What are you doing to save the Earth?

[senseandsensibility]

I don't usually challenge people that way, but on this Earth Day I am remembering a young man who approached me at a peace rally in 2003. He asked me what I was doing to save the Earth. I was embarrassed and didn't have much to say. He gently suggested some things I could do. He was a very earnest, soft-spoken guy but he was intense. He said that asking people what they were doing to save the Earth was what he was doing for that day to help. I was inspired and motivated by what he said.

I did make some resolutions which I had tried very hard to stick to over the years. Occasionally, I feel overwhelmed and like what I do is a drop in the bucket and not worth doing since so many people don't care. But then I remember that young man and try to be more like him.

So...what are you doing to save the Earth?

Happy Earth Day, and I am so glad Joe Biden is in the White House!

[Rorey]

1. I try to reduce, reuse, and recycle

I'm far from perfect, but I've been getting a lot better.

Happy Earth Day!

[senseandsensibility]

2. Me too!

Happy Earth Day!

[NameAlreadyTaken]

3. Voting for Democrats and planting trees

[senseandsensibility]

5. I plant trees too.

And of course, vote for Democrats. That's imperative. So happy with Biden and new direction our country is taking!

[TheFarseer]

41. What do you mean by plant trees?

On your own land or with a group in your community or what? I’m interested in planting trees but unsure how to go about it. Thanks!

[NameAlreadyTaken]

42. I planted 84 trees around my house

in the high desert of Nevada. Trying ro turn it into a type of forest. Tough trees only, like Mondell pine, purple robe locust, blue spruce and various frut trees. Thw bees are back, though not a lot.

[meadowlander]

4. Not having kids. Not buying shit I don't need. Taking the bus to work.

Eating vegetarian a few times week.

[senseandsensibility]

6. Not buying stuff I don't need is a big one.

It used to be more difficult for me than it is now. It really becomes second nature if you give it a chance.

[meadowlander]

11. I'm hooked on garage sale Youtube videos

and I can't believe the absolute piles of useless crap people manage to accumulate in the name of "collecting". The worst are those Funko vinyl pop culture figures. Nothing says "I was required to get you a gift but didn't think it was worth the time and effort" like exchanging a chunky blob of useless generic plastic that has been given a hat or moustache to indicate which TV show character it was meant to represent. Why is anyone buying in to that in the age of the Pacific Trash Vortex and microplastics in the bloodstreams of newborn infants?

I used to be hooked on A&Es Hoarders and it's turned me into a pathological anti-hoarder. It has to be really, really useful/essential to my existance before it gets a spot in my house. I have bad allergies too so whenever I'm thinking about buying something I imagine dusting it for fifty years and if it no longer seems worth it I put it back.

[senseandsensibility]

14. Absolutely.

My allergies are horrible too, and you've inspired me to declutter even more than I already do.

[llmart]

52. I love your phrase "pathological anti-hoarder".

I don't hoard or collect anything and most everything I have in my house is functional and I use. In fact, if I had to I could probably make lists room by room from memory of every thing I own. I rarely have to shop for anything except necessities and food. If people added up all the time they waste on shopping they'd be surprised how they're wasting their lives away when they could be doing something else.

[PortTack]

7. Vote for Dems only, plant plants that are favorable to bees

Hang some of my laundry outside
Recycle everything I possibly can including batteries and newer light bulbs
Shop at and give back to thrift stores
Garden
Shop at the farmers market and the locally owned all organic grocery
Use natural fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides
Keep the thermostat down in the winter, and warmer in the summer
Drive a hybrid car
Walk or ride my bike when I can
Have an RO system in the house so we don’t use plastic water bottles
Reuse our grocery bags
Reuse packing and shipping materials
Use natural household cleaners..big on plain old vinegar

Always looking for more ways to leave a smaller carbon footprint

[senseandsensibility]

12. Very practical ideas.

I do a lot of them, but need to work on the RO system.

[PortTack]

21. We love our RO system!

The system itself is not expensive, if you have to have a plumber install it, it usually takes them about a hour.
Filters are approx $35 and need changed approx every 6 months, depending on use. The membrane filter needs changed less often, it’s about the same price

[ChazII]

33. I do several of these as well.

I drink water from the tap. I only use my solar clothes dryer since I live in the desert.

[hlthe2b]

8. Well, I have all but eliminated food waste in the past two years (much to my dismay @ leftovers)

I am avoiding buying things now unless I can recycle stuff that I would be replacing; I walk everywhere I can feasibly walk and only drive to a grocery store once/week or on the way home from in-person work while driving an older model hybrid. Kept the thermostat at 55 degrees all winter and mostly left the space heaters off with added blankets. I didn't turn the central A/C on at all last summer--with strategic window shades to block the hottest part of the day.

I haven't eliminated red meat totally, but typically only eat it once/week with locally-produced produce, beans, vegetables replacing.

Laundry cold water only with white vinegar rinses largely replacing the fabric softeners.

Recycling everything I can and am buying more in bulk to avoid so much extraneous packaging.

None of it seems like much, but it is a start.

[senseandsensibility]

10. Just think if everyone did what you do.

Great, simple ideas! Thanks.

[PortTack]

22. More great ideas!

[bahboo]

9. drinking environmentally sustainable wine at the moment....

[senseandsensibility]

13. Cheers!

Let's toast to Earth Day!

[bahboo]

15. done.....Happy Earth Day....

[Hugh_Lebowski]

16. Well, having zero children ...

And poisoning my body, so I die young.

And none of yours above are better than mine, I hate to break it to y'all

[senseandsensibility]

26. Humor is always appreciated

my friend!

[BigmanPigman]

17. Recycle and don't buy anything new...

unless it NEEDS replacement (this includes clothes, appliances, anything for my home/decorating, car, etc). And I do not drink bottled water. I carry the same damn bottle filled with tap water (I have always done this). I buy "old" produce, wash my hair once a week, only flush the toilet every third use, do laundry once every two weeks, and a million other things. We need to conserve water in CA. No fast food containers or coffee cups and I eat what I cook...do not throw good food out and don't eat meat based foods.

I had my students recycle (the whole school did). I found out that the "recycle" dumpster was sent to the same place as the non-recycled stuff. It was all for show. I didn't have the heart to tell my students, who recycled and made our own paper out of trash each year.

[senseandsensibility]

27. Teaching about this topic, especially

to younger kids is so rewarding and such a great way to help future generations. Thanks for all you do, in spite of something weird going on with the recycling. :

[fescuerescue]

18. I didn't put my garbage on the curb today.

I'll do it next Thursday.


Give the Earth an extra week.

[senseandsensibility]

28. That's a good idea.

I think I'll do that next year.

[MissB]

19. I do various things

Despite my best efforts, I still get some junk mail and a few monthly bills through the mail. I sort out the heavily colored or slick paper and envelopes and then shred the rest. Same goes for toilet paper tubes. If I get something online and they use paper for packing material, then that gets shredded too. My work sometimes involves paper, and things get scanned for electronic storage. I can bring home paper if I need to.

A bit of that shredded paper goes in the base of my kitchen compost container. Most of the shredded paper goes on my hen house poop shelf (the hens perch on a piece of wood and I have an old kitchen counter about six inches below that). Once the paper has a good amount of poo (usually about 3 days), I scrape it into a bucket and drop it on top of my current compost pile. I have three compost bins (fully enclosed). When full, they sit for a year to fully breakdown. We eat a lot of vegetables, and there is always a layer of stuff the chickens won’t eat in between the layers of chicken poo/shredded paper.

The cardboard boxes that I get from my occasional online order doesn’t end up in my recycle bin. I keep them in the basement, broken down and stickers removed, ready for use in the garden as needed. Thin ones get shredded. Occasionally I’ll leave a box whole (minus tape and stickers) and let the pups pull it apart. The small pieces end up in my kitchen compost container. In the garden, I use it for a base for new veggie beds. I also use it in various parts of the property when I have a weed patch that I need to tamp down. Throw down the cardboard, put some wood chips on top. Wood chips are from trees taken down - I have them dropped off when I see a tree trimmer in the neighborhood. I have large trees that need trimming every few years and I get smaller branches shredded so I can keep them on site and use them for the non-grass areas in my yard and on the paths of my garden.

Back when I did grocery shopping, I brought reusable bags. One downside of curbside pickup during the pandemic is the fact that they insist on giving you paper bags. I think I have a lifetime supply.

Nothing is perfect about the choices we make. We just need to try to make the best decisions we can.

