Reduce my ecological footprint

I just got a kitchen composter for all my kitchen scraps. I’ll add the compost to some empty planters with some potting soil and have some kick-butt veggies! woohoo!

It’s a little late to be talking it up, but the Live Earth concerts yesterday were great. Concerts to prevent Global Warming and raise awareness took place on every continent and reached over 2 billion people. While the concerts are over, the website, www.liveearth.org has some great links and resources, some of which will be updated Tuesday, including carbon footprint quizzes, things you can do, climate news, etc. Check it out.

When I was in college, a group of friends and I went for a weekend to a cabin in the mountains somewhere. We didn’t have any trash service while we were there, so we tried to make as little trash as possible, recycling and composting what we could. After 3 or 4 days, with 6 or 8 people, we had about a half a bread bag filled with trash. A friend told me a story that reminded me of this this week. Why can’t we live our whole lives like that? Why can’t we bring those ideas home from vacation?

A penguin made it to the cover of Time Magazine this week! They have a big article about 51 things you can do to help slow global warming. I am so glad to see global warming being discussed more and more in the media. Let’s keep talking it up!

My worms died. All of them. I opened my box today and they were all dead. It seems the box had gotten too wet. I’ve been sick the last 2 weeks and only checked on them and fed them a few times. They seemed fine that whole time, but today – none left. I am very sad. I took the remaining castings and threw them around the landscaping so their lives might not be in vein. They lasted about 2 months. I’m not sure I’m going to try again.

Today when I went to farmer’s market, I only got about 10 feet before I realized I forgot my bag! Much better (and easier to turn around for!)

Today I overcame one of the hardest things. I went to farmers market and left my canvas bags in the car. I turned around and walked all the way back, all 50 yards or so, to the car, opened the door and got out the bags. Remembering the bags is hard, but why is that short walk back to the car to get them such a difficult thing? Why would we so often say “I’ll remember next time”? It’s a little thing, but I was proud of myself for doing it.

Today I recieved my worms for my worm composting. 1/2 pound redworms. I just hope I can keep them alive. I am very excited. I made them bedding out of newspaper, some dirt and crushed egg shells and gave them some bread (but not much) to munch on.

I am working on hitting up the farmers market on fridays and the natural food store once or so a month. Not all the veggies at the market are organic, but they are locally grown and that’s a start. And of course I try to hit up the organic stands.

Yesterday I went shopping at the fun natural foods store. It’s so nice to see such great stuff available. Forgot to bring my shopping bags, but hey, its a start. Need to order worms. Maybe tonight.

Yesterday I took the ecological footprint quiz on www.earthday.net/footprint/ My footprint is 19 acres. There are only 4.5 biologically productive acres per person in the world (and shrinking as the world population rises). Wow. I have a long way to go. The first area I am going to tackle – my shopping practices. I do not have a convenient grocery store, so I usually go to Target and the farmers market for most of my food. I rarely have the option of organic or locally grown at Target, so I am going to try to venture to the grocery store more often. Today – bought Organic milk. Also got a small bin to begin a worm compost in my kitchen. It’s all a start!