Support For Earth Hour

Would you like to take a stand and let the rest of the world know you want to do your part to change global warming?

You can do just that on March 29, 2008, at 8 p.m. (your own local time) by participating in Earth Day and joining millions of other people from around the world by turning off your lights for one hour.

Earth Hour was created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007 in Sydney, Australia as an event in one city. In 2008 Earth Hour has grown into a worldwide movement which includes millions of people, businesses, civic organizations and governments participating. Everyone throughout North America and the rest of the world can participate, no matter where you may be. You are encouraged to turn off your lights at 8 p.m. for one hour to show your concern for our planet and that you want to do your part in helping to control climate change.

You can go to http://www5.earthhourus.org/ to sign up to partipate and show the world you are supporting Earth Hour. Give an hour, one hour, Earth Hour.

Learn To Recondition Batteries

Most of us know that one of the ways to help lighten the load of our earth's huge waste problems is to recycle as much as possible.

What if you could learn how to recondition your own batteries and save the cost of new ones, and also be given the opportunity to make money at the same time?

Not only would you be helping the planet by diminishing some of the harmful waste we dump daily, but you could also be saving yourself some money by recycling and creating a source of added income for yourself, just by learning how to recondition batteries.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can help decrease our earth's waste problem, and use this same knowledge to add to your own income at the same time, read on...

The Right To Know What's In Our Milk

I recently read an article which claims that some state governments are considering label laws that would restrict milk producers from labeling their milk with information that consumers should be aware of regarding the use of rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone). A genetically engineered hormone, rBGH is used by some cattle farmers to artificially boost milk production. It has become a great source of controversy. You can read articles in most major news publications lately addressing this issue. I have included a few links below so you may read about it and see what is being discussed in the news.

As concerned citizens, we should take responsibility for our health, our children's health, and the health of our own environment by demanding more information on our food labels, not less! We need to let our federal and state governments know how we feel about these and other matters that affect our health and the health of animals receiving these drugs. After all, what goes into the animals essentially makes its way into our own bodies! We have the right to know what is used to produce the food we eat. We need all the information included on the food labels so we can make wise choices in the foods we eat. This includes whether they are sodium-free, if they are made without added sugar, or produced without synthetic hormones. We have a growing human health crisis in our country, and according to their own report, the FDA lacks the funds for research and regulation to protect us, so we MUST take the responsibility for our own health. Click on any of the links below to read more about the subject and related articles:

Fighting on a Battlefield the Size of a Milk Label
New York Times - March 11, 2008

Milk hormone label debate continues
USA Today - March 11, 2008

Battle over rBGH-free labeling continues in US states
The Organic & Non-GMO Report

Mystery milk: Rule change would keep Utah consumers in the dark
Salt Lake Tribune - 2-28-08

Eating The Organic And Natural Way

Since becoming a first-time grandparent last year, I have been made much more aware of what kind of environment my grandson was going to be growing up in. I started thinking about ways in which I could help him to grow up healthier by making his baby food out of organically grown fruits and vegetables.

While doing some research about the benefits of making your own baby food compared to the processed baby foods sold in stores, I found that there are also benefits to the environment by using organic and natural products. Organic foods are safer to eat and safer for our earth because they are not grown with harmful pesticides or artificial chemicals.

Being concerned for my grandchild also made me start thinking about my own health and that of my family and the foods we eat as well. It was difficult at first because I really didn't know too much about what was available or how to shop to change our eating habits. While looking online for information, I discovered a great website which had a detailed step-by-step guide explaining how to change to an organic and natural lifestyle. Before using this guide, I usually bought food that was less expensive to save money because I thought organic food would be very costly. Using the guide helped me realize that for only a few dollars extra a week I could buy organic food but still stay within my budget and feed my family in a much healthier way. This is not only better for our health, but also better for our planet because of the way organic foods are grown.

If you would like to change the way you think about organic and natural foods and learn about their health benefits, click here to get your own copy of the guide.

Conserve Energy - Hang A Clothesline

Some of the smallest changes we make can conserve energy. For instance, the way we do our laundry can affect our environment. It has been found that up to 60% of the energy associated with one piece of clothing is spent in how we wash and dry it. Laundering just a single t-shirt can send as much as 9 lbs of carbon dioxide into the air over the lifetime of the shirt.

These little changes can make big differences over time:
- Wash clothes in warm water instead of hot water.
- Save up to launder bigger loads than many smaller ones.
- Replace an older washing machine with a newer, efficient one, if possible. Newer washers can save up to 3/4 the energy of some older ones!
- Dry clothes the natural way - hang up a clothesline!

Altogether, the changes we make can reduce the CO2 created by our laundry by up to 90%!