Environment

They have become the scourge of our planet - perhaps mankind's worst contribution to our environment. Plastic bags. They are found everywhere on earth. Hooked in the bushes and trees, scattered over parking lots and open spaces, lying up against the fence where the wind took it. Take a look at a construction site - it's had to find the concrete and steel among the plastic bags.

 Look at these numbers from one of the world's smallest and most well developed countries - Israel. In one year each Israeli citizen uses more than 730 plastic bags! More than 2 every day. Based on this statistic, they are using more than 14 million bags per day and 5 billion bags a year!  Those bags typically take up to 500 years to bio-degrade, yet each bag is only used for an average of 25 minutes. It is estimated that 28% of all garbage in Israel comes from plastic bags.

 Surely there is an alternative. What did we do before this awful invention? I remember that there were brown paper bags for many things that we purchased. And sometimes my mother would send me to buy potatoes or tomatoes with a cloth bag hanging out of my pocket or hooked onto the back of my bicycle. There was nothing wrong with that system and the vegetables made it all the way home.  

 

It's time for the world to take a step back and look at itself in the ecological mirror - its time for one of those "life-changing" changes. We have to go back to paper bags or even better, to reusable cloth or nylon bags for all the purchases we make. And the time to start acting positively is now, not after everything has been choked to death with plastic.  

I have two dogs, Black Lab mixes.  They're both crazy.  But Mica, she is out of this world.  Sometimes we take them to the fish ponds where we live and just hang out.  Generally they go swimming, run around, and chase random things.

Last week they went to the ponds with a friend and began their normal hang out and have fun routine.  All was normal until Mica decided to chase a mongoose.  This wasn't just any mongoose, this was a black belt Shao-lin master, and it would not take the easy way out and run away.  No, no. 

This mongoose master whooped my dogs butt.  When my husband and I arrived home, we came upon a red porch and a very unhappy Mica.  The first thing my husband said was, "I hope she at least killed the mongoose". 

The next day we took her into the vet.  There we fought a battle of epic proportion while trying to staple the wounds on her face.  Finally the testosterone in the room listened to what I had repeated about fifty times, that if she doesn't want something, she won't allow it, and sedated her.  Afterwards, when everything had calmed down the vet said to us, "I hope she at least killed the animal".

Later we went to a friend house and recalled the story, to again, the same response.  Last night I spoke with my sister and told her about Mica's fight.  She said, "Well, I hope she killed it, at least"! 

Now, I can't decide whether I am the sane one, or everybody else is.  I look at it in the sense that Mica attacked another animal, which was brave enough to fight back, and whoop her ass.  Mica got what she deserved (not so say I don't feel bad for her pain and suffering), but why does the mongoose deserve to die?  All it did was stand up for itself.

Well, we have no idea what happened to that mongoose; but I have this funny feeling that while tucking it's little mongoose kids into bed at night, they beg him to repeat the tale of how he, their father, single- handedly defeated the she- monster that attacks at random, and until that fateful day wreaked hell on the mongoose community by the ponds...

I wonder what the world was like on the eve of its greatest invention - the wheel? Was it poised breathless, knowing that human life was about to change dramatically and forever? We should be breathless in the same way now - we should also be poised on the brink of another invention that will change our world, and us, dramatically and forever. We will recognize the invention when it arrives - we have been waiting for it, we are ready for it, and we know exactly what to do with it, just as our ancestors knew instinctively how to put the wheel to work. There will be no dithering.

The invention, quite simply, will be a substitute for water. I grew up on the continent of Africa, which no longer has water. It had plenty when I was young. We played in it, swam in it, wasted it, let the faucet run, washed the family car with the hose pipe and watered the garden mercilessly. We built buildings in huge reflecting pools and scattered public fountains around our town. Today, Africa is a continent of dust, civil war, fly-infested children with swollen bellies, with no water to waste and no water to drink. There is a new name for water - it is being called "Blue Gold." It has acquired commercial value. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization, more than 1 billion people, or about a sixth of the earth's population, lack access to a healthy water supply. 200 million people around the world are infected with schistosomiasis, a disease which comes from drinking contaminated water and destroys the human organs.

