Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I thought we should celebrate here at Our Kids' Earth. It's been just over a year since I started this blog so I thought we would celebrate by giving away some presents to YOU, the readers!

I have ~ 10 gifts and I'll draw names randomly from the comments to this post. Of course, my secret motive is to get more people to comment on the blog - I've been doing a lot of the talking so far. Now I want to hear from you - and not just today! You have your choice of answering one of two questions:

Question #1: What would you like to see on this blog? Is there any question you would like answered, any issue you would like to discuss?

Question #2: What one thing would you like to change in your life to help the Earth?

Most of the prizes are small, but I am giving away 4 copies of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss - my all-time favorite Earth-related kids book! I also have seeds, bookmarks, calendars. Who knows what else I can find if I get lots of comments!

I'll post the winners tomorrow and then you can email me your snail mail address. If you are new to posting, you can post under "Anonymous" and still include your name in the text of your post. You can also get a Google account in just a few seconds and post under your name that way.

If you want to know what your community is doing to celebrate Earth Day, click here.

Happy Earth Day!
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11 comments:

  1. Hello Erika,
    Thanks for the reminder of this important day. I live in the East Bay Delta region near San Fransisco. In my neighborhood there are blue and white markings on the street corner sewer drains with a picture of a whale and words to the effect "think about what you put down the drain". Just two days ago the body of a young male gray whale was found in SF bay. Initial necropsy showed that he somehow starved to death...yet he had a full stomach. What angered me was some of the items found in his stomach! Plastic tampon applicators! Women are still throwing them down the toilet! Hello!! Crazy! Very sad to see that this week.
    What can I do? My husband and I our teaching our 2 year old daughter what things go to trash, greens and recycle. Now with 3 people in our house we only have one bag of garbage a week and the rest is greens and recycle. We are going to call our waste company and order a smaller trash container!
    We must take care of our earth...our Kids's Earth!
    Becky Souza

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  2. Great job doing your part to keep the East Bay area clean Becky! So sad to hear of your local whale. We have had 5 dead whales in Puget Sound recently. All have died of starvation which is believed to be a result of a poor feeding season this past year. They have a huge migration and end up dying along the way if they don't have enough energy. Of course, the trash they're finding while searching for food isn't good for them either - sweat pants, duct tape, golf ball, and plastic bags were found in a recent necropsy.

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  3. Thanks for the reminder! I have yet to figure out how to celebrate Earth Day today...maybe I'll plant a tree somewhere.
    Would love to hear your opinions on eco-friendly products (are all earth friendly plastic bags the same? what are parabens and why should I care if something contains them?) Keep on blogging!
    Love Ang

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  4. Hi Erika,

    I also would love to see more information on eco-friendly products and packaging,or links to sites with reputable data. It's tough to sort through the advertising. For example, I've recently been thinking about biodegradable plastic and encouraging stores to use biodegradable bags in their produce sections. But which product is really best?

    After an afternoon search on the web, I found a product called 'biobag' that comes in many sizes and will degrade in 10 days when in contact with the soil. The FDA has approved this bag to package food. But even after an afternoon of reading, I know that I don't really know much about this product other than what the company claims. I plan to purchase the bags and try them out, but not even close to the scientific data one needs to make informed choices. How does this bag compare to other biodegradable bags or even paper bags? What is the total impact when one considers production to land fill? Where can we get this kind of information?

    Thanks for having a blog that focuses on our planet!!

    Happy Earth Day!
    Gina

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  5. Thanks for your blog and today's reminder of Earth Day. I had no idea that it is the 40th anniversary. That is impressive in itself. I'm not sure what I'm doing to celebrate Earth Day, but I will definitely ask my boys if they discussed it in school today. I think education and awareness of everyone is the key. I know that we're lucky living in the Pacific NW where people are more conscious in their efforts to protect the environment.

    One thing that I struggle with is what types of plastic are recycled. I see different numbers on the bottom of containers and don't know what that always means. Are all home trash/recycle businesses the same in what they will recycle? Do I cost the company more money by putting things that I'm not sure about in the recycle bin? In other words, how is it sorted at the plants? I think that it might help people if they understand how the process works.

    What about shredded paper, why won't my service recycle it?

    Thanks again for enlightening everyone about protecting our earth.

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  6. This is awesome....really like the pictures! Love the references to the local communities. Great for you for putting this up and going!

    I will plant more trees and support local parks.

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  7. Erika,

    You're doing a great job raising awareness, thanks! I would like a good idea on compost, I don't have a lot of space and Jim is not interested in having anything in the house, what would be a good "middle ground" for composting?!

    Camille Fitz

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  8. Erika,

    Thank you for giving us such great tips and thought provoking ideas to make our world a better place for our kids (and their kids and their kids . . !). This past year of reading your blog has been educational and fun. Plus I know I certainly marvel at your culinary expertise and creativity.
    My goal is to find household products that are more earth friendly. I'm sure there are some great ones that do a great job and smell really great. I may just experiment with some homemade products as well.

    Thanks Erika! You do a great job!
    Cheryl

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  9. Happ Earth Day everyone! What I wish in my lifetime would be a way to show non-believers that we really are damaging our planet and the ozone layer with ur daily actions. So many friends of mine think it is a buch of baloney. While I respect and appreciate individuality and free thought, somehow I can accept it much more with religion, etc. What will it take?

    As for today, I asked my two older boys to do something to make a difference. My oldest wrote a letter to his tennis center asking them to stop using styrofoam cups and switch to paper instead. My other son planted peas and carrots in our garden, read the Lorax, and took some flowers to neighbors to remind them of how beatuful the earth can be if we protect it. Small steps, but I hope that they learned some lifelong lessons.

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  10. Erika,

    I love your web site! Thank you for your invitation today that got me here. I knew that it was Earth Day today because I show CNN Student News every day to my high school social studies classes. CNN was celebrating Earth Day with a feature on Greensburg, Kansas, a city that has been rebuilding green since it was hit by a tornado.

    I would be interested in some fun tips that I could share with my high school classes on recycling and the environment. They are interested and receptive to ideas about taking care of our world.

    Sally

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  11. Hey Erika-
    My staff does a great job recycling all of our waste at the office we can. They take it upon themselves to take everything home to recycle it at their houses because Waste Management will not allow my business to recycle (or never gave me the bins to recycle). I am wondering if there is a reason Mukilteo businesses cannot recycle or can we and I just am not aware that we can. I am so thankful I have 2 employees that are so earth friendly.
    Stacey

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