s contents magically disappear, we never seemed to make much headway in that department. Not any longer! You’d think my husband had brought me diamonds home the day he announced that he’d cancelled our garbage pick up. Finally! He did what I’ve been moaning about for awhile now. Don’t you just love a man of action! We are now going to have to face our waste. It’s going to be stinking up our garage otherwise. Our composting will be in full tilt, our recycling will be scrutinized carefully and we will have to change our consumption habits before bringing anything home from the mall, the grocery stores, even from birthday parties~!
I hope to share this journey with you. I can tell you right now we have dropped from two bags a week, to one bag a week. Of course, we have downsized from a family of ten, to a family of six since last September. Although, our older son is coming back from law school next week for the summer and we will be back up to seven in our household, I’m thinking since he has a Science degree,(majoring in earth and environment studies), he’s not going to be a hard sell in helping us reduce our waste.
The dream is to move down from one bag of garbage a week, to one bag a month, and eventually one bag every three months. That would be my dream. Four bags of garbage a year! Although far from a mason jar, like some families, but if we can do four bags of garbage from our current level of 52 per year, wow, oh wow, that would be remarkable. And that is just our family. IMAGINE, if we all dropped our waste to just 10% percent of what we are producing now!!!
Do you want to be inspired by a master of zero waste? Check out Bea Johnson’s book or any of her YouTube videos. She inspired me a few years ago, and this Earth day will be a turning point for our family following in her footsteps. It helps that it’s almost growing season here and much of what we eat will be from our backyard.
Wrapping things up, what can we do?
There is so much…pick what resonates for your family. Walking and riding your bike more, lowering your carbon footprint. Vacationing closer to home, again, reducing high carbon transportation. Eating a plant based diet, or moving towards a zero waste family, as we are now trying to be, which will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfills, and one of the things associated with global warming.
Before I close, I’d like to leave you with this powerful three minute video. David Suzuki tells us, “but you have to have hope,” and Chris Hadfield reminds us, “all the living things on this planet are interconnected.”
“Great things happen when we come together ”
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope