"The World is using the equivalent of one and a half planets to support life on Earth."
Earth Hour 2013 is coming up tomorrow, Saturday March 23 at 8:30pm (Eastern time) and I couldn't be more excited! It snuck up on me this week and I nearly forgot all about it until yesterday evening, even after I recently wrote an article for Delight Gluten-Free Magazine about celebrating it with a gluten-free twist in the March/April issue....safe to say it's been a busy week! We're planning to switch off all our lights and appliances, have a candlelight yoga session, and indulge in vegan blueberry pie--the recipe will be posted on Sunday!
This morning as I was writing this post, I was quietly listening to the news in the background. They were discussing a nominated CNN Hero, Doc Hendley, for his work in bringing clean water to those living in impoverished areas where safe water is scarce. It's sadly not news to me that many people in other countries must walk for 4 or 5 hours just to reach their water for the day, and it's dirty water at that. Today is World Water Day and I feel incredibly lucky to live in a place where clean water is available to me whenever I turn on the sink. Clean water should not be a privilege. It's so vital that we take care to preserve the resources on this planet through our everyday actions and by celebrating our planet every day. Check out the awesome video by EarthHour.org for 2013:
In the spirit of celebrating and sustaining our mother Earth, I'd like to share five easy but effective things that I try to do on a regular basis to help sustain our planet:
- Turn off the water faucet while brushing teeth to save water.
- Use sustainable candles and candlelight instead of lamps a few nights per week.
- Bring reusable grocery bags on shopping trips. If I forget, I am sure to recycle the bags by using them for small trash bags in the house or in other ways.
- Use (or upgrade to) energy saving electronics and appliances whenever possible. My latest energy efficient purchase was an energy star ultrabook laptop.
- Buy local produce often. I love supporting the local farmers and economy in this way. A bonus is planting a garden annually ourselves.
For more ideas to celebrate Earth Hour and Earth Day often, check out my article in the March issue of Delight Gluten-Free Magazine for tips and fun vegan/raw food recipes. I also have a plethora of easy and earth friendly recipes I've posted throughout the life of this blog that can be browsed in the Recipe page or by typing in keywords such as "vegan" or "earth day" in the search box in the upper left corner of my site.
Happy Earth Hour and World Water Day!
How will you celebrate the planet today?
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You should look into this slate article...they explain why using candles actually cancels out any drop in CO2 that you achieve by not using lights.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/project_syndicate/2013/03/earth_hour_is_all_wrong_we_need_more_electricity_not_less.html
I'm all for doing things that benefit the planet, I just want the science behind our actions to hold out :)