Apart from food, clothes shopping has the highest
environmental impact of all consumer activities, with about 40K gallons of
water used in the production and transport of new clothes bought by the average
American household each year. Instead, resist artificially created fashion
cycles. The garments found in a vintage or thrift shop are often better than
new items in quality and cost a fraction of the price (your cost and the
environmental cost!). Better yet, resist wearing clothes at all and join a
nudist colony!
As Nature Intended
Organic produce, grown
without the use of fossil fuel-based fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or
genetic modification, is not only healthy for you but infinitely better for the
environment (greater biodiversity at all levels of the food chain, especially
the health of the soil). Unprocessed food reduces the risk of obesity,
allergies, heart disease and cancer. Organic produce also contains
significantly higher concentrations of essential vitamins and minerals. As an
added bonus, it TASTES better too!
Refuse PLASTIC bags
The abuse of plastic bags
has created a giant garbage gyre in the middle of the Pacific — double the size
of Texas. Only 0.6 percent are recycled; instead most go into the landfill or
worse, an estimated 100 million are let loose in the wild. These “urban
tumbleweeds” clog sewers, gutters, waterways; entangle birds, and are swallowed
by hundreds of thousands of whales, turtles and other marine life. Say NO to
plastic bags offered at shops; instead, take not just one, but several reusable
bags with you whenever you shop. Keep a few in your bike basket or your car so
you’ll always remember. Take that extra walk back to your vehicle if you forget
the bags. The Earth will love you for it!
Rain, Rain: don’t go away!
If one million people used RAIN BARRELS, they could collect enough water for the daily usage
of about one million others! Consider installing a rain collection system for
your home. With just one inch of rainfall, 600 gallons can be collected from a
1,000 square-foot roof; then water your home garden with the water saved.
Plants respond better to the nitrogen-rich rainwater than to city water. For a
local, environmentally-conscious rain barrel company:
http://www.rainthanks.com/
