Seems like only yesterday people were celebrating the 1st Earth day – can’t believe that was 50 years ago. I also can’t believe that we celebrate the Earth, our planet, our one and only home, just one day a year. But that’s just me, your basic tree-hugger and long-time lover of this planet.
Since Jim and I missed Earth Hour (another conundrum) this year, I thought we definitely needed to do something special for Earth day and so we combined the two. Instead of doing an Earth Hour we did an Earth 12-Hours. The electricity went off at 9pm (all except the refrigerator) and we put it back on at 9am the next morning.
I can’t imagine our one household, which is probably more efficient and certainly more energy-conscience than a lot of other households, can make much of a difference over-all. But I truly believe that every little bit we each do adds up. I also believe that everyday should be, must be, Earth day.
The one simple thing each and every person can do to show respect for our planet is to stop throwing your trash out the window of your vehicle. I can guarantee you that if someone is doing this they do not value this planet. I live in a rural area where the roads are all tree-lined. Seeing the plastic bottles, cans, and other trash that people throw from their windows as they drive down our road is enough for me to lose any faith that my fellow people can possible save our planet. And before you suggest we pick it up if it bothers us, we’ve been there and done that, and occasionally still pick up some on our walk.
But since we aren’t the ones who are polluting, seems a bit unfair to me that I should take responsibility for whatever adult is throwing their trash out. “I’M” not the one polluting. Several years ago we committed to picking up trash for 2 miles on our road a few times a year. We spent OUR time to pick up OTHER PEOPLE’S trash. And as we were picking it up, people would sometimes throw trash out as we were picking. I decided then that people, not sure if it is a majority of people but I like to think it is just a smaller percentage, just don’t care about our beautiful planet. So we stopped picking it up.