B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bag)

If I were to tell you that 1,000 miles off the coast of California there is a swirling mass of plastic trash that’s twice the size of the state of Texas, would you think twice the next time you were offered a plastic bag at the store? And if you think that choosing paper over plastic is a good choice, think again. 14 million trees are cut down to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans every year.

Did you know?

–Americans alone throw away 100 billion plastic bags every year. That’s over a million bags every minute!
– Plastic bags, which are made from petroleum and natural gas, use up 12 million barrels of oil every year in the US.
–Less than 1% of plastic bags are recycled. The rest will sit in landfills and clog the ocean for many centuries to come.
–There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean.
–Each year, more than 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die from eating or becoming entangled in plastic.
–Inks and colorants used on plastic bags contain toxic chemicals like lead that pollute our soil and water.

Here’s what you can do:

Bring your own bag every time you go to the store and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Make them their own hand painted bag and they’ll never forget it at home.

And here’s how you do it:

–Buy blank canvas bags at any craft store. If you plan to make one for everyone you know, you can buy them in bulk from many different places on the internet.
–Gather arts and crafts materials you wish to use to decorate your bags. You can paint, color with markers, embroider, sew or glue any number of decorations on your bags.
–Go to town!

Shop your way to greener pastures

Check out climatecounts.org to see how different companies rate in their efforts to lighten their carbon footprint. Climate Counts gives major companies a scorecard, rating them "Stuck", "Starting" or "Striding". You may be too young to vote, but where you spend your money sends a powerful message to companies that you are holding them accountable for their actions and inactions.

Focus the Nation Webcasts

Here's a great webcast about one organization's, Architecture 2030, idea to put a stop to global warming.

Tomorrow, Thursday January 31st, is Focus the Nation. You can log on to earthdaytv.net to watch their interactive webcast called The 2% SOLUTION. Join in with others for a discussion of global warming solutions.

The 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We’ve all heard this catchy phrase. The last R, recycling, tends to get all the credit. Reducing and Reusing, however, are even more important. If you can reduce the materials you consume you will not only create less waste, you also won’t need to worry about what to do with all the things that you buy when you are done with them. Reuse is a great way to make the most of the things that you do buy. Once you no longer need or want something, pass it on! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Buying or trading vintage, refurbished and used items is a fun way to get cool stuff while preventing pollution and saving the earth’s precious resources.

You can recycle up to 84% of your trash simply by taking it out of the garbage can and putting it in the recycling bin. Items made from recycled materials take far less energy and create only a fraction of the pollution to produce than items made from brand new materials. And of course, imagine the natural resources that are saved!

Here are some great ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle:

– Buy only what you need and use all of what you buy.
– Avoid buying things that use excessive packaging and buy in bulk.
– Buy durable things that will last a long time
– When things break, see if they can be fixed before throwing them away.
– Wash and reuse plastic cups, utensils and bags.
– Precycle by buying products whose packaging can be recycled
– And always bring your own bag! If you are just buying a few things just carry them in your hands.
– Complete the cycle and buy products made from recycled materials. When you buy products made from post-consumer recycled materials you are helping to reduce carbon emissions and saving resources.

Did you know?

–If all the other people on the Earth used as much "stuff" as we do in the U.S., there would need to be three to five times more space just to hold and sustain everybody.
– Americans throw away about 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back nearly 20 times. Recycling an aluminum soda can saves 96% of the energy used to make a can from ore, and produces 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution.
– Every pound of solid waste that goes into a landfill results in 2 lbs of greenhouse gases
– Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
– Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy for a 100 watt light bulb to be lit for 4 hours.
– You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
– Only about one-tenth of all solid garbage in the United States gets recycled.
– The average American creates 56 tons of trash every year.

Here’s Your Mission:

Set up a recycling system at home and at school.

1) Ask your local municipality for recycling guidelines and bins.
2) Set up a place in your home for the recycling bins. The garage or big roll–out kitchen drawers are good places.
3) Make a label for each bin clearly listing what items belong in them.
4) Bring your recycling to the curb on recycling day.

Get ready to Focus the Nation

I get so excited when I hear about events like the Focus the Nation national teach–in on global warming solutions for America. Taking place on January 31st at thousands of colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, places of worship, civic organizations and businesses, people will come together to educate and discuss the environmental crisis at hand. Together they will speak there minds to their local and state elected officials, propose ideas and vote on their top five national priorities for global warming action, producing a campus and citizen endorsed policy agenda for 2008.

To see if your school or organization is participating, check this map for events in your area. If you do attend, report back! We want to hear how people in your area are standing up against global warming.

Meet the ecosavvy kid...

I am excited to tell you about the site the ecosavvykid.com run by a mom and son team. Colin offers great ideas and information as he himself strives to make a the world a greener place. Check out his website and give him any ideas you might have about being green.

OneClimate

Ever feel like you are the only one around you who seems to care about planet? OneClimate.net is a social networking sight like MySpace where you can meet like-minded people who are concerned about the planet, too. On OneClimate, you can ask questions or write about things you're doing to combat global warming. You can post videos and pictures too. You can even form your own group and make contact with others like yourself. You can join on your own or as a group or classroom. This is a great opportunity to be inspired by the countless others who are taking a stand against climate change.