Three Simple Things

What Can I Do?

If you breathe air or drink water, you should care about the health of our Earth.

We all know the Earth is suffering. What we fail to recognize is that a sick planet leads to unhealthy sick people and for long-term consequences for our children.

We must hold business accountable for the plastic they produce, and they must be held accountable if they pollute our air and water. Our elected officials need to be held accountable to hold oil companies and plastic producers to rigorous standards. Most important, we also have to hold ourselves accountable for how we pollute our air and water. Holding ourselves personally responsible is what we can control!

Even little things can make a huge difference if we work together. On Earth Day recalibrate your life to do three simple things a week to lighten our Earth’s load:

Choose one day to eat meatless, choose one day to not drive, and choose one day to be plastic-free. On plastic-free day don’t purchase or use anything plastic, and don’t or eat or drink food from plastic containers.

Don’t eat or drink from plastic

Every Day do something kind, and please take three breaths for peace in Ukraine.

Peace For Ukraine!

This reading list is too long, but I hope you can read at least one of these excellent articles:

On Earth Day ‘the world is not on track’ | Opinion – Minnesota Reformer

Opinion | Enough About Climate Change. Air Pollution Is Killing Us Now. – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

3 eye-opening, science-based New Year’s resolutions that could help everyone | PBS NewsHour

U.S. Has Highest Percentage of People Who Aren’t Worried About Climate Change in Survey of 31 Countries – EcoWatch

Report lists Mississippi as one of ‘most endangered’ U.S. rivers | MPR News

‘Breakthrough’ Study Finds Microplastics in Human Blood – EcoWatch

And from my city: Kick single use plastics. In Minneapolis, less than half of plastics are recycled. Most plastics are made from oil and gas. About 4% to 8% of the world’s oil product is for plastics, and most plastics are thrown away after a single use. Plastics collect in our lakes and rivers and break down into micro and nanoplastics. One way to help is to bring your own bag to grocery and convenience stores.

Coca-Cola produces 200,000 new plastic bottles a minute and sells 112 billion plastic beverage bottles worldwide every year for a total of roughly 3 million metric tons of plastic packaging. The majority of Coca-Cola’s plastic bottles are not recycled and only 11.5% are made from recycled material. Many of Coca-Cola’s plastic bottles end up littered in the world’s rivers and ocean.

New Day, Victory Over Darkness

Happy spring, the sun has returned

It’s a beautiful world. Spring is a gift.

March 20 is the first day of spring, International Day of Happiness and Nowruz. Nature has given us the beauty of spring. Be sure you spend time outside every day to appreciate our beautiful Earth. Ancient people celebrated the first day of spring thousands of years ago!

For the Northern Hemisphere, March 20 is the first day of spring. But for 300 million people around the world, it’s the beginning of a new year, too. Nowruz—which means “new day”—is a holiday marking the arrival of spring and the first day of the year in Iran, whose solar calendar begins with the vernal equinox. Nowruz has been celebrated in Iran and the Persian diaspora for more than 3,000 years. Its roots are as a feast day in Zoroastrianism, a religion practiced in ancient Persia that viewed the arrival of spring as a victory over darkness. The holiday survived the Islamic conquest of Persia in the seventh century and the decline of Zoroastrianism’s popularity, and it spread across the globe through the diaspora of Persian people throughout history. (Here’s how Persia became the world’s first true empire.

It is hard to celebrate much happiness with such an awful war going on. Instead, spring clean your brain, and think about mental health for yourself and those you love. It has been a difficult two years for the entire world, so be good to yourself and be good to the entire world.

How do you spring clean your brain?

5 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Brain – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The author suggests practicing mindfulness, declutter your surroundings, reconnect with people, reduce news bombardment by reading or watching only two trusted sources for information, and finally keeping a journal. Read the article in the above link.

To truly clean your brain, you need to spend time outside. Let the wind blow through your hair, absorb some sun and breathe deeply. Find beauty in the outdoors and in nature and go for a walk. Write is your journal about what you observe. I saw my first junco and noisy robins today. Time in Nature Can Now Be Prescribed as Health Care Treatment in Canada – EcoWatch

Give yourself some purpose, be kind, smile and do something good for the earth and your brain will be spring cleaned!

Wishing victory over darkness for Ukraine. Take 3 deep breaths for peace in Ukraine.

Hope for Ukraine!

The Earth gives us spring,

Enjoy!

The Actions for Happiness have created a website for International Day of Happiness and things we can all do to make the world a kinder place:

https://www.dayofhappiness.net

SHARE POSITIVE MESSAGES: Spread ideas that promote peace, kindness and understanding, online and in real life.
CONNECT WITH PEOPLE: Reach out to people who you know are connected to a crisis and offer your care and support.
GIVE DIRECTLY: Donate to causes working on the front line of a crisis or find a way to help with local efforts.

The site also offers a number of places you can donate to that help with the current crises in our world.

https://www.dayofhappiness.net

Finland continues to be the happiest country on Earth. I wonder if that can continue? They share a border with Russia.

Three breaths for peace!

March for Ukraine

Buy less, waste less and use less energy!

Two bad things are happening in the world. Europe is at war in Ukraine, and a new UN report says climate change is going to cause many future problems. UN climate report: ‘Atlas of human suffering’ worse, bigger – StarTribune.com

We know the drill to help ward off climate problems, drive less, use less plastic, eat less meat, and reduce food waste. Buy less, waste less, and use less energy!

Every day I take three breaths for peace to help Ukraine. Here is a list of organizations to support and help Ukraine: See below and Donate to the fund of the National Bank of Ukraine – Official website of Ukraine

I was in Ukraine in 2013. The people were very kind, helping us get around, take public transportation, and order food. My husband and I loved the beautiful country and kind people!

Yes, we are under stress worrying about Ukraine and climate change. Below is the mindful calendar for March to help maintain our mental health.

Medical supplies from the United States and Europe because Ukrainian suppliers ran out of gear and medical supplies. For more information go to razomforukraine.org.

United Help Ukraine is providing lifesaving first-aid kits to the front lines. The organization also helps the families of those wounded or killed in war and gives support to displaced people from Crimea and eastern Ukraine. For more information go to unitedhelpukraine.org.

Sunflower of Peace is raising funds for first-aid medical backpacks for paramedics and doctors on the front lines. Each backpack has the ability to save up to 10 lives, according to the organization. For more information go to facebook.com/sunflowerofpeace.

Ukrainian Red Cross Society: Volunteers and staff provide first aid in areas where medical access is limited. Funds will be used to support those in need, blood collection, mobilization of volunteers and resources and emergency activities. For more information go to redcross.org.ua/en.

Help for children: UNICEF is ensuring Ukrainian children have access to safe water, nutrition, health care, education and protection during the invasion. For more information go to www.unicef.org/ukraine/en.

Voices of Children provides psychological and psychosocial support for children caught in the middle of the armed conflict. For more information go to voices.org.ua/en/.

Journalism: The Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian-English news site, provides up-to-date information of Russia’s invasion. Its fundraising site can be found on GoFundMe.

A Brew of Spiders

“Once you begin watching spiders, you haven’t time for much else.” ― E.B. White

By Patrick Edwin Moran - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20787919 — By Patrick Edwin Moran – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20787919

I have a love-hate relationship with spiders. They are a mess to pick up after, leaving droppings on my floors and the outside of my house. They build webs in every corner and under chairs and furniture. And Spiders are scary.

BUT

They do so much good for the earth and are one of the most interesting living things on our planet. Spiders eat more insects than birds and bats combined, and they are valuable food source for birds and bats. Hummingbirds use spiderweb material to build their nests. The most fascinating thing about spiders are those incredible webs, and famous stories in literature are Charlotte’s Web and Arachne. Some spiders build a new nest every day, and in Ukraine Christmas spiders are good luck. Factretriever.com has put together 83 amazing facts about spiders. Read them here.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Eastern Europe and the Environment

I have just returned from a three weeks of travelling by trains, buses, trolleys and trams through Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. Because recycling, climate change, and pollinator plants are our interests, we do our own environmental travel. and watch for best practices as something we can all learn from. This is our 6th trip to Eastern Europe in 7 years.

The best practice for our earth I observed is their farming. The patchwork and DIVERSITY of crops: Corn, wheat, sun flowers, cabbage, potatoes, and animal grazing all work together. This is so much healthier for our bees, birds and butterflies. One person told me they didn’t need to use chemicals because of the diversity of their crops! They also still use lots of hand labor and horses to pick crops.

The streets often have many pedestrians, and I love these great crosswalks.

Garbage cans are small and they generate less waste per person than most countries. We went 3 weeks using real plates, cups and the napkins are tiny. Often the toilet paper is made from recycled paper.

Recycling is dismal and plastic pollution is a serious problem. These countries lack the resources to educate and recycle like they know they should. The young men we meet are frustrated with their job opportunities and futures. With some resources Eastern Europe could be a perfect opportunity to create new green industries and jobs to recycle plastic.

The brain drain of the young is serious. Many we talk with think success is leaving their homes and moving to the United States or EU countries. Loans should be available to generate new industry around green issues. We met environmental scientists helping Moldova on energy efficiencies because of a loan from the World Bank…Perfect!!

Coco Cola and other bottle and plastic bag manufactures, should take responsibility to help support these countries to recycle the trash that their products generate!! https://health4earth.com/2012/10/22/should-the-soft-drink-industry-help-communities-recycle/

Jobs and economic hope could help Eastern Europe be economic drivers of the E U and could be good for our earth also.

http://www.romania-insider.com/only-1-percent-of-trash-recycled-romania-bottom-of-eu-league-again/53958/

Romania has less trash per person

http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html

http://www.kleanindustries.com/s/environmental_market_Industry_news.asp?ReportID=143587