Can you imagine living in a residence that has no water connection? I was shattered to read that only 20% of the world's residences have running water. In China, two thirds of the cities have a dearth of water. The aquifers in India are reportedly running dry and in many developing countries, wars are being fought over the precious resource which we take for granted in the western world. There is little fresh water on the earth today, meaning that all water has already been used and recycled. We cannot manufacture "new" water, other than by our puny efforts at desalinating. The amount of sweet water on the earth is the same quantity as it always has been and it is the human population that has changed and brought about the shortages.

As the world population grows, our individual share of the world's water shrinks and soon everyone will be at risk. Wake up on Monday morning, leap out of bed; uh uh, no shower today - I'm due for one on Thursday. Half a cup of coffee and dash off to the office. There I am allowed one cup for the day and the water cooler is under supervision. Dinner is almost dry; I downed my month's beer ration by the tenth.

 Next thing we know is that there will be illegal "water running" across state lines and from country to country. The unscrupulous will build illegal pipe lines and tap into anyone else's exposed and available water supply pipes. The price of water will rocket as it does for any commodity in short supply and a black market will develop. "Hey, Mister, I have fresh water! Twenty bucks a liter?"

 After that, or perhaps it is already happening, the conglomerates will start building desalination plants and buying up lakes, dams and rivers in order to control a share of the water market. Secret dams will be built high in the mountains to trap as much rainfall as possible for storing, packing and selling at exorbitant prices. Bandit tankers will roam the oceans, off-loading fresh water to the highest bidders.

 This is a good time to search for water companies on the stock exchanges of the world and start buying up stock. You won't lose your investments.

 So it's time to stop chasing after the unattainable. We cannot clear the blockage to the water problem. Let's build a by-pass, let's find a replacement for water. A new substance. It doesn't have to be a liquid or look like water and it doesn't have to smell like water, although it would probably be better if it did. But it does have to serve the same functions, from making soup to manufacturing semi-conductor chips to irrigating our fields.  

 Of course there is an alternative to the new substance, but it bears little thinking about. We human beings, animals and plant life will have to undergo some sort of mutation process to make us adaptable to a waterless environment.

 Remember the little green men from Mars?    

Have you heard about this new gadget that can save your sanity? The cellphone jammer! You get on the bus/train/tram and the guy/girl next to you starts yakking on his/her cellphone. There are no other seats available and you are stuck listening to one side of some stupid conversation. You can't read or concentrate on anything, so you sit stewing, wishing you could press the eject button and launch the talker into space. Well, it seems that now you can with this new gadget called a cellphone jammer. All you do when your nerves reach breaking point is slip your hand into your secret pocket where the jammer is resting. Press on the button and you cut his/her phone call instantly and return to a quiet world. This is not a joke. The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States, prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation. The development is creating a battle for control of the airspace within earshot. And the damage is collateral. Insensitive talkers impose their racket on the defenseless, while jammers punish not just the offender, but also more discreet chatterers. The jamming technology works by sending out a radio signal so powerful that phones are overwhelmed and cannot communicate with cell towers. The range varies from several feet to several yards, and the devices cost from $50 to several hundred dollars. Larger models can be left on to create a no-call zone. But, using the jammers is illegal. The radio frequencies used by cellphone carriers are protected, just like those used by television and radio broadcasters. People who use cellphone jammers could be fined and enforcement is operating and is already prosecuting a few American companies for distributing the gadgets. The users are are also subject to prosecution.

Years ago our young children used to sing a song  "In China people plant the rice, plant the rice, plant the rice". Now I am in China, admittedly only for a week and that's not what the people in China are doing! The people in China are smoking. I am attending a conference in the northern city of Dalian, a huge seaport and a rapidly developing city with a population of 6 million people. Walking downtown here is like walking down the streets of New York between the soaring glass tower blocks to the sound of hooting cars and screeching brakes.