I may be selling my car soon. It’s a 2015 with 24k miles on it. It seems I can sell it for just a couple of thousand less than I paid for it. I bought it for half price of new back in 2018 when it had 5k miles on it. Dh and I may go down to one vehicle for awhile- we both work from home and we are finding we rarely drive two cars at the same time. We have our eyes on an all electric (Volvo), and the money I’d get from the car would go to seeding an account to save for the cost of the Volvo. It seems that an all electric is good for in town trips. I get that there is an environmental cost to new cars. But not having to use gas long term seems good. I live in the hills and have an arthritic knee. Biking 8 miles to get groceries is probably not gonna happen, so we will always have a car.

[senseandsensibility]

30. As you say, nothing is perfect

but you are incredible! I salute you, Miss B!

[Journeyman]

20. For 1/4 century my firm has specialized in helping the water, waste water, and solid waste . . .

industries promote conservation, recycling, and intelligent use of our natural resources. This has spanned the gamut from appeals to the general public through publication of specialized research at both private and public laboratories, as well as numerous public and private universities, and in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

I also do my best to reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose, and refuse.

[Trailrider1951]

23. Well, let's see

I recycle everything I can including plastic bottles and tubs, paper and cardboard, metal cans, and all glass bottles. I even wash, dry and reuse ziplock bags, unless they contained something really messy or oily.

I eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and no red meat at all. There are veggie substitutes available. I'm particularly fond of Bob's Red Mill TVP for pasta sauce, chili, and any other dish that calls for ground meat.

Before I lost my job to the pandemic, I took public transportation to and from my job. I may have driven my car there 5 times in 3 years.

I cannot plant trees where I live (long story), so I have a rose garden and various flowering plants in containers on my patio. My lawn has quite a few weeds, which I dig out by hand. I WILL NOT spray poisons EVER!

The choices I make today affects what happens in the future. The future belongs to my grandchildren. I'm doing what I can to leave them a decent home.

[Doremus]

24. I don't eat animals and give as little of my money to BigAg, BigPharma & other heavy polluters

90% of what we need for the house, our clothes, furniture, cleaning supplies, etc. is purchased from house sales. We sell or repurpose as much as we can the things we no longer need to reduce our carbon footprint.

8 years goes by in a instant.

[Texasgal]

25. Reduce, reuse, recycle...

I also compost and grow my own veggies and some fruit.

I no longer eat meat. I have an energy saving home. I no longer use pesticides. I have a water catchment system.

I'm working on doing more, but these are the first things that came to mind.

[SoonerPride]

29. I didn't have children.

That is the biggest thing we can do to help.

Really.

We need less people.

[Generic Brad]

31. I've basically stayed inside for the last year

Can’t deny I’ve reduced my carbon footprint.

[misanthrope]

32. The most impactful, long term benefit possible: I didn't procreate

It continues to create downstream effects. Those unborn children aren't adding two metric tons to landfills annually. They aren't adding to climate change, habitat reduction and extinction through consumerism. And they aren't creating more little consumers to further stress the ecosphere.

[GulfCoast66]

34. The earth does not need saving. It it a planet and will keep doing what it does.

We really can’t harm it. Even with Nuclear war it will be just fine.

Humanity? That is a totally different story. I do many of the things mentioned above.

But we mess up when when we confuse the earth with humans. It was here for 5 billion years without us and will be here for perhaps a billion years after we are gone before our star explodes. Assuming we make it that far.

The fight is not to save the earth. But to save it as a habitat suitable for humans.

[BannonsLiver]

35. Utterly ludicrous child like logic.

And you completely discount other members of the animal kingdom. It’s not just humans.

[Kaleva]

36. It's childlike to believe we are God and can "save" the Earth

The Earth has it's own finite lifespan and in the meantime, is constantly changing. A change which dooms all species, including humans, living today to extinction.

I think what people are talking about when saying 'save the Earth" is for us to behave in such a way which ensures our own long term survival. Ironically, the only way all other species living today can survive long term is with human intervention.

Earth is like a sinking Noah's Ark. At some point we have to be able to leave in order to survive. IMHO, it's our priority to ensure our own survival in order to exist long enough to develop the technology to do that. To colonize other planets in our solar system and beyond and take other species with us.

[BannonsLiver]

40. Pure fantasy.

Nobody is “leaving” in your lifetime or mine. Or the lifetime of any current living child. Not in any significant numbers. It’s nonsense.

