The Day After Earth Day

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day and much was said about it in the news. I deliberately watched part of Oprah, something that I don't normally do.

The sight of the Pacific Garbage Gyre was ghastly and disgusting. I have been recycling for years, sometimes grudgingly, I admit, because of the time that it takes to sort everything into separate bags and bins. Sometimes, I am tempted to just pitch it. Lately I have been more careful. The clutter that it makes in the house to have more sorting stations is one my annoyances with recycling. (Not that my house is pristine, in any case.) I think I will learn to live with the annoyance.

I have resisted reusing plastic bags until this year, figuring that it uses water and soap to wash them. I do re-use one bag for dry things over and over until the crumbs get too crumby or there is too much build-up of flour or almond meal or whatever I am putting in its "store" bag into my zippered bag. Switching to cloth bags would not work well, since the contents would not be visible. Switching to hard containers might help but they would be more awkward to handle.

This winter I have saved my plastic bags and now that the weather is warming a bit, I am washing and drying them. Trying to swish the soapy water from one to the next to conserve it is messy, but somehow satisfying. Turning the bag inside out to rinse the interior takes less water--and time--than filling and pouring, especially when I remember to turn the faucet off while I turn. So perhaps it doesn't waste too much water.

I started saving the bags because of the cost. Now I will think of the Garbage Gyres--all five of them, the one I knew about and the other four as I do so. I do think that the problem isn't just re-use and recycle, though. I think it is more fundamental than that.

We need to pick up after ourselves. Dispose of things properly instead of just casting them aside. (I suppose that is recycling, really.) Plastic bottles and bags didn't exist when I was a child. They can be re-used and then recycled to make other things.

That was part of Earth Day coverage too. The things made with plastic bottles. A boat named "Plastiki"; a school in Guatamala. Knitters have used strips of plastic bags for knitting sturdy totes for sometime, although that was not mentioned. I love the fleece fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles. Turning trash into treasure.

We also do need to use less. According to World News last night Americans are consuming less than we did forty years ago. About fifty percent less. But is that because of recycling or merely a result of the recession?

A few years ago, I was pretty cynical about Earth Day, "green solutions" because it seemed as though new companies were simply being started to make the same items that we probably need to use less only out of "green" materials and manufacturing processes.

What if we went back to using thermoses for our coffee and tea? Brought our sandwiches from home in wax paper or re-usable containers, ate in sit down restaurants with re-usable instead of disposable plates and utensils? Turning the clock back to the fifties, I guess, and that is not possible.

While I still refuse to subscribe to the pseudo-religious aspects of recycling, I will grumble less, organize a little more and think of that whale that was beached--dead with plastic items and a golf ball in it's stomach. Not a very good diet for any creature on our small planet.

I am grateful for ways to make my imprint on our planet lighter. Stewardship of the earth is, after all, a way to practice the virtue of humility and any practice of virtue is a good thing.

Going Green for Earth Day

Today is Earth Day a time to think about recycling, reusing and sustainable agriculture. One of my favorite companies, Mountain Rose herbs is included in the links to the right. (I am an affiliate.) Their philosophy is cohesive with that of Common Ground in Palo Alto, California, one of my favorite places. (I grew seedlings for them for a number of years in the 1980's--thousands of babies growing and being tended and taken to market each year.) This was an experience in urban intensive gardening.

To my pleasure I discovered this morning that the company whose products I rep, Mary Kay, believes in green too. Among the charitable activities that they participate in is tree-planting. For more facts about tress than you have ever known before, I recommend this link

http://www.marykay.com/peggymanor/content/company/pinkgreen.aspx

. There is also a link there to Arbor Day organization.

Recycle, of course, but let's also see how we can together consume less. I have been amused to see the ads on tv for tap water! Plant a garden if you possibly can. Buy local from local vendors, handcrafters and the farmers' market. Teach a child to play a musical instrument, sing, cook, knit or sew--all activities not requiring electricity to be "hooked into" something and also not subject to the constant media blitz of our electronic lives. Have a candlelit instead of electrically lit, meal once a week. Set up a compost pile. Make a braided rug out of your old clothes. Co-op shopping trips and carpool for other activities, not only work. Use natural pesticides instead of chemical bug killers. (Soapy water sprays and planting garlic around the roses really does get rid of aphids on roses.)

Celebrate and give thanks for life on earth and for the earth. Give food to a local food bank and make a contribution to an international charity that will give food to the world's hungriest as the prices rise on all commodities worldwide. Make a difference, praise God and give thanks on this Earth Day.

Earth Day Tomorrow

A friend sent me an e-card with this beautiful quotation from St. Francis of Assisi,
"All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth,our mother!" from "The Canticle of the Creatures".

Starting by praising God for the earth and for all the elements of the earth is a beautiful way to begin our celebration of Earth Day.

In addition to our usual practical efforts of recycling and looking at how we can reduce consumption, we also might want to reflect on how our economic development relates to the earth, to sharing the planet with all who live on it and to social sin, particularly as Pope Benedict has enunciated the new seven deadly sins for the twentieth century.

Because it is an election year, we have a unique opportunity to tie this together in a very concrete way by our voting. I have long felt that we need a much more thorough overhaul of our economy than any current politicians are suggesting and we need it soon. We could make it happen with the power and fluidity of the internet.

After watching a number of news stories on world hunger recently I have come again to doubt the validity of commodity trading. I would like to know the history of this for it clearly affects prices of food and oil (which in turn affects food prices because the food needs to be transported.) We are paying today the speculated price for the product of a month from now--or later. That doesn't seem like a just or useful calculation of price to me, but merely a formula for speculation.

Yesterday I read another friend's Live Journal blog and was pointed to this article in Vanity Fair on the giant chemical company, Monsanto,

http//www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805?printable=true¤tPage=all

I found this article chilling in that it seems to be a model of how agriculture should not be done and a model of how a giant business can overrun its industry and all of the people in its wake. This is monopoly capitalism run amok. It is a good read for reflection on Earth Day and I recommend it.

I spent a good part of the weekend loading images on my cafepress store, so that I have a few pretty things to offer for Mother's Day, which is also coming soon.

Happy Earth Day! Let's give thanks for and take care of our Earth.