 And everyone is smoking. There were tea breaks at the conference and at the first break I dashed out of the hall to grab a cup of coffee, took one breath and dashed straight back in again. The air was blue with smoke. I couldn't breathe for cigarette smoke.  The conference consisted mainly of Americans and Chinese. A few of the Americans smoked and all of the Chinese smoked. In the hotel dining room and in restaurants there are Chinese smoking. The cab drivers and bus drivers smoke - it looks like the national pastime.  

 I came back to the hotel last night after walking out in the street for a while and was hit by the smell of smoke as I entered the hotel lobby. The 12^th floor, where my room is, is clearly naked, "Non-Smoking Floor". You should smell it!

 It's now years since the western world relegated smoking to the history books as a nasty habit that once was popular and is now largely out of fashion. China has something to learn. The Chinese are learning everything else they can from the western world and hopefully they will pick up our better attributes as well.

I love this weather.  I know that it is probably the effects of global warming, and I know that lots of places have been suffering because of the crazy weather, but me, I am living it up while I have it!

Where I live, it is normally really hot at this time of year, and each year, I get really homesick for my family's home in the States because there they get all four seasons.  Here it is normally summer and winter (which in my opinion is more like fall).

But now, wow, it's amazing.  The past few day have had a wonderful breeze and I could even go outside in pants (normally I'm too hot).  But the best thing happened this morning.  It rained!!!  It rained!!!  It never rains at this point in the year, the rainy season starts in mid to late October.  Last year it only rained a few times all season (till the rainy season ended and it then rained a bunch of times- global warming for you).

The thing is, it didn't only rain this morning, it was chilly too!  I left home in a long sleeve shirt today.  For the fist time since I moved here from the States, I have never, ever felt autumn.  Today I did.  Maybe global warming will actually give my country the four seasons I have so often prayed for.

I am not one to be happy with hurting our planet, but the feeling I had waking up this morning and feeling Autumn?maybe that is the one positive side effect of global warming- some of us get to experience better weather?

As time has gone by, I have begun to realize more and more how much stuff I throw away that I should have recycled.  I don't even do it on purpose, I hate knowing that I waste lots of stuff.  I know that part of it is the simple fact that I am a bit lazy (the bigger part being that we don't have good recycling programs where I live, and have very few options of what to recycle- paper, plastic, and in some places glass bottles.  That's it).

I hate it when I walk over to the trash can to throw something away and all of a sudden the little voice of conscious in my head says, "You could recycle that".

I saw a news program not too long ago that showed the Japanese culture of recycling.  They recycle almost everything; they have something like 50 different choices of what to recycle.  And the Japanese are so socially aware, that they are happy to recycle and make a difference in helping the world.

It makes me feel proud to know how much fellow people care.  I also feel bad that I do so little.  From now on, I will continue to recycle, but even better than I do before - no more paper and glass bottles to the trash.  I need to stop being lazy.  If my Japanese counterparts can do it so efficiently, I don't see why I cant just do it - I may not catch up to them, but I need to do what I can to make a small difference.

I guess fish can stink...even in the water!

I learned something interesting the other day that I would love to share with you.  I don't know if you remember way back when, that I discussed the destruction of the world's coral reefs which is partially due to our need to scuba dive around and also to touch these extremely fragile environments. 

What I learned was that something else that has also added to this destruction, and I learned that this problem is actually being fixed (albeit slowly).  In places, for example,  like Eilat, Israel, and Aqaba, Jordan which are at the northern most tip of the Red Sea, there are amazing coral reefs (well more like used to be, as over 60% have already been destroyed, mainly by tourism). 

In the past the fishing industry would put large cages in the water as well.  The issue, it was found, was that these cages were actually polluting the waters and adding to the destruction of the coral reef as well many other things, I'm sure. 

So, when they realized this, all over the world, they came up with a new concept (I am not endorsing or condoning this).  Rather than keep these cages in the shallow waters, where they are causing obvious destruction, it was realized that they could put these cages farther off into the seas/ oceans, where the waters were deeper.  The thing is when the cages were in shallower water, or closer to shore, the pollutants were unable to disperse and/or disappear enough due to lack of space.  In the deeper waters, that is exactly what happens to the pollutants from these cages, there is enough room for them to disintegrate into the vast amounts of water around them. 

