Today is Earth day – a international holiday with no boundaries on religious preference or beliefs. It’s simply a day to do something for the earth – to give back to this beautiful, incredible planet we take for granted every single day of our lives. Recently I have become more pro-active in my quest to live a greener life – with other things taken care of – work, love, money, home etc – it felt time to return to what I am really passionate about – being green. It’s not easy being green – you have to ditch things that you trust and love – like bleach (if anyone out there knows a good alternative to bleach please for the love of my socks tell me!)
I often get frustrated (and a tiny bit jealous) at people who don’t seem to care or be aware of the awful truth about global warming. I have often found this then leads me to having a panic attack which results in me looking around asking what can I change? how can I make my carbon footprint smaller?
I’ve unplugged all those plugs I used to leave plugged in, I’ve brought a car with great gas mileage, carbon offset, reduced, recycled, reused. I don’t buy anything tested on animals and avoid products with animal ingredients, buy locally and organic, I changed all our light-bulbs to energy efficient ones, our laundry soaps and cleaning products are all biodegradable and I chucked out all my make up and beauty products with parabens in. But it’s still not enough.
Until I was in Whole Foods (great store but I wish it was cheaper) and I picked up a book on urban green living called Greenopia and inside was a foreword by Ed Begley Jr – you may not recognise his name but trust me you have seen him in a million smash hit TV series and he is a well known Environmental Activist in California. Ed talked about how he always encourages people to pick the low hanging fruit first;
“It’s wonderful to want solar power and electric cars – you can have both. But don’t get stressed and say, ‘I have to do everything today.’ You can drive yourself crazy trying to everything at once. Start out with poking around and you’ll see there are all sorts of little things in your life can go green – like the way you keep your house clean, the kind of paper you buy, or where you take your dry cleaning… I encourage you to start with what’s practical and explore from there. Go for the low-hanging fruit first and the rest will organically follow.”
I can’t tell you how much those words by Ed were and still are of such comfort to me, so I will continue to go for the low hanging fruit, and work my way up cause one day I may just reach the top. I really hope you will join me.
Not Goth, 33, Redondo Beach, USA.
April 22, 2007 at 7:50 am
2 things – 1st, for your socks…soak them overnight in the bathroom sink in hydrogen peroxide before you wash them. the BIG bottles of peroxide are cheap & it works
2 – energy efficient light bulbs – be very careful taking them out. the science is showing that they have higher mercury levels that are more dangerous when removing. (i read it on reuters a couple of weeks ago, science section i think)
April 22, 2007 at 3:43 pm
peroxide is not bad for the environment? Thats cool – thanks I will try that. I will look on Reuters for that article – thanks v much
April 25, 2007 at 5:00 am
I think that if everyone did just a little it would make such a difference. We did earth hour in Sydney last mont (http://earthhour.smh.com.au/) – and I hope it made people think. I was at the grocery store during earth hour and as I did my shopping in low lighting I think it showed that a slight difference made a difference in energy usage but not in customer experience. Each person that does just a little will help. Buy a front loader washing machine. Walk to the store instead of driving. Get a worm farm or compost bin.
May 23, 2007 at 6:14 pm
“Natural oxygen safe bleaches”
are commercially available (found primarily in the health food store marketplace), and are based on hydrogen peroxide. The best choice is to buy commercial non-chlorine bleaches instead of making your own version using store-bought 3 percent hydrogen peroxide because commercial brands, such as Seventh Generations’s ‘Non-Chlorine Bleach – Free & Clear’ include oxygen bleach stabilizers to help reduce the product’s reactivity in the environment.
Tip: Adding ½ cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle of a medium load of whites will lightly bleach the clothing. This technique is especially effective on clothes that are then hung to dry on the line.
Soften Your Water The minerals in hard water can gray clothes. If you have very hard water, add ½ cup of vinegar to your rinse water.
Brighten Whites To brighten whites, and if you don’t have hard water, use the might of minerals in your wash cycle. Add ½ cup borax or washing soda (both are available in the laundry section of your supermarket) to a medium load of laundry.