Happy Earth Day! Today marks the 50th anniversary of the environmental movement that is now celebrated worldwide by more than 1 billion people every year. Things look a little different this year in terms of celebrations, but we don’t have to let quarantine keep us from celebrating Mother Nature! In fact, this might quite possibility be the best time to celebrate. Social distancing and mandatory shut downs have slowed us down and left us with spending more time at home and out in nature. Let’s celebrate that with some of the fun ways we’ve complied to participate in this year’s festivities both virtually and within your own homes, yards, and communities.
Simple Lifestyle Changes:
- Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. Did you know this can conserve up to 8 gallons of water daily?
- Unplug appliances when not being used.
- Wash laundry in cold water.
- Use cloth towels and napkins in lieu of paper towels. You may already have started this given our recent shortage of paper products!
- Turn off lights when you leave a room.
- Shut door and vent registers to guest bedrooms and less frequently used rooms.
- Close your chimney flu when not in use.
- Ditch the single use water bottles and coffee cups and go with re-usable instead.
- Use a rain barrel to collect water for plants and gardens.
- Recycle your spent batteries and give re-chargable a try.
- Compost your food scraps.
- Fix those leaky faucets and running toilets.
- Switch out your lightbulbs and replace them with LEDs.
Outdoor Action:
- Can you ditch the car and ride a bike to your destination?
- Plant a tree.
- Start a veggie garden.
- Set up a compost bin.
- Make your yard animal friendly by installing birdhouses, birdbaths, bathhouses, and bee boxes. The Audubon Shop in Madison has a beautiful selection and offers curbside pick-up!
- Go for a hike or a walk around your community. Bring along some gloves and a trash bag to collect any litter you might find. You can even register your solo clean-up on the Earth Day website!
- Have a picnic meal in your own backyard.
Celebration at a Distance:
- Celebrate with Yale Sustainability through their portal featuring daily quizzes, learning opportunities, and climate stories.
- Mail seed packets to family and friends or drop a small plant off on their porch just to let them know you’re thinking of them!
- Get your gal pals together for a virtual potting session happy hour! Lots of nurseries are offering curbside pick-up making it easy to spiffy up your front porch. Give your happy hour a fun name while you’re at it…Daisys and Daiquiris, Plants and Prosecco, Martinis and Marigolds….I could go on and on!