Last year I was lucky enough to participate in Blog Action Day. It’s pretty impressive to see the numbers- 7,883 blogs, from 140 countries with over 11 million readers are reaching out to educate people about Climate Change. Posts are from bloggers like Vincent Abry from France whose un monde du geek I enjoy. Ritsuko’s ゴハンBlog in Japan. (ゴハン = food.) Whose tweets about camping I’ve enjoyed. And, The Gamelian World out of Ghana who recently reported the first iPhone game likely to come out of Africa.
You get the idea- all these folks on the same day reaching out for the same goal. Pretty amazing.
My contribution is a small one. I used to work in the environmental movement and what I noticed is that most people felt guilty about not doing enough. I think they felt that if they couldn’t do something on a grand scale, like have a completely solar home, that their was nothing they could do to contribute to protecting the environment. When, in fact, if you asked them, they did something- turned off the lights after they left a room, conserved water, drove a smaller car, etc. Once they thought about it, they decided they could add one more thing into their lives, such as:
- Writing to an elected official once a year to let them know their opinion.
- Figured out how to recycle in their neighborhood.
- Watered their garden before 8 a.m. (less evaporation)
- Wore a sweater and turned the heat down. (Thank you President Carter!)
- Bought grass-fed beef when they could afford it.
- Supported a local CSA buy purchasing their vegetables through one.
- Volunteered at community organizations committed to protecting the environment while serving the community. Denver’s Same Cafe is a great example!
- Giving props to a climate-friendly business on review site tuggl.com.
Again, I am not suggesting you do all of these, just saying maybe you can try out one of these occasionally. Then you can work on getting your home off the grid. jk.
Thanks again to the folks at Blog Action Day for making this happen!
