Earth Day Presents Opportunity to Create a New “Green Generation”

You can help create a new Green Generation beginning this Earth Day, April 22.  It won’t take a major commitment, but it may take a decision to change some well-established home practices.  Make ‘recycle, reuse and rethink energy savings’ your motto at home this spring.  You can join with your children in becoming members of the Green Generation.

It’s nearly 40 years since the very first Earth Day was held, and this year April 22 marks the beginning of a two-year initiative, the Green Generation Campaign.

This Earth Day will be a day of action and civic involvement, in preparation for the negotiations for a new global climate agreement this coming December. 

The Green Generation’s principles include:

1. A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal.
2. An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption.
3. Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

Earth Day falls just after National Environmental Education week (EE Week).  EE Week, April 12 through 18, actively engages students and teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade in understanding and protection of the natural world through environmental learning.  This year’s theme is Be Water Wise!

Schools registered as participants will have access to a host of free resources, such as a school water-auditing tool; water quality monitoring resources and water-themed lesson plans.

You can help your children learn more about Earth Day, protecting precious resources like water, and what “going green” means at home.

Get Green with Your Kids

Teach them to dispose of trash, broken toys and discarded art and craft supplies responsibly.  Recycle everything possible.

Even young children can learn to use colored bins or boxes to sort recyclable materials.  Put these colored bins in their rooms, in the laundry and kitchen to help make recycling easier.

Outside, it’s important to remember to keep the environment clear.  Make sure there is no littering, and teach children to pickup trash through your good example.

Thinking Green at Home

Of course, outside activity means more dirt, grime and germs inside the house.  More dirt and grime means more baths, more clothes to be washed, and more to be dried, too.

When you’re washing and scrubbing, be sure to conserve as much water and energy as possible.  Do the laundry only when there’s a full load of clothes, and run the dryer just as long as needed to dry clothes well.

We get long daylight hours in spring and summer, and that’s a big help in energy conservation.  Keep your lights off when not needed, and replace your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) wherever possible. 

Finally, the heat’s off in the house and not yet fully on outdoors.  Now’s the time to open your windows and let the breeze blow through the house.  Conserving cooling energy is a great way to demonstrate to your children how easy it can be to start “going green.” 

Learn more about Earth Day at ww2.earthday.net/earthday/200

Learn more about green spring cleaning at www.greenliving.suite101.com