Earth Week 2019

Today is Earth Day, and I plan to celebrate this whole week as Earth Week.

The first Earth Day was in 1970 and it still remains a big event in the environmental movement. Interest and participation in Earth Day has increased and spread around the world, with millions of people taking part. 

I do many things everyday in my life to help the earth: I live in a small house; I walk and bike, and work at home; I buy used stuff and buy locally; I use the library instead of buying books; I compost, recycle, and grow my own food, and I work with other climate activists to help change the way we use carbon in our community.

This week I ask myself “What more could I do?” I want to stretch my limits to action.

Agenda this week:

1. Earth Week petition walks
2. Clean the neighborhood
3. Study climate friendly yard design
4. Bicycle promotion work
5. Make Earth Cookies
6. Sew a new badge to wear

"Come on, Mom, let's go!"

1. Earth Week petition walks:
I know I will be out walking every morning with my girl Sadie!

Each day on my walk this week I will repeat this prayer of petition:

That the Earth be cared for, I pray. 

That we learn to live simply and lightly on the Earth, I pray. 

That we stop poisoning the soil and seas, I pray. 

That global warming is halted and reversed, I pray. 

That protection of the Earth becomes the political priority, I pray. 

Amen.

2. Clean the neighborhood: 

I also plan to take a garbage bag with me as I walk in the mornings and go down a different alley each day to pick up trash.

3. Study climate friendly yard design:
W and I are going to a presentation this week at the library on Climate Friendly Yards:

Is your yard part of the problem, or the solution to climate change? Many yards are a problem: gas-powered tools, fertilizers, pesticides, and sending yard waste to the landfill are major contributors of greenhouse gasses. Instead, our organic landscapes can host beautiful flowers to feed pollinators, shade our homes in the summer, manage stormwater, grow delicious and nutritious food, while removing carbon from the air and sinking it into the soil. Want to take it a step further? Incorporate backyard chickens, bees, or small livestock. Learn from local landscape and farming experts about the variety of options you can take to improve your climate-friendly yard.

4. Bicycle promotion work:
I'm taking part in a newly-formed action group with the agenda of helping to promote bicycle riding. We are meeting this week for the first time, to begin to organize.

5. Make Earth Cookies: 

I got this idea from the Almost Unschoolers blog. One correction, though: She says the earth is about 70% water, but it's the earth's surface that is 71% water, not the earth itself. That percentage works fine for these cookies which only show the earth's surface anyway!

Ingredients:

• 2-3/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1-c. butter
• 1-1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• food color
• 3 tsp. baking cocoa

Yield: 2 dozen cookies-

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in an egg. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

3. Divide the dough and color three-quarters of it blue by kneading food color in with your fingers. Color one-eighth green and one-eighth brown with a few teaspoons of baking cocoa.

4. Roll balls of blue dough and add bits of green and brown for the land masses.

5. Place onto lightly oiled cookie sheets and press a little to slightly flatten. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let stand on cookie sheet for two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

6. Sew a new badge to wear: