Happy Earth Day and the big question for everyone is can we make Earth happy? I certainly think we've done a much better job the last few years, but we can do better. Here's a few ways we can make Earth a bit more happy with it's residents.
1. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle-The three R's. Reduce your use of enviroment harming materials, Re-use anything you possibly can use without throwing it away, and Recycling is perhaps the biggest out of the three. Cities and states around the country are introducing plans to make recycling beneficial for it's residents. In Knox County, there's a program now in place where if you recycle, rewards are given via gift certificates and other items. Let's face facts, the majority of Americans are far too lazy to recycle and this is one way to make it worth the effort. I've been a recycler for three years or so and can't wait till this program is available in the City of Knoxville.
2. Replace those old light bulbs with the newer energy efficient models. The new bulbs seem to last far longer than the old bulbs did and that more than makes up for the added cost.
3. Get your car checked.
4. Take your used motor oil and other spent fluids to a center that handles those items.
The above 4 are simple enough and require little to no effort to do and will impact the environment greatly. Earth has been around for thousands of years, let's keep her around for thousands more.
digg me!!!
2 comments:
Hey, Dave! I figured it was time for my semi-annual comment!
One of the biggest environmental hazards is not the vehicle you drive or the bulbs in your lamp: it's the food you eat.
If 14% of your readers switched to a vegetarian diet, it would have a better impact on Earth than if 100% gave up their cars altogether. Being the realist that I am, I know that nobody is going to convince anyone else to give up meat, unless their lives depended on it.
However, if 100% of your readers (and their families) gave up meat ONE DAY per week: they would be healthier, save money and make the Earth a happier home (not to mention that Ole Bessie might make it another week). If 100% of everyone in North America had a meat-less day once a week, then there just might be enough land, water and crops left over to feed a few more generations!
I'm not going to spew a lot of facts and figures on a comment, if you don't believe me, you can google it. But for your readers, I'd like to add the following:
Our government has a lot to lose if meat consumption is cut back. The government collects taxes from point A to point B.
Think about it: They tax the seeds the farmer buys, they tax the water the seeds need to grow, they tax the sale of the equipment used to plow the field, they tax the labor used to plow the field, then they tax the shipment of the crops, they tax the sale of the crops to the livestock producers, they tax the equipment used to produce the livestock, they tax the labor used to produce livestock, they tax the water consumed by the livestock, they tax the shipment of the livestock to the slaughterhouse, they tax the labor at the slaughterhouse, the equipment at the slaughterhouse, they tax the shipment of the meat to the grocery, they tax the sale to the grocery, and then they tax the labor to set up and sell the meat. Oh yeah, and they tax the grocery and the slaughterhouse for the packaging and equipment used to package the meat for resale.
Spread the word... Bring down the government one burger at a time!
Great idea and it seems easy enough to do. I may try to start doing that with my family.
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