Happy Earth Day, readers! Now today is one of those holidays that warrants a serious post from me rather than my trademark silly one. Today actually is a very important holiday that can be an eye-opener for many of us out there.
Some might consider this whole idea of Going Green to be some sort of fad that re-circulates into our society every 30 or so years, but becoming more eco-friendly is much much more than a trend. The only way to truly understand the impact that our wastefulness and disastrous behavior has on the earth is by throwing out some fun facts courtesy of http://www.ecocycle.com.
• There are more roads in our National Forests than the entire U.S. Interstate Highway system.
• Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months.
• If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees–or about 26 million trees per year.
• Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling.
-Now this should definitely be in President Obama’s plan for kick starting the economy…
• Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours.
Disney has chosen to celebrate this Earth Day by creating their own National Geographic-esque documentary that follows 3 animal families in their natural habitats. After watching this trailer, you will definitely want to know more about what you can do to help preserve the beauty of our world!
Now I know some of these facts seem like staggering hurdles to overcome, but there are definitely some small things YOU can do to help restore the earth!
1. Recycle!
– Recycling is quite possibly the easiest way to help our world.
– Print on both sides of the paper.
– If you have children, make recycling a fun task for them to do so that they will carry it on with them after they leave the house.
2. Buy environmentally friendly light bulbs!
– These compact fluorescent light bulbs will help you save around $50 on energy bills a year and $20 by not having to replace other light bulbs
– On average, these bulbs last 5 years
3. Hang up a clothesline!
– You can emit up to 90% less CO2 by drying your clothes without the use of a drying machine.
4. Plant a tree!
– One tree can absorb up to 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
– Trees have been known to slow down the effects of global warming.
I’d say it’s about time that we put as much focus into preserving the beauty of our world as we put into preserving the beauty of ourselves. Just think that if all of those women in California, and I know this is a HUGE generalization, focused more on the state of the earth as they did on the state of their outward appearance, then the world would be a much better and cleaner place.
Below is a Wordle visual I created that picks out the most frequently used words in Alyx Grayson’s poem “Earth Day 2009.” Check it out!
Every Day is a Holiday 