I am pleased that at least an effort is being made.  Though this problem is still a big issue world wide, one at a time, countries are coming to their senses and making regulations for these cages to be put in deeper waters, which helps to let the pollutants dissolve better, or in the least, cause less damage, as there is more space.

Good luck, I hope this works!

What we don't know... does scare the pants off of us!

I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me a few years ago.  My sister and I lived together in Melbourne, Florida, and one day we went to Sebastian Bay, a man made inlet in the mid-east of the Florida peninsula, to learn to surf and to enjoy the beach.  I made a failed attempt at surfing and when our friend took back his surfboard, my sister and I decided to take a swim.

After swimming way past the level where we could touch the bottom, we heard the lifeguard's siren go off.  We looked back, saw that it wasn't for us and continued swimming.  A few seconds later it went off again.  I looked back and saw that he was beckoning us back to shore.

Reluctantly, we began our return to the beach, my sister in front.  After a few moments of swimming, I looked back to see the fin of a shark, which I figured at three to four feet long, gliding right past where my sister and I had been swimming.  It was feeding.  So as not to scare her I didn't inform her that a shark just swam by (at that point in life, she was terrified of sharks, and where we were at the moment had one of the highest rates of shark attacks in the States).  I kept calm and kept us swimming. 

When we arrived at shore, I told her what I saw, and the lifeguard verified it, except he said that the shark was about 7-8 feet long (as he knew better than I, he was probably right). 

We survived a near shark attack. 

The thing is, we were unknowingly swimming within attack distance of dozens of sharks, yet we didn't get attacked.  Why?  Because sharks don't "just" attack people.  Humans are their least favorite of the spectrum of flavors out there.  Though we were within 7 feet of a 7-8 foot shark, we didn't even go off as a blip on its radar.  Sharks don't even want to eat us - that's an ego popper.  They attack when hungry, curious or in danger.

After this experience, Hollywood lost all credibility for me.

 

What makes us so uncaring about the global predicament?

Lately I have been hearing people talk about what is going on with our world, and it is driving me crazy!

We were having a discussion the other day about the ridiculous flooding that have been going on in England, the heat waves that have been hitting us and other abnormal things going on in our world.  People are now saying, "Well, that's global warming."

Yeah, it sure as heck is global warming, but how do you take it so casually?  People act as if this is the most natural thing in the world that global warming is occurring now at an accelerated rate.  It is as if they are not at all worried about the devastating effects, which we are already seeing as I write this (Exhibit A:  Flooding in England. Exhibit B: Melting Icebergs.  Exhibit C: Melting Himalayas).

So why are we so nonchalant about this ultra important issue?

I've come up with three conclusions.  The first is that governments are keeping it as a low priority on their agenda, as money talks and our world doesn't.  It works really well for them that the environmental issues are kept under the lid?they give just enough to "show they care", but not so much that it will hurt them in any way, shape or form.

The second reason is that environmental organizations have been trying for so long to make a difference, that people have just gotten sick of hearing about the environment and what we are doing to ruin it.

Finally, the third reason, which I believe may be the real reason, is that we as the human race simply do not know how to think towards the future.  We don't think about the future that our children and their children will have, we are shortsighted, and believe that if things are alright, maybe not perfect, but alright, now, then they will also be fine in the future.

We need to be careful.  Our children's futures literally do hang on a thread if we continue to think in the present.

 

The other day I was struck with reality in a battle of weight vs. survival...as always, I lost.

The other day, while volunteering at a summer camp, we decided to have a "cooking day".  The idea was fabulous; we would make salads, and pita bread snacks together with the children, and feast on it all together.

