Earth Day~Earth Week 2009

A couple of evenings ago, my oldest, Quentin turned to me and asked, "Mom, what are we doing for Earth Week?" Now, Quentin, is my super environmentally-conscious, studious, fastidious, analytical child, and I knew he was expecting a whole long list of plans for the week. Truth was, I had none. As a family, we naturally try to conserve energy as much as possible by turning off lights when not needed (we actually like sitting in the dark and spooking each other out), recycle like crazy (2blue boxes, 2 grey boxes, a composter and a huge green bin), fix leaky, drippy faucets ASAP to preserve precious clean water, and eat leftovers (big anti-food wasters). So...what else can we do?

Quentin's suggestions were, "no TV, no computer, barbecue EVERYTHING this week, walk to school and give ALL leftover leftovers to Poko or maybe even Lola." Hmmm. We can probably manage no TV, no video games, and barbecuing a few times this week...no computer? (gasp!) walk 3 kids to school each way? (a bit of a trek, especially with 3 boys) leftover leftovers to Poko & Lola (equals bad bad gas and you know what else!) So, we had to discuss some viable ways to contribute towards maintaining an ecofriendly, green earth...in the best ways WE can!

Here is what we have managed:

1.) Under no conditions are lights, TV or anything electronic left on when no one is in the room. Energy consumption awareness radars are on full tilt!

2.) Recycle EVERYTHING!

3.) Quentin's suggestion: Turn off faucet when brushing teeth, turn on only to rinse. Doable. Cool.

4.) Manage food waste..eat leftovers, give Poko SOME food scraps (meats maybe) gree bin the REST..little green bin stays next to garbage bin at all times.

5.) Finally, I plan to WALK to school to pick-up the boys on Earth Day, this Wednesday April 22nd. The van sits. I will also bring a bag and gloves and we plan to pick up garbage off the streets along the way and back. Then on the eve of Earth Day, we will have another Earth Hour where all lights will be shut off along with anything that is plugged into a socket.

As Quentin says, every little bit helps. So we will do our little bit to preserve our beautiful green planet. :)

R..