Earth Week

Earth Day is on April 22, and this week is called 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 year, because we are all staying home to stay safe, some of my usual community Earth Week events are cancelled, so I did a search for ideas for environmental activities we can do while in quarantine at home. My old and new favorites are listed here.

Agenda this week:

1. Earth Week petition walks
2. Clean the neighborhood
3. Plant a bee garden
4. Watch Nature Cams
5.  Make Earth Cookies

"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. Plant a bee garden:
Planting a bee garden is pretty easy to do, easy to maintain, nice to look at, effective, and can be done safely, as most plants can be ordered online and delivered, or picked up curbside from local garden centers.

I have some plants that attract pollinators, but I want to have more, so this week I'm going to order some new flowers:

• Red- flowering Currant- thornless and with bright flowers cherished by hummingbirds.
• Showy Milkweed- an excellent nectar plant for many pollinators.
• Fireweed- easy to grow. Spreads by rhizomes. Attractive to bumblebees and hummingbirds.
• Menzie’s, Oregon, and/or Tall Larkspur- Menzie’s is shorter, and grows in full sun. Tall and Oregon are taller, and grow well in part shade. They all are bumblebee and hummingbird favorites!
• Lovage- a pollinator magnet. It resembles a carrot plant, and is a perennial. It grows very easily from seed.

4. Watch Nature Cams: 
The Explore.org site has cameras on nesting bald eagles in Iowa, elephants in South Africa, the Channel Islands kelp forest, and many more... a great way to watch nature from home.

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! The recipe is here.