 I was working with a group of children going into second grade, so it is obvious that these kids are pretty young.  In the beginning of the day, one of the girls came up to me and informed me that she would not be eating the pita as it is fattening.  I was a bit taken aback and asked her why she cared whether the pita was fattening or not.  She told me that she was fat and she needed to go on a diet.  I was pretty bothered by this, and asked her if she thought I was fat to which she immediately answered yes (this ruined my argument to her that I eat everything I want and am still skinny due to the fact that I walk).  I didn't know what else to say to her, as obviously she was being raised in a way where she is way too self conscious about her body and society's opinion of body image.  By the way, the kid is not fat, or even on her way to getting overweight.

Anyways, to make a long story short, at the end of the day the child asked me what I do with my water bottles when I finish with them.  I told her that I re-use it until I am done with the bottle then I recycle it.  Recycle?  What's that?

I tried to give the ten second explanation of recycling and why we do it to a six year old, but by the end of three seconds she was bored and probably day dreaming about pita bread.

I must admit, I find it very perturbing to know that some children are taught from an extremely young age to not be comfortable with their bodies and must diet, diet, diet?when the parents have not even begun to teach their child of the importance of social consciousness within our world.  A six year old has never heard of recycling, but diets because she thinks she's fat?and that is becoming the norm, am I the only person who sees a problem with this?

by M.L.

 

My sister is a professor of Biology.  She does research in addition to teaching graduate students who are working for their doctorates.  Her specialty is – get this – the social behavior of spiders.  I always wondered why anyone would want to study the social behavior of spiders and to what purpose such knowledge could be put.  Well, something really unusual has come out of her research and that of her students.

One of my sister's students has been working on a project which is gaining tremendous interest in the field of agriculture:  using spiders on fields of crops instead of pesticides.

It seems that there are certain species of spiders – I have no idea of their names – that feed on the mites and insects which destroy food crops.  Letting loose a few thousands of these spiders in a field of wheat, for instance, will allow the farmers to stop using pesticides to control the destructive insects.

Think of how healthy this procedure could be!  It appears that there is already a certain species of bees, very tiny ones, being used in strawberry fields for the same purpose.  These strawberries are called "organic" berries, so when you are buying strawberries look for the little bee on the box.  You'll know that you are getting strawberries that have not been sprayed by pesticides.

It is not easy to convince the farmers of the advantages to using spiders for controlling insects as opposed to pesticides.  They have yet to realize that it is cheaper and healthier, but my sister and her students hope that it won't take long for them to understand.  It will open up a whole new field in bio-agriculture!  

 

The tourist industry better catch on to this quickly, before it all dissapears!

It looks to me like the name of the game is no longer eco- tourism, but global warming tourism.  The latest fad in tourism is brought to us by our very own?.icebergs!  Yes, let's hear a round of applause for this latest money making machine!

Thanks to the decision of some renegade icebergs, we no longer need to go all the way to the poles to experience their splendor, why, they have traveled the long and difficult journey, 2000 miles south, just to save us the hassle of going all the way to them!

Thank goodness for global warming ladies and gentlemen, for without which, many of us mere mortals would have never had the experience of floating icebergs, especially at such a close distance!  What, pray tell, could be more exciting!  The wonders of the world are coming right to us!

Funny how countries like Greenland are making a killing, and tourists like me are spending our dollars, to experience the literal destruction of our North Pole.  But it's so worth it, because, if we don't see it now, there will be nothing else to see?and we don't want to miss an opportunity like this!  It only comes once in a million years?well, not literally, last time was ten thousand years ago?but still!

Sometimes I wonder what those airheads are doing, wasting all of their precious time and energy trying to save the world?My goodness, if they got what they wanted, then I would have no melting icebergs floating 2,000 miles south, for my very own viewing pleasure!

From my Friend L.M.:

I suppose it’s an indication of our good intentions - we are destroying the planet by trying to improve it. On any day of the week you can see a new profession operating in the streets. He - it is usually a he - is involved in the beautification of our environment.

I call him a “Show, Blow and Go men”. He arrives, he blows stuff around and then he leaves. They are not gardeners, but rather external cleaners. They walk around with petrol driven blowers on their backs and holding the exhaust pipes in their hands, their function is to clean by blowing the dirt, leaves and dry grass from one property to the next. Besides the noise they generate which must inevitably lead to their own deafness, all they are doing is moving stuff around. Occasionally you may see one of them sweeping the pile of dirt they manufacture into a pan and then into a bin, but mostly they just blow it into the next door property.