[GulfCoast66]

37. Your argument is the one is that is sophomoric.

It assumes that our species is somehow special. Throughout the history on earth one newly developed species has resulted in the extinction of another. All the way back to when modern bacteria evolved to utilize oxygen and rendered most life on earth, which was anaerobic, extinct. And those oxygen breathing life forms lead to us. Tetanus and Botulism are a few of the survivors of that time. But most life forms were killed. Most life forms died.

And human killing off most of the megafauna after the last ice age. They were just doing what animals do to live. Kill and eat. They had no idea they were driving species to extinction.

But today we do. We are the first group of humans to understand that our actions will affect us and many other species on earth.

Will we heed the historical warnings? I’m not so sure. Like all animals we value immediate gains over long term viability. My cat would eat herself fat if I did not limit her food intake, which she hates. As do most humans.

I hope we can manage to rein in our genetic imperative to to do what comes natural to us. But I’m not convinced we will.

[XanaDUer2]

38. I cannot yet afford to buy an electric vehicle

I drive only when necessary, though.
I never had children.
I recycle and encourage others to do.
I donate to wildlife charities

[womanofthehills]

39. Eat only organically- support farmers who do not poison the earth with toxic pesticides

Buy as much local food as possible and have a garden. I only eat grass fed beef from local ranchers who treat their animals humanly. I get part of my electricity from the sun - I built a passive solar house with 12 south facing windows (walls of windows) - so if the sun is out I do not need to use any other heat source in winter. In one room I have a wall of tubes (water wall as a heat sink) and solar panels on my roof - (I used to be totally off grid but got tired of maintaining a battery bank) so my solar system is now connected to the grid. I have separate solar panels that pump up my water (solar pump) to a large holding tank. The only water going to my septic tank is toilet water. My sink, washing machine, and bath water goes to trees. I don’t buy anything I really don’t absolutely need. I also have 9 chickens for organic eggs and chicken manure for gardening.

[DontBelieveEastisEas]

43. Posting thoughts on this Forum

We must eliminate nuclear weapons; other than a few for meteorites.

Humans have proven that they do crazy, killer things.

With Nuclear, an impulse that lasts for a few seconds can wipe out the environment as we know it, along with much of the life on the planet.

At least with the way things were before Nuclear, if some crazy guy wanted to eliminate the rest of the world, it was a long drawn out process that often fizzled out at or before the first battles started. There would be days and months of chances to talk some sense into the leaders. Even if such a plan with conventional weapons was successful, it would likely be much better for the planet than a Nuclear War.

We must eliminate nuclear weapons; other than a few for meteorites.

[Calculating]

51. Nukes stopped ww3 though

If everyone loses, nobody wants to play. Take away nukes and ww3 between china/usa/russia becomes much more likely.

[hunter]

44. I promote family planning and the education and empowerment of women.

Sex education should be realistic. Birth control should be freely available to all young people before they have sex. None of this "abstinence only" bullshit.

Religion is a big part of the problem. My parents, and my wife's parents, had a mess of children, more than they could comfortably support really, and this was celebrated by their religions. But then they got to thinking, considering the exploding human population of earth, and decided maybe that wasn't a good idea. They taught us about sex, birth control, and suggested maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have so many children. That's heresy in too many religions.

Me and my siblings already knew that, all crammed into a three bedroom house and fighting over who gets the bathroom next. Losers have to take a cold showers because the hot water has run out, and the 40 gallon electric water heater takes forever to reheat.

Between me, my wife, and our siblings we've averaged less than 1.5 children. If the entire human population of earth could manage that we'd be getting somewhere. It doesn't have to happen by any sort of government coercion.

I think we should be paying people to experiment with lifestyles having small environmental footprints. We would judge the success of these experiments in terms of happiness, not any sort of economic productivity. Economic productivity as we now define it isn't any sort of productivity at all; it is in fact a direct measure of the damage we are doing to the earth's natural environment and our own human spirit. This is largely a consequence of our use of fossil fuels and tolerance for abusive employers who don't pay comfortable living wages.

When people see that it's possible to live happily with a small environmental footprint those lifestyles will spread.

Generally people who live in walkable cities with good public transportation, who don't own automobiles, who eat a mostly vegan diet have much smaller environmental footprints than those who live in MacMansions, commute to work in their SUVs, and fly thousands of miles each year.

My wife and I have plucked all the low hanging fruit of environmentalism in our home life. We've got the LED lights and the recycling bins. I'm mostly vegetarian, my wife is vegetarian, nearly vegan. We compost, etc..

