(the blog was written by HSUGreens very own Katie Whitmore. enjoy. and then bug her for her autograph...a lot)
but before you get out your reading glasses, here's a shout out to everyone who came to New Earth Day and got a plant! and dont forget it's always better to be the cool parent, so give them a little extra water and let them stay a little later so they like you more. just sayn.
Alrighty kiddos, gather round – it’s story time!
but before you get out your reading glasses, here's a shout out to everyone who came to New Earth Day and got a plant! and dont forget it's always better to be the cool parent, so give them a little extra water and let them stay a little later so they like you more. just sayn.
Alrighty kiddos, gather round – it’s story time!
Once upon a Sunday, I went out to eat with friends after church. I decided to take advantage of the shade so kindly given by a tree and parked under it. After enjoying a delicious meal, I drowsily headed to the car, already daydreaming of that Sunday afternoon nap. And then I saw it (pause for dramatic effect), right on the windshield – four lumpy white splotches of bird poop. Gross. Poopie. Dirtiness. Why did those danged birds have to poop on my car? How annoying; now I was gonna have to clean my windshield at the gas station. What a total inconvenience…
Man, that was a totes awesome story. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The drama! But seriously folks, birds pooping on our cars? It’s just wrong. What did we ever do to them?!
Except, wait – was it the bird’s fault it had to let loose? Birds gotta do what birds gotta do, right? I’ve got this crazy idea that if the car wasn’t there, it wouldn’t have been a problem at all. The ground doesn’t care about a little poop. In fact, it woulda gobbled it up like it was some magic, life-giving fertilizer of the gods. YUM POOP!
All humor aside, nature can be cruel at times. A very recent and tragic example of nature’s harshness was the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Over 18,000 people lost their lives and many are still missing. It’s mind-boggling. I can’t even imagine the magnitude of the destruction and grief. One natural disaster caused all this. Why did it happen? Why does nature have to be this way? As humans we have no control; all we can do is pray for the affected families and for restoration.
Even though the situation in Japan seems so unfair, the scenario is a little like the bird story. Nature’s gonna do what nature’s gonna do. Nature is...natural. It is the raw, untamed energy of creation. It is a part of life. It is a part of Earth. But here’s the really cool thing – in the midst of all this, there is still hope! Even if we can’t control nature, we can control how we take care of creation (and by creation, I mean the environment, animals, people – everything). We can do our part to make sure that we don’t create new kinds of damaging environmental crises that negatively affect creation.
Courtesy of our friends in the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia (high five to those guys!), here are a few facts that motivate us at HSUGreen to take care of the earth:
1. Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times. – WHOA! That’s a lot of trash!! If you agree, join the GreenTeam in our efforts to recycle at HSU. Toss your paper and plastic in one of our neat-o recycling bins next time you think of throwing something away.
2. Plastic bags do not biodegrade. Light breaks them down into smaller and smaller particles that contaminate the soil and water and are expensive and difficult to remove. – EWW, gross! In our water?? That’s just wrong. Help HSUGreen save America money and keep our water clean by recycling those plastic bags. Or better yet, forget plastic bags and use grocery totes to shop!
3. Because plastic water bottles are shielded from sunlight in landfills, they will not decompose for thousands of years. – WHAAAA? FOR REAL?? That’s a really long time!! Support HSUGreen in our efforts to keep America’s soil clean for our great-great-great-great-great-great-……..…...great-great-grandchildren! Trade in your plastic bottles for a reusable water bottle (like a Nalgene).
Don’t be sad though. Remember I said there is hope? Those cool guys in the Clean Air Council also told us this:
1. Doubling the national recycling rate could create over 1 million new green jobs. – DANG…HSUGreen just found the solution to America’s financial crisis!
2. Aluminum can be recycled forever with no loss of quality. – WOW. It could be recycling over and over and over and over again and still be like new!
3. If we recycled all of our aluminum cans for one year, we could save enough energy to light Washington, D.C. for 3.7 years. – That’s AMAZING! Serious savings right there!
Well, I just gotta say, the earth is pretty stinkin’ awesome. Speaking of which, any space nerds out there? Yeah, I don’t know anything about space either… But I did find this really awesome quote about the first time Americans saw a picture of Earth taken from space. Imagine this moment: Apollo 8, Christmas Eve 1968. A crew member took a picture of the earth rising over the moon and it became an instant global sensation. A really cool dude who we wish we knew, Archibald MacLeish, was so moved by the photo that he said, “To see the Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that ethereal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves riders on the Earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now that they are truly brothers.”
Wow, that dude is a poet. Inspiring! It really makes me want to appreciate the beautiful creation we’ve been given. HSUGreen is picking up the banner to care for earth. We’ve decided not to inconvenience the world. Instead, we’re doing our best to be a convenience. Are you with us?
slap hands.
love the earth- theGreenteam
P.S. Y’all, We had a GREAT time yesterday celebrating the “New Earth Day Cup Plant Give Away.” You guys must really love the earth or something because those plants were gone within 30 minutes! Don’t forget that the real Earth Day is this Friday, the 22nd! Love coffee? Head over to Starbucks with your travel mug for a free cup of Joe on Earth Day.
pss- he's a cool link that we'll highlight some other time when we're not so busy building a time machine.
http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2011/04/gretchen-bleilers-top-10-eco-tips.html
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