🌎 Earth Day! 🌎
Happy Earth Day!
Here is a very important picture to give people a reminder to take care of our planet. This image is of a ring billed gull that had gotten tangled up in a fishing line at D.W. Field Park. Animal control was alerted and they were able to free the bird. Let this be a reminder to please clean up after yourselves and help take care of our planet! And in the spirit of it being spring and Earth Day I'd like to share some things you can do to help out our planet! (This is a long one, so stick with me until the end because I have a challenge for you!)
Ditch the plastics
Plastic alternatives are one of the best ways you can help clean up our environment. From metal straws, to paper and fabric bags there's plenty of options! My personal favorite biodegradable alternative is bamboo! It is versatile, strong and a sustainable source as it is one of the fastest growing plants on earth. Today you can purchase several bamboo products, from straws to utensils and other products including fabrics!
to read more on the benefits of bamboo as a plastic alternative check out this article!
https://earthbuddies.net/bamboo-plastic/...
Upcycle!
Instead of throwing away plastic bottles or other non-eco friendly materials, look up some fun DIY upcycle projects. My personal favorite upcycle project has to be turning old plastic bottles into bird feeders. Repurposing plastics yourself reinsures that they won't end up in landfills. Here's some fun DIY upcycle projects that you and your family can have some fun with this summer!
Bird Feeder DIYs
https://earth911.com/home.../7-diy-recycled-bird-feeders/...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yV6V6rtpyc
Other Upcycling DIYs
https://maybeiwill.com/15-fun-upcycling-ideas-for-kids/
https://www.personalcreations.com/.../50-new-uses-for-old...
Support Sustainable Farming and Agriculture
Something very important I learned last year in my Environmental Sciences class is that industrial agriculture and farming produce a whole lot of waste! Between massive water consumption to product waste, and even food waste it has become more about the consumer and less about sustainability. So here are the most sustainable ways to obtain food.
- Start your own garden
- Hunt for your own food (legally of course)
-Fish for your own food (again, legally of course)
-Get some chickens, or even quails and you'll have an endless supply of eggs!
Now I'm aware this isn't an option for everyone, myself included. Your second best option is to support local small business farming and agriculture. They not only produce a lot less waste, and use far less pesticides than industrial farming (typically) but you also get to support your local businesses and that's always a plus!
Here are some sources for you to learn more about sustainable farming and agriculture!
http://www.beyondfactoryfarming.org/.../industrial-vs...
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/.../factory-farming-is.../...
(I'm aware these come from bias sources but still an interesting read! Link to a scientific article below)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../pdf/ehp0110-000445.pdf...
Limit your carbon footprint!
I know, you probably hear this all the time, but instead of driving everywhere try alternatives such as biking, walking and carpooling (safely of course considering current pandemic circumstances).
Here's some articles on reducing your transportation footprint.
https://www.c2es.org/.../reducing-your-transportation.../...
https://earth911.com/.../good-better-best-reduce.../...
https://earth911.com/.../carbon-footprint-transportation/...
Help Clean up Our Planet!
Please don't litter. The reason this poor gull ended up tangled in fishing line was due to an entire discarded role of fishing line that I later found and removed from the environment. It's incredibly important to pick up after ourselves and leave nothing behind. When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was to go around and pick up trash off my street (I know, I was a weird kid!) But it's always a good idea to get communities involved in trash clean ups of neighborhoods, nature reserves, WMAs and parks. Obviously do it in a safe manner and wear gloves and use grabbers to pick up trash.
Here's some fun community activities I found that you can do to promote the health of our planet and clean up our trash!
https://www.odot.org/beauty/trashoff/ideas.htm...
https://www.rei.com/.../tips-for-hosting-your-own-cleanup...
Education!
Last but not least, we need to stay educated on the health of our planet. So inform yourself! Do some research and see what you, your family and your community can do to contribute to helping our planet. We only have one earth and it's up to us to take care of it! After all, the health of our planet can have impacts on our own health as well.
Here's some additional resources for you to learn about what you can do for our planet!
YOUR CHALLENGE
I'd like to challenge everyone who reads this post to go to the link below and take the quiz to see what your ecological footprint is! This is a website I had to use 3 times throughout my Environmental Sciences class to see how our ecological footprint had changed throughout the semester as we developed healthy and more ecologically friendly habits. Comment your results!
https://www.footprintcalculator.org/
If you want to help out with saving our planet here's some amazing organizations you can get involved with or donate to!