Tag Archive for Earth

A Beautiful Wonder

On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, let’s pause and take a look at mankind’s home. Worth protecting, I’d say.

Filthy Fashion Scoreboard

Take a sensible approach to buying. Look at labels. Where were things made, and by whom? Are they making our Earth dirtier and in more danger? Check out this chart.

Don’t Flush Away Your World

Stop using bleach and chemical cleaners to kill germs and banish rings in the toilet bowl.  Pure white vinegar does the job and, as a natural substance, is less harmful to the environment. 

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[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

Beat the Heat!

Beat the heat with skylights that reflect sunlight, low-E coatings on windows facing south and west, and awnings over windows. In the summer, a non-heated house is more comfortable than blasting air conditioning and avoids unnecessary energy usage.

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[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

       

Worth Taking Care of

“Earthrise,” taken on Christmas Eve 1968 from aboard Apollo 8, by astronaut William Anders, who responded to fellow astronaut Frank Borman’s comment about a picture, grabbed a camera, and took this breathtaking photo. It shows our home planet just appearing over the moon’s horizon.

Beautiful sight, isn’t it? And worth taking care of.

Replace Your Cooler

It’s getting on beach/picnic/sightseeing time. You look at your old cooler and see crud, cracks, or breaks. But it’s essential to your outing–HAVE to take along cold drinks and snacks that need to be kept cool. So you have to replace it.

I don’t recommend products too often, but this one is fantastic. It isn’t made of Styrofoam, which never breaks down, or plastic, which takes forever to disintegrate. It’s biodegradable, yet strong enough to hold 75 pounds, keep water without leaking for 5 days and ice for 12 hours, has cup holders built into the top, and is lightweight. And it is not expensive–try $9.99 for a 16-quart cooler.

It will meet your needs and is a good step toward eliminating Earth-harming Styrofoam and cutting down on plastic. It’s called Recool, and it’s made by Igloo.

I’m Feeling Earthy

April is a very earthy month, with Earth Day (today) and National Arbor Day (Friday the 26th).  PLUS, we’re in the midst of the season of renewed life, Easter.  It’s a marvelous time to think about what we can do for our home, the Earth.  No room in your yard for another tree?  In my area we have Our City Forest—you probably have such an organization in your area, too.  Sign up with them to help with planting projects in your city.  Stroll along the banks of a local river, lake, or pond, carrying tools to pick up trash.  Spend time around your home, building a birdhouse, creating a habitat in that unused corner of the yard, or planting non-thirsty plants.  Take your family to an Earth Day event, or follow up on an eco-activity you learned when attending one.  This month, begin a new habit: at least once a day get out of the house and smell the roses and the fresh air, listen to bird-songs, feel cool clean lake water on your toes, bite into a mouth-pleasing, messy orange, watch cloud-swans glide through clear, blue skies.  Then, determine to keep all these available for future generations.

Go Dark for an Hour

It’s happening now, wherever 8:30 PM local time arrives for you, in over 160 countries around the world and on all continents. People are turning off their lights for an hour in solidarity for working toward a sustainable future. 

Turning off the lights is only a symbol, of course, but this annual event (a dozen years old) really is having an effect.  One year, 35,000 American Girl Scouts were inspired to go into their community and install 132,141 energy-efficient light bulbs.  The former president of Botswana organized to plant 100,000 trees in devastated areas.

Participate by turning off all lights tonight 8:30 – 9:30.  Yes, all lights, including the TV and phone.  Join with others to acknowledge the fact that all of us together need to work on saving our not-inexhaustible resources and keeping our Earth healthy for future generations.

To watch the lights go our for that hour across the globe, click on
https://www.earthhour.org/earth-hour-live .

DOUSE THOSE LIGHTS TONIGHT 8:30 – 9:30.



Free Book Download

Saturdays I call “Sensible Saturday” on my blog. It’s a day when I tell about new inventions or ideas aimed at saving our planet, or I give suggestions for little things anyone can do. Those suggestions are simple, easy, and often save money. If you’d like to try some of them, you can find an abundance of them in my FREE e-book, Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. More than 2200 people have already downloaded it. You can find it at your favorite e-book seller or go to Smashwords.com and search Jackie O’Donnell. Again, it’s totally free for you to download and use.

This One is for the Dogs

Recycle and make your pet happy.  Create a pet bed out of an old blanket put into an old suitcase.  Your scent on the blanket will give him sweet dreams.

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]