So far so good, but they’re doing something much more harmful. Their blowers are lifting solid particles into the air and that’s the same air we breathe. Walk near to where a blower is operating and you breathe in a lungful of particles. Some of these are ‘heavy’ and have been lifted into the air by the blower. You breathe them in and they settle in your lungs.

Your lungs naturally produce a mucous to trap the particles and tiny hairs in your lungs wiggle to move the mucous and particles out of the lung. You may even notice something in the back of your throat, which is actually mucous. You get rid of the mucous by coughing or swallowing. If the particle is small and it gets very far into the lungs, special cells in the lung will trap the particles and prevent them from getting out. The result can be lung disease, emphysema or lung cancer.

   
 

The plant I never needed, until I did.

I have this plant.  Well maybe had is a better word for it.  I got it from my mother- in- law, healthy, in perfect condition, straight from her garden to mine.  It was a beautiful plant.

It sat for a few days, unplanted, as I needed to weed and clear out my garden, which I had left untouched since we moved in 7 months ago.  Finally, I basically cleaned out the garden, enough to see the beauty that lie underneath the weeds, and planted the gift from my mother-in-law.

At the time I planted it, there was a kitten being raised under a huge bush in front of which I had planted the gift.  The first day I took my dog for a walk after planting, she ran over to try to find the kitten, and knocked the plant out from its new home.  After the walk, I replanted it.

The next day, the scene repeated itself.  And the next, and the next, until I finally got sick of replanting each time anew, and just left it?promising I would plant it the next day.  The next day came and I didn't replant it?three weeks passed and I still hadn't gotten around to replanting it.  By then it was basically dead.

Two days ago, my husband and I went to the beach.  He refused to put on sunscreen, and effectively got burned.  A few hours after arriving home, his back was hot as an oven, and I decided to go to the garden, which is shared with our next door neighbor (she doesn't really work on it either), to see if we had any Aloe to soothe my husband's back.  My neighbor was outside and I asked her if we had any Aloe in the garden.

"Wasn't that the plant that died?" She asked, less of a question, than a statement.  It was.

By giving up on it, and getting impatient with trying, I had let the one thing that could have soothed my husband, simply "go away".

Isn't that exactly what we are doing to our Earth?  One day, when we finally realize that we need it, a gift that had been given to us to care for, it may no longer be there to help us.

 

Coral reefs are in serious need of a vacation!

Our coral reefs are in serious danger.  This time, the boogeyman that is hurting the reefs, probably doesn't even realize what he is doing?

Although pollution and fishing are some of the major problems that the coral reefs are facing today, another serious cause of the destruction of our coastal coral reefs is our desire to see them and enjoy their beauty.

Coral reefs are like little bustling cities- there are a million and one things going on at all hours of the day.  Lots of different creatures make the coral reefs their home.  But the reefs are extremely fragile?they are basically one very condensed ecosystem.

So what are we doing that is causing so many devastating problems? Snorkeling and scuba diving. 

When we swim down to visit the reefs whether by scuba diving or snorkeling, we add to the destruction of our reefs by touching and taking things from them; but the majority of damage comes from our fins.  When we kick at the water to propel ourselves, the power from the kicks hits hard against the reef we are visiting.

Think of it like a hurricane hitting a coastal city.  The destruction is tremendous.

The problem with the fact that our interest in the reefs is causing the damage, is that it is a major tourist industry.  The reefs bring in a lot of revenue for the associated countries, and in our world, money talks.  For that reason, although many reefs are endangered, not much effort is being put into fixing them, if anything, the countries are trying to find ways to raise tourism and generate more revenue?even at the expense of the destruction of their coral reefs.

It is up to us to be informed world citizens and to be conscious of our actions.  Even though the reefs our beautiful to see, is it fair to do that with the full knowledge that swimming down to see them is literally killing them?one kick and touch at a time?

