Wishing you a Happy Earth Day!!!!

Yes, yes, yes, I know what many of you are thinking, Earth Day is not today, but rather it was way back on April 22nd. Well, to some extent you are right, but there are a few things that are worth considering. For starters, I am a firm believer that every day is in fact Earth Day (so I may wish you a Happy Earth Day later on) but my timing was planned. Since today is of course, Mother's Day.

Since I am writing this post very late at night, it may in fact be too late for you to call your mother. However, you can't forget your other mother, the Earth, on this very special day, and since she is all around you, you can always show her that you love her.

I have recently been leading an Environmental Service group at school, and one of the many things that we do is send out weekly e-mails with Eco facts. Here are some of the more interesting ones that we have found:

- During the March 29th, Earth Hour the city of Toronto saved 264 000 000 watts of electricity. That’s enough to run a lap top computer 17 600 000 days or around 48,219 years!!!! (Info courtesy of the World Wildlife Fund and Solar Wind Canada)

- In Canada alone there are over 8 billion disposable cups sent to landfills every year!!!That translates to 15, 220 every MINUTE (that’s not a type-o!!!) (Credit: Go Green Tips in the Toronto Star)

- In the United States approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year (Student Environmental Advisory Counsel)

- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours (Ibid)

So if you are looking for something to do to help out your Mother on her special day (i.e. every day), it really does not take much effort. Little things like turning off the lights when you aren't using them, walking instead of driving, buying a travel mug, reusing, recycling, and (most importantly) reducing go a long way to helping.

If your biological Mother was sick, and crying out for help, would you ignore her? What if you knew your actions made her this way, would you continue?

Certainly I hope not.

So why is it different for your Earth Mother?

Until next time,

G

P.S. I found this GREAT video on ted.com with Al Gore discussing Climate Change in further detail. Enjoy!