April – Health4earth

Celebrating Our Beautiful Earth

What are you looking forward to this April?

Every Day is Earth Day!

April is earth month. Do one thing each day to make the world a cleaner kinder place. Sign up here to do an Earth Month Challenge: Earth Month Ecochallenge 2023: Sustainable Development Goals – Home Page

Here are some other ideas:

My Earth month suggestions and the things I do most days are to purchase less junk, reduce my plastic use, pick up litter, and work hard to end food waste.

How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – A Year of Living Better Guides – The New York Times (nytimes.com) Drive less, reduce meat consumption, don’t waste food, and be a wise consumer.

Five things we learned from the new climate report Five things we’ve learned from UN climate report – BBC News

This Is the Make-or-Break Decade for Climate Action, IPCC Warns

New IPCC Report Shows the ‘Climate Time Bomb Is Ticking,’ Says UN Secretary General António Guterres

This month calendar has lots of ideas to be healthy and active. Add picking up litter and being kind to your daily activities.

Letter to the Startribune editorial page: While it is exciting that spring is coming, now is the also the time we see all the trash that has been snow-covered during our long winter. In this state of 10,000 lakes and many beautiful rivers, too much of this trash will end up polluting our waters if not cleaned up. I urge all reading this to do your part, and encourage others, too, to pick up as much trash as you are willing and able. If you are a homeowner, perhaps you can start with the trash in the street in front of your house. Perhaps carry a bag while walking and pick some up while exercising. Anything is a start and appreciated. Dave Councilman, St. Louis Park

What are you looking forward to this April? Enjoy, and make it worthwhile!

It’s Earth Month

Welcome to spring and the marvelous month of April. Earth Day is on April 22, and Arbor Day is on April 30. What can we all do to make April special? Small actions by many can make a big difference. So how can we all make a daily difference? Whether you have meatless days, pick up litter, leave your car at home, plant for butterflies or go plastic-free, make everyday Earth special.

Everyday Is Earth Day

By Kelly Roper

Every day is earth day,
Or at least it should be.
We should take steps every day
to save our planet, don’t you agree?

Try walking when it’s practical,
And skip driving a car.
It will help cut down emissions
And raise air quality by far.

Reuse, renew, recycle,
Think of how much you throw away.
Our earth can only hold so much trash,
One day there’ll be the devil to pay.

And when it comes to littering,
It’s not enough to clean up after yourself.
Leave places better than you find them,
And pick up litter left by someone else.

Don’t spray your garden with pesticides,
Protect the birds and the bees.
Choose natural ways of deterring pests,
That won’t carry poisons in the breeze.

These are easy things we all can do,
To protect the earth for future generations.
If we continue to ignore all the warning signs,
We’ll face sad and irreversible ramifications.

Reading List:

Facts about trees

Climate Activist Spends More Than Year Picking Up Trash – EcoWatch

U.S. lawmakers target plastic pollution, producers in new legislation | Reuters

Butterfly: A Life | National Geographic – Bing video

How to Attract Butterflies (joyfulbutterfly.com)

Butterfly Plants: 16 Plants To Turn Your Backyard Into A Butterfly Paradise (bloomingbackyard.com)

Water: How to Stop Undervaluing a Precious Resource and Be Ready for the Future – EcoWatch

Singing Saturday

We all love the awesome call of the loon

I hope you can find peace with the sounds of nature. April is the best time of the year hear singing birds. I have chickadees and cardinals singing outside my window. Ducks are flying overhead, frogs and crickets are singing. Maybe the wind or the sound of waves or running water gives you peace. Listen for an enjoyable sound, or maybe search for complete quiet. What sounds of nature give you peace?

From 2 writers in the Star Tribune see below:

“Whatever it is that gets us thinking “spring” should lift our spirits and nudge us forward in this period of newness. The despair surrounding COVID-19 leaves us numb and sad, but events in nature’s spring tell us of better things to come.

