Celebrate Earth Day
Next Friday, April 22, we
celebrate
the 35th anniversary of Earth Day, which is a focal point
for the
worldwide movement to protect our planet, our children and
our future.
Some
background
On April 22, 1970, 20
million Americans took to the streets and parks in massive
coast-to-coast rallies to demonstrate for a healthy,
sustainable environment. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson (then
a US Senator from Wisconsin) proposed these rallies to
"force environmental awareness onto the national agenda".
The impact of the Earth Day
movement was impressive - it led to the
creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the
passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species
acts.
Earth Day went global in
1990, with 200 million people in 141 countries campaigning
for clean energy, against global warming.
Earth
Day 2005
This year, the theme of
Earth Day is "Protect Our Children and Our Future".
The goal of Earth Day has always been to protect our natural
resources and our biodiversity. This year, the goal is
broadened to ensure that children everywhere are healthy,
educated and free from oppression.
Some of the issues
surrounding this new goal that Earth Day participants are
focusing on include: childhood asthma, childhood obesity and
poor diet, pollution on school grounds, chemical exposure,
quality and usability of urban parks and poor water quality.
Act
Locally
So, what can you do to
participate in this year's celebration? Here are some
ideas - you can do most of these with your kids:
1. Reduce energy usage by
turning off unwatched TV's and unnecessary lights.
Carpool or bike to work.
2. Recycle - buy products
that are made from recycled goods and/or products that can
be recycled. Start a compost pile in your backyard.
3. Plant a tree. Start a
garden.
4. Attend an Earth Day
event. If you're in Chicago, see our local events in the
list to the right of this page.
5. Buy produce that is
grown in a sustainable manner.
Go
organic
It's been said that at the heart of the world's
environmental problems is conventional (non-organic)
agriculture. Conventional ag activities create more
pollution, degrade more land and are responsible for more
species extinction than anything else that we do in the
world.
This fact shines a new
light on the importance of buying produce that is grown in a
sustainable manner. Buy organic produce at your local
market, who's mission it is to provide healthy, nutritious
and tasty organic foods to you and your children.
In doing so, you are
supporting those organic growers who are working diligently
to improve the soil, protect their watersheds, create a
healthy farm and family environment and provide high
quality, nutritious produce grown in a sustainable manner.
Join us
To celebrate Earth Day,
we are joining with many of our retail
customers to promote organic strawberries and bananas this
week. The strawberries (from Watsonville, CA) are
a delightful early spring treat and are now available in
quantity. And the bananas (from Central and South
America) are tasty and plentiful.
You can find these
organic fruits at your local market. If not, email us
at
newsletter@goodnessgreeness.com and we'll help you
locate them. |
