Wheat and Tares supports Earth Day 2011. This year the theme is “A Billion Acts of Green.” Let me expound upon why this theme inspires me. There are many worthwhile things we are encouraged to do it the Church and in the community, but often our lives are so full that it is difficult to add one more thing. Every Earth Day I dream of doing some big project to help save the planet in a major way. But then it’s all I can do to get my chores done and my family fed and everyone off to work and school. And, oops! I forgot to bring the reusable bags to shop at WalMart.
Once, when I was discouraged about not having planted a garden late in the season, a friend told me, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” By this she meant that I didn’t have to have an acre of garden planted on April 15th. If I could get out three tomato plants, I’d be doing something worthwhile.
This year’s Earth Day theme has me picturing a billion people around the world, all doing some small “act of green.” Perhaps it is recycling the trash. Maybe it is planting vegetation, or turning off all the lights in your house. An act of green could be fixing a leaky pipe, unplugging all of your media for a day, riding your bike instead of driving.
The Wheat and Tares crew will be posting pictures right here of small acts we and our families are doing to care for our planet today. Please join us; and let us know in the comments if you were part of those billion acts of green.
Mormon Heretic takes out the recycling bin:
ShenpaWarrior communes with the redwoods at a tree fort in his parents’ yard in Northern California:
Jeff Spector’s son and grandson doing their part for the environment:
Bored in Vernal rides her bike to work:
FireTag has new energy efficient windows installed and keeps his house shaded by not cutting down trees for a grassy front yard.
Wheat & Tares 
here in New York City, we’re required to separate recycling from garbage, so we participate by simply living in New York. Our family has also just planted a bunch of vegetables and flowers in our back and front yards. They look lovely. 🙂
We compost our kitchen waste, cloth diaper — it’s hard to name more because what many people are calling “green” these days, we call being poor.
Earth Day or not — we are always reducing, reusing, and recycling.
We’ve also been trying to drive a lot less, get more done in one trip, etc.
I think the best act of green we can do is consume less, which as Justin says might just be acting poor, which is a really good thing. Luckily its sunny in the SLC today so I can turn off all our office lights. I’ve got a bunch of old office equipment I need to recycle today, as well.
Happy Good Friday y’all!
I rode my bike to work today. (And the day before yesterday, and hopefully for the rest of the summer.)
I’m heading out to Earth Day in Springdale (Utah – Zion National Park) for their Earth Day celebration…
…should be fun. Organic pizza is on the menu.
• We compost our kitchen and yard wastes. I even have a chipper for the big stuff! I really get excited about my part in making dirt! (yes, my life is that simple) I’ve been doing it for about 10 years now and our clay soil is SO much improved it’s remarkable.
• We (my daughter the mommy & I the childcare) use cloth diapers. Apart from the environmental benefits, I think kids are more interested in potty training when they can feel the discomfort of being wet without the liners of disposable diapers.
• The last car we got is a hybrid (thank you Barak Obama for the Cash for Clunkers program!). I’m probably using 1/3 the gas of the car I replaced.
• I’ve begun walking to Target and the local grocery when I’m not planning on buying a lot or rushing frozen foods to the freezer. I’ve got this nifty thing that folds out like a golf cart and holds my fabric bags so I can roll them home. And I expect to drop a pound or two as well.
• We got a couple solar tubes installed in the kitchen and in an internal hallway. They direct a lot of natural light into the house and that’s cut back considerably on the use of electric lights (plus it’s much nicer light). We also have CFL and LED bulbs in most of the lights now.
I forgot that we got programmable thermostats installed. They make it possible to minimize the use of heating and air conditioning and shut it off entirely if we’re out or asleep under the cozy blankets. We set them to be a little above or below the actual comfort level (as the case may be) when we’re awake and active
Oh, and then there are microfiber cloths for cleaning. They allow us to skip the use of paper towels and most cleaning products. The microfibers do a great job with just a mild bleach solution or a tiny bit of detergent. I find that buying them from an auto supply store is much cheaper than buying the ones packaged for home use. But, if you get them, remember to only wash them together and never with fabric softener ‘lest you gum up the mini fibers that do the work of grabbing the oils and grime. Try them! The lenses of your glasses will be cleaner and more clear than they’ve ever been before!