These spring mornings are the best time of year to hear the symphony of bird music. Listen as tree swallows chatter; mourning doves coo; ring-necked pheasants crow; both northern cardinals and black-capped chickadees whistle; common grackles squawk; red-winged blackbirds trill; Canada geese honk; American robins sing “cheer-up, cheer-up;” and woodpeckers drum.” Jim Gilbert

The white-throated -sparrow sound like a flute when it sings.

“It’s the start of spring in the north. The birds are returning and in contrast to other years when I step outside, I listen for and enjoy the singing. It’s everywhere I stop. I try to listen to what they say — I could be imagining it, but they are saying it all goes on. We’re here. Nature is here. Despite your stress, relax. There’s nothing you can do about the pandemic other than listen to nature and seek refuge in compassion and the truth.” Bryan Hansel

30 Day April Challenge

Styrofoam/polystyrene. I picked out of a lake!

April is Earth Month
April is a month of challenges. Challenges of 30 days of biking or running, 30 days of plastic-free, 30 days of watching birds. 30 days of taking a daily picture, or thirty days of writing a poem for poetry month. The thirty-day challenges are endless.

My April challenge is 30 days of picking up trash. The snow has melted and the swollen rivers are subsiding but our beautiful Earth is covered with litter. It is embarrassing to see so much trash and blowing pieces of plastic. Everyday on my walk in April I carry a bag and collect litter, and actually I started my challenge a few days ago. This year I’m looking extra hard for the small plastic scraps like cigarette butts and Styrofoam pieces. This challenge is easier than some of the other 30 day challenges, but this challenge gets you outside, and it really makes a difference for our Earth. Please join me.

April 22 is Earth Day and April 26 is Arbor Day. Please make everyday April day Earth Day.
Have a fun Earth Month, and remember to enjoy our beautiful our Earth.

Get your 30 days of Active April calendar from Actions For Happiness here.

More Weird Weather

Usually on April 15, I would be excited about new plants popping up, migrating birds, bike riding, cleaning my yard, and picking up litter.

This year there is a raging snowstorm hitting Minnesota and Wisconsin. We have done four rounds of shoveling, with at least one more to go. What is going on?

Did the female cardinal sitting in this tree think she missed mating season?

I wrote earlier this week about the warming Arctic and Alaska hijacking the jet stream. More on a “loopy jet stream” in this opinion by Bonnie Blodgett.

The weather becomes weirder with everyday, right before our eyes. The extremes are becoming the normal. In the past 10 years we have experienced historic floods/rain, historic droughts, historic snow and historic warming. Denying climate change is not an option, nor is the affect humans are having on our earth. The weather is a combination of many things. The winds, location of the sun, the warming oceans, the chemicals we spew into the air/land, too much dark green in the Arctic and many other factors. How much do humans on earth have to do with all of this?

Somehow we need to put things into balance. When we make purchases, put gas in our tanks, eat beef, waste food, and use chemicals, we should ask ourselves, “Is there a better way to do this?”

Weather Weird

The wind is constantly moving the slushy ice around the lake.

Who would ever think you would wake up to 9 degree temperatures on April 9? It has been a cold two weeks of 20 to 30 degrees below normal! Meteorologist Paul Douglas calls it “Weather Weird!” One theory is that the warm weather in the Arctic and Alaska could be hijacking jet streams causing polar air to move south. I recollect some of this happened during the famous Polar Vortex.

Yes, it is cold but the days on Lake Superior are sunny and beautiful. Deer are feeding wherever they find open snow-free ground, the eagles are protecting their new babies, and the migrating seagulls and Canadian geese are back. Mourning cloak butterflies are finding sunny muddy patches, and ore boats are again crossing the big lake. All are signals that spring is finally on its way!

April can be the cruelest month, but April can also be one of the best months to be outside. I hope you get outside to experience the changes and new beginnings. Make a daily walk part of your routine. Enjoy!

Active April

April is always, “Pick up litter” month. Can you get outside everyday and pick up at least one piece of trash for the 30 days of April? I challenge you to join me. On my daily walks I pick up litter.

Also, Action for Kindness has a new calendar for Active April. Have fun, be happy, be active, and help our earth. http://www.actionforhappiness.org