Earth Day 2010: 40 Years Later

It’s Earth Day!

A day to celebrate Mother Nature, our planet and the gifts that they give us each and every day.

We are the luckiest folks in the universe to have been blessed to live in such a lush and vibrant place.

One should be thanking their lucky stars each and every day that the human race didn’t end up on the Red Planet (and I’m not talking about Gallifrey.)

The core issues for Earth Day are:

• Advocacy
• Climate Change
• Conservation & Biodiversity
• Education
• Energy
• Food & Agriculture
• Green Economy
• Green Schools
• Recycling & Waste Reduction
• Sustainable Development
• Water

So in honour of honouring our beloved oceans, lands, animals and people I’ve complied a few things that I found to be utterly insightful, fun and overall fantastic!

Earth Day was started in the United States of America in 1970 by (D-WI) Senator Gaylord Nelson. He died in 2005, but the legacy of what he started still lives on today 40 years later.

(In case you were also wondering June 5 is the United Nations’ World Environment Day.)

Happy Earth 2010

Google

For Earth Day 2010, Google Doodle has created a beautiful logo full of lush greenery reaching skyward. You can see the brightly coloured birds flying towards the sunlight above the canopy and it’s just gorgeous.

There are six parrots, which incidentally one can imagine will have something to do with the fact that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. Google doesn’t have any gallery notes available for this image, but it’s a possibility.

Fashionistas, Couture & Beauty: Mother Nature Style!

British Beatlette fashionista Stella McCartney has an organic line of clothing, check it out.

Also, check out this feature in Teen Vogue (they also list a bunch of beauty finds) about Emma Watson’s designs for People Tree.

Oceans

Disneynature’s follow-up film to “Earth” from 2009 is “Oceans.” For every movie ticket sold on Earth Day, Disney will plant a tree. Not a bad trade off, plus the imagery and video is simply phenomenal.

If you’re an animal lover, bring the tissue, these films are dramatic, beautiful and simply incredible.

Tips, Tricks & Being in the “Know”

Below are a few suggestions I was given after asking around as to how people suggest on being green year-around:

• Wash your laundry with cold water, instead of hot. Not only is it better for your clothing, but it will also save energy through usage of your washing machine and probably about $100+ USD a year on your bill.

• Don’t throw away food. Left overs aren’t a bad thing. Think of it this way, if you skip one $10 USD meal per week and eat left overs, and there are 52 weeks in a year, that’s $520 saved.

• Why not help the earth grow and nourish it by growing your own something? Better yet, start a garden, or plant some flowers.

• (This one is particularly hard for me and I’ll admit it) – Keep your thermostat at 78F in the summer and 68F in the winter and you could save energy and lots of money. Then again, I think this is also dependent on what part of the world you live in.

• Purchase a refillable bottle for water. Why purchase plastic bottles of water (for about $1.50 each+), when you can purchase a steel, aluminum or reusable plastic bottle that you can easily fill with filtered water.

• (Another one I find rather hard) – Giving up watching television by watching it on your computer instead of buying another electronic device. I personally would have a hard time with this, but if you can do it, more power to you!

The Women’s Conference, by Maria Shriver, has a great article on e-waste and saving:

In a world of constant electronic upgrades, we’re generating more than 3.2 million tons of e-waste in the U.S. each year alone, according to the EPA.

Read it now.

A little humor to Earth Day, commercialism, consumption and all this Jonas, thanks to Tremendous News.

Are you an iPhone user? Check out iRecycle, Find Green, Carbon Calc and What’s on My Food. Guess what? They are FREE!

…and by the way, “Avatar” is out on DVD and Blu-Ray today! *wheee* Check out some of the marketing and public relations campaigns going on across the world in light of the film’s release as well as rallies to save the planet here.

Also, you can visit Earth Day for a list of events around the globe.

Enjoy April 22 folks and think green the entire year around!

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Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida with a minor in Dance (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami (’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima or get a copy of the ‘Little Pink Book’ delivered to your Kindle and don’t forget to check out the Mad Women.

Copyright © 2009-2010 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.