Coming Down to Earth

On this day that we make a point of celebrating the one earth we all call home, take some time out to contemplate her beauties.  Sit in stillness and be awed by the many miracles that abound every day.  And then contemplate too how you can protect, nurture and multiply all that makes life abound on this planet.

Want some concrete examples of how you can honor your connection to earth every day?  Of all the "Top 10" lists out there, the best I've seen so far is by Maryam Henein on Earth Techling.  I've used her list as a jumping off point for some of my own thoughts. Her's is definitely worth a read and contains some startling statistics, especially around recycling.  I've combined and condensed into the five following areas that I think are most important:

1. Buy local and sustainable whenever possible - while Henein uses "organic and local" in relation to food as her top category, I think this can be expanded to include all consumer choices with an emphasis on local and sustainable.  Of course the most local and sustainable food is the stuff you grow yourself!  After that, neighbors, local farms, markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) are the next best ways for you to feed your family and your local economy. A win-win for everyone, including the earth.
2. Be mindful of plastic - plastic really has become insidious, over-used and under-recycled in our consumer culture.  From the huge floating islands of garbage in the oceans, to the fact that less than 80% of plastic water bottles are recycled, there are many reasons to "just say no" to single-use plastic items.  Support companies that use less packaging, and with a greater recycled content - or better yet, no or compostable "packaging". Recycle what you can, but avoiding it in the first place is the most effective (see #5 below).
3. Read labels - in buying products with less packaging, especially when it comes to food, you are also less likely to be ingesting multi-syllabic preservatives, chemicals and other franken-food ingredients.  Checking the label should also be the rule when considering cosmetics, cleaners, and personal care products.  When in doubt, look them up online.  Get out from under the estimated 14,000 man-made chemicals that are added to food alone - and seriously question if that paraben-laden shampoo is really worth it to get luscious locks.
4. Bee the change - reducing the amount of chemicals that you exposure yourself to will also help
   
   the plight numerous other earth inhabitants and support the dynamic interconnectedness of life.  Buying organic does not mean that farmers don't use pesticides, it means that they use OMRI-listed pesticides.  Don't get me wrong, this is a great start as OMRI-listed pesticides are usually more targeted, less toxic and break down faster, but buying plastic clamshells of spinach from organic mega-farms is missing the point a little.  We need to support sustainable, diverse agriculture that is part of a broader ecology.  The effect where this is most obvious is in the decimation of bee populations through Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - a collection of mutually reinforcing factors including parasites, rampant pesticide use, malnutrition due to monoculture, and low genetic diversity that have come together in a perfect storm of deadly proportions. For more information, a good place to start is my summary of a recent talk by OSU Bee Researcher Ramesh Sagili for the Master Gardeners.
5. The 6 Rs - perhaps the largest way you can "bee the change" is to REDUCE the amount of things you use and/or accumulate.  The average American generates 4.38 pounds of waste per day! according to the Environmental Protection Agency.  This is some 90,000 pounds of trash over one lifetime, or roughly 600 times your body weight.  What other living thing on earth gets away with this skewed a use of resources? I can be just as mindless in this regard as the next guy, but I really try to stop and think "do I want to have a relationship with this (item/object/thing)?".  Is it worth it? Will it really contribute to my life? Otherwise we have to expand the traditional "3 R's" to six:

1. Rethink - collectively we can be a very intelligent, creative, and compassionate species; lets put some brainpower into redesigning packaging/products and the whole system to be better in line with earth-centric values and the reality of a finite planet
2. Reduce (can't stress it enough)
3. Refuse - be it over-packaging, a bag for that single item you purchased, or the disposable cutlery that comes with your take-out; no need to make a big show of it, just say "thanks but no thanks"
4. Rot - nature's ultimate recycling has worked since time-immemorial, we need to increasingly question why we are making "disposable" items that don't rot
5. Repair/Recreate/Repurpose - buy durable, long lasting goods, and find innovative other uses for them once they are damaged or no longer needed
6. Respect - for earth, for self, for the resources that go into making something, for the beauty of being alive, for the interconnectedness of life, for the opportunity to responsible

In whatever way that you choose to acknowledge the connection between your life and that of the planet that supports us all, I hope you find much beauty in contemplation, and many reasons to make today the first step in getting closer to earth.

Happy Earth Day Everyday