Author’s Report: Earth Day 2006
I had a great Earth Day! I met a lot of nice kids at the book reading/signing at Borders Books & Music in Ithaca, NY (pics below). One family told me they had picked up trash before coming to the event and another family told me the sad tale of their battle with an 8000 cow factory dairy farm! In case anyone has forgotten; factory farming is a very real thing that harms families, communities and Gaia. The reality behind Enter the Earth
Brooke Pevear’s playing and signing was excellent..as always! I am still trying to master the harmonies of the Enter the Earth song. I think my next favorite Brooke song is, Horse’s Can’t Fly. That is also the name of one of her albums. I was glad Brooke could make it. She was tired because she is building her own cabin! Here I thought she got those muscles from strumming her guitar!
I decided that this year, to help Gaia, I am going to do 3 simple things:
1-I am going to make sure I have my travel mug with me each time I go out. That way, if I want coffee, tea, water or juice, I can get it without using a throw-away cup.
2-I am going to use my re-usable bags each time I go grocery shopping. I have four Green Bags-they are great, but I forget to use them sometimes.
3-As much as possible; eat local, organic & sustainably grown food.
I picked these three things because they are simple and effective ways to effect my impact on Gaia. You may think, “what does one paper/plastic cup matter?” But it isn’t one paper cup-it is millions and millions of cups! I will stop using them as much as possible and that may be as many as 520 a year!! Imagine if everyone did that?
What is one thing you could do to help Gaia this year?
Here are some ideas.
isquiesque says:
I always carry my travel mug. One day last month, while in another town, I went to a coffee shop and handed them my mug and asked for an Americano. The woman said, “Um, well, is it okay if I use one of our [paper] cups?” I told her that I had specifically carried my cup all the way from home specifically so that I wouldn’t be wasting paper at every coffee shop, and that it had the added benefit of saving her shop a little bit of money. “Oh – you’re one of *those* people,” she said. It turned out that she wasn’t sure my cup would fit in the espresso machine, but it did, and she used my cup, and it was all good.
But yes, I’m one of “those people” (and proud of it).
Lee Welles-author says:
We can use as many of “those people” as possible! I once had an airport coffee vendor have to put my order into a paper cup and then dump it into my travel mug. I just shook my head in disbelief! I get a lot of compliments for my green bags http://www.greenbag.info and I can see other shoppers looking at my cart and considering the option. I’m THRILLED that Wegmans (where I shop) has recently started carrying the same bags!
See…It worked!