Earth Day Reflections

Posted by baahar | Filed under misc

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Today the EarthDayNetwork on Twitter tweeted this:

@EarthDayNetwork if you do not do anything to protect the earth everyday, what does it mean to celebrate “Earth Day”?

And I thought about what I’m doing to protect the earth everyday, besides recycling paper, metal and glass that is. Here are some of the things I could think of:

  • Minimizing the use of plastic: I usually don’t use the word ‘hate’, but when it comes to plastic I can safely say that I hate plastic. I try to remove plastic from every part of my life by: only buying beverages in glass bottles, re-using plastic tote bags I got from some supermarkets, buying tote bags out of alternative materials (e.g., plastic-like bags made with starch ), …If you are not sensitive to this issue, you should look at these pictures that show where our garbage goes: http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11Thankfully my latest decision to cut off processed foods from my diet, also meant a reduction of my plastic consumption. However, considering that even the keyboard I’m typing this is made out of plastic, I still have a long way to go :(
  • Minimizing waste: When I look at how much food, water and other resources I am wasting, I feel like having failed with regard to this verse in the Quran

Eat and drink: But waste not by excess  (Baqarah 2:168)

    I try to minimize my waste by, buying food items in small quantities so that nothing can rot before I get to use them, reusing left-over food (e.g., rice, lentils, vegetables can be used in a soup the next day .. thanks to blenders, I even throw left-over spaghetti into soups, but hush, don’t tell anybody :), …

As you can see, I don’t do much to protect our world. It is not our possession after all .. it is a trust.

I would love to know what else I could do … feel free to share your ideas in the comments section.

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2 Responses to “Earth Day Reflections”

  1. Star of the East Says:
    April 23rd, 2010 at 11:14 am

    I’m still in shock about the pictures of those amazing birds, my mouth litterally felt open.
    Luckely I’m one of those who get pissed off when people throw away things on the street etc and all my friends are now used to keep it in their bag untill a garbage bin is around.
    I always get angry when 4 tomatoes are packed in a huge amount of plastic, it is really crazy that instead of making our world better the big guys are making it worse.
    Did you know that a guy invented car tires that lasted for 50 years? Know what happened? Michellen purchase the formule and locked it up safe so that people will have to buy tires every 5 years.
    Unfortunatly in this world most people find money much more important then our planet.
    I can go on and on about this.
    I try to do my best to be as clean as possible, using our water and electricity source with care. Re using everything that is possible. Repair things instead of throwing them away and buy new ones etc etc.

  2. IngerMaaike Says:
    April 23rd, 2010 at 11:52 am

    Earth can supprt many more people still but we must use the resources wisely.

    The whole media hype make many people feel as if it is all hopeless and thus they continue along the road to destruction..by giving people alternatives and positive upbuildingnews much more can be achieved. Humans are so very resourceful and are capable of creating the most incredible solutions to problems, given the right incentive and problem solving skills.

    I think it is up to us to teach our children to think along the line of problemsolving and out of the box thinking not to force them into a straightjacket of consumerism and hoplessness.

    Media play a huge part in this, blogging too. Don’t just point out a hurdle show examples of people overcoming these hurdles and offer solutions.

    One of my main peeves is the big nature protector companies…they do not offer realistic solutions and push people towards hopelessness with negative and all too overwhelming news. They steer away from feasible solutions as being ‘not natural’ this is shortsighted and untrue. Many organic driven campains are very counterproductive. Causing higer soil usage for less yield, displacing the poorest as huge companies and rich countries buy up arable soil…

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