Today is Blog Action Day, a day when all bloggers write a post about the same subject. This year, the topic is climate change.
You’ve probably heard about climate change. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), leading scientists believe that the warming of the earth (global warming) has something to do with the greenhouse gases that we produce when we do everyday things like turn on the lights and drive our car. Even the trash we send to landfills produce greenhouse gases and contribute to the warmer climate change.
So, what do we do about it?
More than a year ago, I wrote this post about ways I help the environment, which in turn, can help slow the changing climate. I also indicated a few more steps I would try to incorporate in the next year. One was to plant a garden, which I did last spring.
One other thing has changed since this post was written. Our trash service has increased the number and variety of recyclable items they accept. They also uses a service called RecycleBank to award points to people who recycle. The more points you receive, the more rewards you can purchase. It’s a good incentive, although my thought is that you should be recycling anyway, not just because you’re going to get a coupon for a free box Kraft macaroni and cheese. One neat thing about RecycleBank is that you can convert your points into a dollar amount and donate it to a participating local non-profit. Now that’s something worth doing.
How does recycling help slow the changing climate? When we recycle, we are reducing the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills, in turn reducing the amount of methane in the air. It also takes less energy to recycle an item, than to manufacture it from raw materials.
My kids are aware of our effort to help reduce our impact on the environment. They recycle their school papers, and try and remember to turn off the lights when they leave a room. They see us bring our own canvas bags to the grocery store and know the “curly” light bulbs use less energy. We drink water from reusable water bottles and try to use reusable food containers instead of ziplock bags.
So, what are you doing to help our planet? Even little step can add up to big changes.
One Kansas Girl 