Gaga Over Green

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is the environment.

Lately, several strong influences have converged on my life to get me thinking a bit more "greenly" about things. Briefly:

1. The strongest influence is my 18 month old daughter, Ava. A couple of weeks ago, if you asked her what color the sky was, she'd reply, "Green"; if you asked her what color her purple shirt was, "Green", if you asked her what color mommy's hair was (blond with a little help), that too was "green."

These days she is seeing things in different colors, but not before she helped her mom see the green in things.

2. Thinking about a quick trip to the grocery store today? Maybe need to pick up some milk or a loaf of bread? Before you do, consider this tidbit from National Geographic that I stumbled on during Ava's gaga over green phase:

Somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Of those, millions end up in the litter stream outside of landfills—estimates range from less than one to three percent of the bags.

And like candy wrappers, chewing gum, cigarette butts, and thousands of other pieces of junk, millions of the plastic bags end up as litter. Once in the environment, it takes months to hundreds of years for plastic bags to breakdown. As they decompose, tiny toxic bits seep into soils, lakes, rivers, and the oceans.

Anyone who's ever made a trip to the landfill will tell you that they are teeming with plastic bags--and containment doesn't make them break down any faster or keep them out of our land, soil, even water supply. That's why this morning, I ordered my first set of reusable grocery bags. They come in really savvy and chic designs these days so you can be fashionable and forward thinking. Check them out:

They offer them in black and white designs too at www.delight.com




3. It always comes back to my daughter. I should have cared about the ways in which I was contributing to the environment's health and its demise long before I had a child, but we're not looking back, right? Anyway, perspectives shift or come into focus a million times a day with a child--and my perspective right now is focused exclusively on her health, happiness, and well-being. Long after she's left this nest, I want to be sure the one she moves into will take good care of her too.

For more ideas on the little contributions we can make, check out this article and if you have any ideas of your own, send them along!