Trash is not what makes the beaches beautiful!

 

It is a wonderful experience to enjoy nature such as beaches or forests, but all too often people forget the pristine environment they are in and litter.

Although the prevalent thought is basically that one person's litter won't make difference, but that is simply not true.  Even if it is just aesthetically, a clean place is a beautiful place.  Plus, it is not normally one person who litters; it is one, then another, then another?

Just think of any natural place that you went to, where people had littered?it dampens the experience.

There are some great things that we can do, apart from the obvious of not littering which can make an immediate and satisfactory difference in your world.  You can organize a group of people or go by yourself to clean up an area.  When you finish, you can rest assured that you will love the difference it makes.  Have fun with it, make a picnic, take pictures, and enjoy the day.

Another great thing that you can do is carry a plastic bag with you when you are walking, and pick up a few pieces of trash on your way.  You don't need to pick up everything, but every little bit makes a difference.

When I lived on the beach, I would see random different people out every day with plastic bags, just picking up the trash?their efforts kept our beaches spotless, and their only reason for doing it was because the cared about the beaches and their environment.  It is simple and it makes our world beautiful!

Raise your motivation...take advantage of the great things the world has to offer! 

You know, in order for us to be willing and to want to help to make a difference in the world, we need to help ourselves. Yes, I mean that sometimes we need to be selfish. I'm not talking about the nasty selfish, where we try to take everything for ourselves and don't think about others. I am talking about the kind of selfish where you take advantage of all of the great things around you. Maybe take a break from the 24/7 saving the world that I know all of you, my loyal readers are doing, and just enjoy the world for a while. Think about it: there is no better way to gain enthusiasm for something than to enjoy it, right? If you don't take the time to enjoy what it is that you are working towards, you eventually will run out of steam, and lose some of that will to help the world around us! So take a break, be selfish! Today, for example, is hot as hell, so I am going to take the rest of my afternoon off, and go play in the ponds by my home. Friday, it is still going to be hot as hell, so I will go to the beach. Sometimes I go to the top of the mountain near my home and enjoy the sunrise or sunset. Other times, I go hiking in the forests, in shallow rivers (don't take any chances, obviously!), or just go to a nearby field and walk. And it feels good! I may be busier than most people I know, I may have a lot of things hanging over me all the time, but I always, always have some energy to put towards helping the world around me, and I truly believe that, at the least, part of it is because I take advantage of the fruits of the Earth, I selfishly enjoy my world - and that makes it impossible for me to not want to give back ten fold what it (the world) gives to me! 

Simple things we can do that truly go the extra mile!

So what can we do?  What's amazing is that it is the little things!

I recently read an article in Glamour that had a large section on things that we can do to make a difference and help the Earth.  Some of the items that I am listing are from those articles.  There are so many small things that we can do, that barely impact our daily schedules, which make a huge impact on the world.  Some of these are so simple that it is even funny that we haven't been doing them already. 

So, without further ado, a list of small actions that make a big impact:

1.  Re-use your plastic bags, or, even better, when grocery shopping, use a canvas bag (If you live close to your supermarket, make it a double good deed and walk or ride a bike).

2.  Print on both sides of the paper or use the blank side for scrap paper when you are through with it.

3.  Unplug electrical items that are not in use, you are paying for that electricity!  Turns out, they are still using energy while only plugged in, even if the appliance is off (if you touched the tip of your cell phone charger when it is plugged into the wall, you will still feel the electricity flowing?)!

4. When you need to buy new light bulbs, buy the energy saving ones, Compact Fluorescent light bulbs, CFL).  They cost a bit more than regular light bulbs, but run circles around regular light bulbs in lifespan! (The "warm white" bulbs give off the same amount of light as regular bulbs.)

5. Recycle!  In many places they come to your door, and if not, then they are close to our homes.  Many of our companies already recycle, and for those that don't get them to!  Recycling is so easy and the difference that it makes to the environment is stupendous!

This list is simple, and in some cases even saves us money?we have every reason to help, and no reason not to!  Let's all pitch in to make a difference!