Earth Day Projects Everyday

If you would like to visit Action Against Hunger this is their web page.

I changed this lens to be a 100 percent for charity because of a note that Pmolinero posted at Tagfoot. After reading the post, I thought what a perfect way to contribute to this charity than by making my Earth Day Everyday lens a 100 percent for this cause.

When we do things like this we often wonder why this Charity...the answer for me is simple, it truly saddens me to see people do without food. I think that is because of my Italian Grandmother....always cooking in the kitchen for the huge family and you dare not waste anything, everything was usable in some fashion.

My Grandmother would always say, "Manji Maria, Manji" And I would always remember other family members talking about how there were so many children in the world who did not have any food, that they were starving. When you tell a small child this, it has a way to make them feel guilty for having food on one hand, and on the other hand it makes you want to do what you can to help.

I am a firm believer that every $1.00 collected, every .50 cents collected helps to contribute in some small way. So my reasoning for this certain charity is simply because I want to help in some small way so it can help someone not have to go to bed hungry.

By turning out the lights when you leave a room, you can save a lot of energy. By replacing just five incandescent bulbs with CFLs you can save you $200 a year. Now I personally use this kind of light blub. And I know I have saved money on my electricity bill. They really are not that expensive for the usage you get out of them. And it is a win-win situation because you save money and you help the environment.

I use night lights at my house. And I use the Led' night lights that I purchased almost three years ago and theey are still working.

Okay this is a pretty easy to begin to be Earth friendly right? To recap: (1) Turn off the lights when you leave a room (2) Try to use CFL lighting and (3) try using LED night lights...

In the winter, when your heat is on, leave your shades and blinds
open on sunny days. This way you can gain some natural heating, therefore not making your heater work so hard. At night close them to reduce the heat being lost through the windows.

In the summer, close your shades and blinds when the air conditioner is on. Try to use light colored blinds so it does not attract the heat to the windows.

Oh, I know these are all simple, simple things...but honestly every penny you can save helps you and helps the environment.

-Planting trees around your home, can reduce cooling cost by up to 50%, plus a tree can offset tons of carbon over its lifetime.

-by washing your clothes in cold water, you can save energy and up to $400 a year in energy bills.

-by placing your computer in sleep mode when you are away from it, it uses up to 70 percent less electricity then compared to using a screensaver.

-cover bare floors with rugs to help retain the heat

-you can use a dehumidifiers and ceiling fans in the summer, to make your home more comfortable.

Do dishes right. Wash only full loads in your dishwasher, and use short cycles for all but the dirtiest dishes. And with today's dishwashers, there's no need to pre-wash dishes-simply scrape any food off the plate
and put it directly in the dishwasher to save energy.

But what if you do not use dishwashers? Wait are there still people who do not use them? Yep, I can honestly say that I do not think I have ever used a dishwasher in my life. To save water I wash a load a dishes then rinse them off. Many times people will allow the water to run while they are washing dishes. Do you know how much water is being drained away? If you pay a water bill, take notice for one month when you do a load of dishes, then rinse them off instead of allowing the water to run while you washing the dishes.

A few years ago, my husband and I went through a short life change and decided we wanted to "Homestead". So for three months we kept up with every penny we spent to see where our money was being wasted. If you were to do this for one, two or three months, you would be amazed where you can make changes to not only save money, but be kinder to the Earth.

Some additional water saving tips and facts:

-In the past half century, the US population has doubled, but the demand for water has more than tripled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

-By turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth, you can save 240 gallons of water a year.

-By taking short showers which use 10-25 gallons of water opose to taking a bath which uses 70 gallons of water.

-When you have a dripping faucet, over 3,000 gallons of water is wasted a year.

Compost is one of nature's best mulches and soil amendments, and you can use it instead of commercial fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap.

Currently my husband and I do not own our own land, but I have to have my garden. So I grow my vegetable organically in pots. AND I have a container that I am making compost in. Now, when you are making dinner and cutting up all of those vegetables, what do you with the parts that you do not use? When you cook eggs for breakfast, what do you do with the egg shells? If you drink coffee or herbal tea, what do you do with the coffee grounds and loose herbs? Every bit of this can go into a compost pile or container. It will be a wonderful treat for your plants, and help the environment from not having to deal with that amount of trash. Okay, so you are thinking, big deal...what is a few vegetable peels and egg shells here and there! Well, about one third of the space in landfills is taken up with organic waste from our yards and kitchens. All of this material can be used in compost.

Please keep in mind, I am offering very simple, very easy solutions to a huge problem with our enviroment. Without sounding like a commerical, if a million people started a compost pile or container think of how much trash the enviroment would not have to decompost. We would be helping in one tiny way and in turn we would gain greatly from it.

As we have come to realize in recent years, ours is a planet that's also quite fragile.

Warnings of global warming, pollution from eletronic gear, water shortages and unpredictable weather patterns. Headlines in recent months remind us that we live in a delicate ecosystem, a world with limited capacity to absorb our society's waste and pollutants.

But there's a new attitude emerging a spirit of resolved and responsibility. It's about recognizing the need for environmental initiatives. It's about adopting recycling efforts and energy saving practices.

It's about making a difference in our communities, to shaping a better world through volunteerism, conservation and smart, thoughtful practices. It's about Green Living!

Did you know

If you planted a tree every year: What better way to celebrate Earth Day or whatever your favorite day of the year is, than to plant a tree. Did you know that trees are the lungs of our planet? They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores cellulose in the woody parts and releases oxygen in its place. About half of the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming are carbon dioxide emissions.

How do trees help to keep our air clean?

-One single mature tree absorbs 50 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and produces enough exygen to sustain two adults.

-If every family planted one tree a year it would remove a billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually.

-A mature tree can absorb 120-240 pounds of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides and particulate pollutants from diesel fuel per year.

-Trees are natural air conditioners. One large healthy tree has a cooling effect of a 10 room size air condition running 20 hours a day.

-Trees absorbs sounds.