Celebrate Earth Day - Be Naturally Happy

Currently there are over 7 million patents in the US.  Compare that to the 1.5 million identified species on the earth and what you have is a pretty impressive mismatch between the biological world and the world of man made products. 

It’s no wonder that most of us are confused when presented with the task of decreasing our personal carbon footprint.   I thought that I was making an ecological contribution when I purchased a stainless steel water bottle.  I had kicked the bottled water habit for good.  And then I read the process of making stainless steel results in ten times more pollution than regular steel.  When you factor in the countless steps down the supply chain to get this bottle to me it’s easy to see I’ve only traded one wasteful product for another. 

So what’s the answer?

Some solutions just seem too easy.  Before bottled water and the need to be constantly hydrated there was always a simple way of getting water, the drinking fountain.  I had allowed myself to become a victim of 21^st century marketing.  The fact is I don’t need to carry a bottle of water around with me at all.  There is access to clean water in almost any place I might be.

When I started to think about it that’s really our problem with going green, we have forgotten the simple solutions.   Today we rely on too many products.  They clutter up our homes, our trash and our landfills. 

Earth Day is Wednesday April 22 so this year instead of just taking a walk to pick up trash I’m taking an inventory of what I really need.

It helps when I remember my childhood and how few things I wanted or even needed, the requisite toys were a bike, a baseball glove and bat, jump role and crayons. The best times involved no things at all, it was being naturally happy. Like playing tag in the fading evening light and lying in the grass gazing at the stars.  

If we are really going to change then it’s important to reflect on the words of Albert Einstein, “the problems we face cannot be solved at the same of level of thinking that created them.”

None of us crave a vacation inside a shopping mall.  We all hunger for natural things. We plan trips to the beach, the mountains or the woods.  Technology will never be able to replicate or replace what nature gives us.  Our green world benefits our health and our spirits.

This Wednesday make a pledge to give up some convenience in favor of the greater good.  And let your purchasing power shout.  No more throw away anything.  This teeny individual battle in the much larger war against the environment can be won if millions of us are willing to do this.