Saturday Shorts: Counting Down to Earth Day 2014

The coming weeks are full of significant days, religious and secular, for reflection on how we live our lives and the state of the world in which we live — Passover (April 14-22), Tax Day (April 15), Easter (April 20), Patriot’s Day (April 21), and Earth Day (April 22). 

The original Earth Day logo

On Earth Day we are not called to religious services or family gatherings; we do not have the day off; we are under no legal obligation to observe it. But I hope that, like me, you choose to celebrate Earth Day every year. 

On April 22, 1970, Americans observed the first Earth Day, an event envisioned by Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin).

Less than one year later, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened its doors. According to information on the EPA website, “EPA's mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment—air, water, and land—upon which life depends.”

Part of the EPA’s task is to educate citizens about ways in which they can save energy and resources. Each day during the month of April, the EPA has been posting a new action step on its blog. Here is a selection of previously posted tips. Click on the tip for the whys and hows.

• April 1: Change Five Lights.
• April 5: Caulk and Weather-Strip Around Windows and Doors in Your Home. 
• April 9: Take a Shower. 
• April 10: Recycle Used Electronics. 

Visit the EPA’s blog for more suggestions. You will find that these “Green” ideas will save you money, too.

Let’s all become a little Greener as we count down to Earth Day together.

Have a good weekend, and come back again soon.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Counting Down to Earth Day 2013

On April 22 it will be 43 years since the very first Earth Day was observed.

Planet Earth has changed a great deal since 1970.

The world seems smaller thanks to the internet, cell phones, and jet planes.

• But the population of the world has grown from 3,706,618,163 in 1970 to 6,848,932,929 in 2010! 
• So has the number of cars, from 250 million in 1970 to one billion in 2010. 
• We buy bottled water, currently 167 plastic bottles per person in the US annually! 
• The amount of CO₂ in the earth’s atmosphere is currently at 392 parts per million. We need to be at 350 for the health of the planet.

On the plus side:

• We no longer use DDT. It was banned in the US on December 31, 1972. 
• The water is cleaner (in the US anyway). 
• And so is the air.

But there is still much work to do, at home, and all over the world.

My good friend Henry Dynia, the Director of Design and Construction at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, recently posted a blog entry titled: Earth Day? Why Bother? Henry wrote, “Although the impact of our choices may be tiny in relation to the problems, it is important to take advantage of the choices that are available to us to reduce our personal impacts. One by one, those impacts and better choices will add up to make a difference…”

As we count down to Earth Day 2013, I invite each of you to take one step a day to make the world a better place 

TODAY'S TIP:

Repurpose something old instead of buying something new.

Can you guess what these elegant candlesticks once were? 

Come back tomorrow to learn their story.

Love Your Mother (Earth). Pass it on. Together we can make a difference. Yes, we can!