Hello everyone! Happy Earth Day!
When I was very young, I remember the first snowfall sometimes being before my birthday in November. We always had a white Christmas and often had a white Thanksgiving. Over the years, the snowfall came later and later, and now my little mountain hometown sometimes does not have first snow until January, with larger amounts more around Easter than Christmas. It has been difficult for my mountain community because it thrives on people visiting to play in the snow and ski and snowboard at the small resort, and the season has been continually shortened by warm and dry weather. I have also noticed a larger amount of trees declining in health in dry years, changing the landscape of my town little by little each year. Obviously, seeing this change in a place very dear to my heart, I believe in protecting and respecting nature.
There are so many little things that have always been a part of my life that were environmentally friendly. Growing up, we always used old towels and holey sheets for cleaning instead of paper towels, we kept the lights out when we weren’t in the room, we hung our clothes out on the line to dry during good weather, we had a compost pile in the backyard for our kitchen fruit and veggie scraps that made great fertilizer for our home grown tomato plants and recycling our cans and glass bottles gave me a little bit of spending money.
What I am really excited about now is how technology is enabling us to conserve more while not having to sacrifice. In the Shinoda household we still do all the things I did growing up, and yes, that does include having a compost pile and using rags instead of paper towels. But we also have an incredibly efficient hot water heater, hybrid car, energy star washer, dryer, and dishwasher. And, this morning our dinosaur of a refrigerator decided to die completely on us, so we will be replacing that with a very energy efficient model. We are looking into solar panels, and by next Earth Day I will be able to say that we are powering our house with the sun! With so much buzz around global warming and conservation, I can’t wait to see what will be invented in the years to come.
For the history of Earth Day, go here:
http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.htmlFor Eco-tips, go here:
http://www.nature.org/activities/everydayenv.htmlCheck out the Music For Relief Earth Day auction, biding starts today and ends May 2:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=musicforrelief
