Artful Earth Day 2012
TweetBesides the message I received the other day concerning fecal matter found in a storage area of my building [eww], I can’t say my thoughts have been centered on sewage, waste, landfills, and the environment. But in the last 24 hours, I’ve noticed these topics coming up in conversation with greater frequency. Perhaps because it’s almost Earth Day, you have been thinking about more responsible ways to care for our planet whilst accomplishing your usual ADLs (activities of daily living, in nurse-speak). And since this is an art blog, today’s blogpost is all about having an artful Earth Day this year, and every day of the year.
FUN WAYS TO CELEBRATE EARTH DAY
1. Solar Power It
I use Joos Solar Panel to charge up my iDevices and other small gadgets. Even on a grey day in Seattle, a little flashing light indicator lets me know my solar panel is collecting enough sunlight to keep them energized. Now, which one soaks up more rays: my cat Lumi, or the solar panel? [Both are pretty cool in my book]
Each Joos panel comes with a packet of cable ends for most of your standard items. You can even leave the panel in your car and have it available to power up your devices. Woot!
2. Get The Poop On Conservation
Thanks to Tony Shin for sending me this great info graph about poop and sewage waste. Who knew? I’ll be more conscientious about those flushes, but we can also put our money where our
environmental mouths are by supporting research and intiatives to turn bio waste into fuel sources that do not harm our planet. Poop power, activate!
Created by: [edit 05/08/2013-- the owner of the infograph wished to remove their link due to changing guidelines in link use. It has been removed by request. However, they said nothing about removing the infograph, so it will remain unless they wish to have it removed as well. BIH.]
3. Hug A Tree (Or An Entire Forest)
Did you know that this weekend of April 20 – 22 is National Forest weekend in the U.S.? If you visit a National Forest during this time, your admission is free. Follow them on Twitter @NatlParkService. Check out Ken’s tweet about it, below.
National Park Week begins Saturday – free admission through next weekend. Anybody getting outside? ( @NatlParkService )
Imei @kenfucious @NatlParkService Yes, quite possibly for my birthday weekend! Thanks to the Natl Park Service for free admission.
Ken 4. Download Library Books And Save Trees
I only got into eBooks after purchasing my first iPad back in 2010. Now that I’m writing my own book, I’m already thinking about the ways I’ll get my book into other people’s hands, including eBooks. But did you know your library allows you to check out books to your Kindle reader (even on the iPad)? Granted, there are limited numbers of copies of a particular title available to check out, and if it’s a very popular book, you might be waiting for awhile. But NPR mentioned that the Central Library (Seattle) system has the nation’s largest eBook collections — over 100,000 books compared to NYC’s 88,000. Ha ha! We win. You win. Check out a book by downloading it to your Kindle reader.
5. Hoofing And Wheelin’
If you can’t get into any of the above, there’s always walking and bicycling everywhere you can to reduce your carbon footprint. While you might not be in a position to give up your car, you can choose to drive it less by taking mass transit, especially light rail (clean and efficient — I take it to work three times a week), and getting some exercise by bicycling to the market and other short errands. I was even walking in the “what the yuck?” rain yesterday in Pioneer Square.
Admittedly, I’m a little weird this way, but I’ll load up my iPhone with its iPod full of music, and I’ll go run – and dance - outdoors. Where people can see. And they can gawk. And I just don’t have to care. This is some free space where I can shimmy up a storm and really work my core, either going backwards or forwards. Next thing you know, I’ll be inline skating and hooping at the same time. If I do, you’ll get exclusive pictures here first.
There are a million things you can do to save energy and protect our planet, such as sharing shower time, recycling, turning junk into art, re-gifting things, and finding artful ways to limit waste. For me, it’s all about having an artful approach to conservation, to daily practices, to …. well, EVERYTHING.
What’s your artful approach to Earth Day? Share your best thoughts on how to care for yourself while caring for your planet.
Dance Artist, Psychotherapist, Triage Nurse. Consumer geek and audophile. Slave to two adorable Applehead Siamese iKittehs with conductive paws. iPad DJ. Soon to be published author. Plays with the geeky toys and likes them. 10K runner training for a half marathon. Send offline comments to info at hips for hire dot com.
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