Environmental awareness. Green Lifestyles. Saving the planet is a multi-billion dollar industry, fuelled by giant corporations and spurred on by the mainstream media.

Not that any of that is a bad thing. Well, maybe the part where “going green” gets so over-hyped by the media (we’re all gonna DIE!) that it makes people panic and then run out and spend more money on all the “green stuff” so the giant corporations can make more money. Maybe that part.

But most people’s intentions when it comes to the environment are good, and this post isn’t about mass media and giant corporations.

It’s about loving our planet.

After all, it’s the only one we’ve got.

I remember back in the 80′s, the environment became a really big deal. We were encouraged to start recycling, to lower our thermostats, to turn the lights off – and we did. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle became the mantra of the decade. In school, we learned that plastic was bad, pollution was worse, and that our landfills were filling up. People finally started listening to guys like Dr. David Suzuki about the perils of clear cutting forests.

And I thought that finally, we were learning to respect the Earth.

The only Earth we’ve got.

But then, in the 90s, we all suddenly got distracted. Maybe it was TV. Perhaps our jobs and our families tied us up too much. It became more important for us to have a lifestyle of convenience than one of environmental responsibility. We all but forgot about the commitment we’d all made the previous decade to save our planet. Suddenly, ads on TV were pushing disposable everything – plastic zipper bags for your food, in 400 different sizes. Those ridiculous toilet bowl cleaners where you attach a disposable scrubber, swish it around the bowl and then, as they say in the commercial, “just throw it away!”. Soft drink companies started putting tap water in plastic bottles and promoting it as part of a healthy lifestyle. Our tech gadgets came hermetically sealed in thick plastic, non-recyclable blister packs. I could go on.

Suddenly, the planet was taking a back seat to us having more handy ways to do things.

And it’s the only planet we’ve got.

Fortunately, the 21st century (and maybe partly Al Gore, after he was finished inventing the Internet), has brought about a well-needed shift in our sensibilities. Unfortunately, like most things, it was a real “oh crap!” moment for most people. We realized that we’d again become a disposable society, and that as much as we’d all long been in the habit of turning out the lights, we were now up to our ears in TVs, computers, and other energy sucking electronic gadgets. As much as we used our blue recycling bins, we were throwing out more stuff than ever.

Finally, our collective compact flourescent lightbulbs went on, and we realized, almost at once that…

This is the only planet we’ve got.

Billion dollar industries aside, this time I think there’s not only been a behaviour shift – there’s been an outright culture shift. Green lifestyle isn’t just a choice any longer, it’s a necessity. Does it take a conscious commitment? Absolutely. We need to make decisions for ourselves, our families, and our companies about how we want to change the way we do things – whether that’s giving up bottled water, switching to CFL lightbulbs, or opting to work from home more often. It’s also still about recycling and composting too.

But perhaps most importantly, it’s about keeping our planet in the forefront of our minds. It’s about respecting this beautiful Earth we’ve been given, and appreciating it.

So get out there, and give our planet a big hug. Show it some love. Not just today. Every day.

After all, it’s the only planet we’ve got.

[photo credit: NASA]

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All this talk about the environment. Landfills filling up, global warming, going green…it’s the underlying theme of society these days. It’s not a bad thing that everyone is talking about it…in fact, it’s vitally important. As Canada’s most famous environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki says:

“We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.”

Here’s the thing that really ticks me off. As we are bombarded with messages about all of the horrible things we are doing to the environment, big companies continue to make products that are harmful. Here’s just a brief list of stupid inventions that I think are just plain wasteful:

Microwave Steaming Bags. Think about it. Do you really need a plastic bag to steam your food in the microwave? How did you do it before the microwave steaming bag was invented? What’s that? In a container? In a pot on the stove? In fact, studies have shown that veggies steamed in the microwave lose up to 97% of valuable nutrients like antioxidants, so there’s not really much point in nuking your veg in the first place. Throw that broccoli into a salad instead. You’ll be healthier and so will the environment.

Disposable Toilet Scrubbers. So, I can go to IKEA and buy a toilet brush for $1.50. Or I can go to the grocery store and buy a pack of throw-away toilet scrubbers for $5.99. The toilet brush works just as well, and I can use it over and over. If it gets dirty, I can soak it in a bit of bleach and voila! It’s like new. The toss-away toilet scrubbers are just about the silliest invention I’ve seen. Just slap it on, scrub away then toss it. The commercials even say “Then just throw it away!” What kind of attitudes are we developing when we allow advertisers to tell us just to toss away anything we don’t need? Again, we got along just fine for years using an old fashioned toilet brush. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Plastic bags full of ads that get stuck on my doorknob. This is about the most ridiculous invention ever. I’m not sure about where you live, but where I live, there’s this company whose sole purpose is to fill up these plastic bags with a bunch of glossy, un-recyclable papers advertising various, mostly useless products I can buy in my neighbourhood. They hang the bags on the doorknobs of everyone’s house. It happens about once every 6 weeks or so. Let’s say they distrubute one to even 50% of the households in my city. That’s about 250,000 houses. 250,000 useless plastic bags full of useless, non-recylable paper, about 8 times a year. That’s 2 million plastic bags over the course of a year, most of which end up being tossed in the garbage without even being looked at. Sad, isn’t it.

Why do companies keep creating these products? Because we keep buying them. If we are truly going to start making positive changes, we need to stop being such a disposable society, and we need to start taking a stand against these kinds of senseless, wasteful products. Here are a few proactive things you can do right now to start along this path:

1. Stop buying this crap.
2. Write to the companies making these products and tell them you are going to stop using any of their products until they stop producing harmful things.
3. Write to your government representative and tell them you want tougher regulations put in place with regards to how people distribute and advertise these kinds of products.
4. Stop buying this crap.

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