But we find it difficult to take the next steps. When our old refrigerator died I couldn't convince my wife we could get by with a small ultra-efficient refrigerator. So we bought a full size refrigerator that's more efficient than most. Our car gets more than 40 miles per gallon and we don't drive all that much, but it's still a car. We live in a higher density suburb with shopping nearby, so I can walk to or ride my bicycle to the grocery store, but mostly I combine grocery shopping with other errands. Neither my wife or I wants to give up the clothes dryer. Etc..

[senseandsensibility]

45. All good points

and I understand why you downplay some of what you do (which is actually a lot) because I am the same way. I constantly think I should be doing more, could be doing more, blah blah. I am starting to realize that for me, this attitude is not productive. I am trying to feel better about what I am able to do so that I can continue doing it if that makes sense.

[Niagara]

46. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

For example, I turn off the bathroom faucet while brushing my teeth and turn off the kitchen faucet while using a washable cleaning towel, soap and hot water to sanitize the kitchen counter where food is prepped.


We are now switched over to LED's 100%.


Pay most of our bills online, instead of using paper.


I mend my clothing when I can, but sometimes there's a point where they're so damaged it's time to use them as cleaning rags/towels or just toss them.


I stopped smoking and using plastic straws.


At our home, we have never raked leaves and placed them into plastic bags to be placed in a landfill. We mulch the leaves in the fall with the lawn mower (yes it's gas powered) and the mulched acts as a natural fertilizer and also retains soil moisture for the yard. The mulched leaves also encourage wildlife habitats like food sources for wild birds and helps to preserves butterfly and moth larvae.


I have always used cold water to wash laundry and mainly use a drying rack instead of the dryer.


Side Note: Dennis Weaver was the 1st celebrity environmentalist to contact Michael Reynolds for an Earthship house. Even though I don't have the money for one, it is on my bucket list to have one. These homes are built with reusable materials, run on a grey water system and are off grid homes.

&t=172s

[womanofthehills]

47. My closest neighbor has an Earthship house

And there are two more about a mile from me. Another neighbor built a straw bale house and another a rammed earth house - all built by women. Lots of hard work pounding all the dirt in the tires. I live in a community where everyone built their own houses while living in trailers. We all built them 20 yrs ago. My house is frame because my boyfriend who used to be a contractor mainly built it with me helping. I’m in the middle of NM.
I was totally off grid for about 8 yrs but finally connected my panels to the grid as I got older. The 3 Earthships are all totally off grid. As we are getting less rain out here, rain collection will no longer work very well.

[Niagara]

55. Not getting much rain for rain collection is definitely an issue.

I know these homes are labor intensive, but I think that it would be worth it being off grid, or at least mostly off the grid. It's appealing to me that the Earthship has it's own heating and cooling system.


These homes are slowly popping up in other countries such as in Canada and New Zealand and sometimes the builders change things for the type of climate that they live in. There's a couple in Canada that decided not to build the separate hallway that connects all the rooms together. I'll insert the shorter video of their home below.



The straw bale houses are gorgeous as well, but there's something about the Earthship that attracts me to it.



link:

[Mr.Bill]

48. Recycle and repurpose anything I can.

And I drive a car that gets over 40 mpg. Took this old gearhead awhile to get used to that.

[Xolodno]

49. Recycle much as possible.

Don't buy shit I don't need.
Reusable water bottles and fill them up at home.
High MPG vehicle (was considering trying public transportation, until the pandemic hit).
Slowly downsizing the stuff we have by selling to others or donating it.
Eventually down size to a much smaller place. My wife hates cleaning this huge house.
And meal planning, so we don't over buy what we don't need.
We used to have red meat at least once a week. Now its once a month. Try to eat vegetarian most of the week.

[Shellback Squid]

50. I pick up trash on my walks and try to limit my household trash to one bag a week

[beaglelover]

53. Drive a Tesla for starters.

[aocommunalpunch]

54. No kids.

Run an animal rescue.
Recycle skeptically.
Delitter the neighborhood while dog walking.
Supporting radical climate change legislation.

[smirkymonkey]

56. I don't drive, don't have kids, recycle, eat vegetarian about 4 - 5 times per week,

don't buy a lot of stuff (I don't have room for extra things), re-use plastic bottles, bags and containers, walk whenever possible instead of taking public transport or taxi/Uber.