<-my mom with baby
People like to joke about the town of Santa Cruz being weird and how it makes us hippies... but truthfully, living here has only reiterated and strengthened many of the values which my husband and I had previously held dear to us before we moved here. It has made it easier and more convenient to do the things and live the lifestyle that we already were trying to obtain on a personal level and raise Harmony with. I hope to pass these values onto our child as I recall my father trying to teach me about recycling and caring about the Earth as I grew up. I may not have showed much interest when he taught me, yet now I truly do value his care and concern for our environment... He always used to take me to Earth Day events at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River in Boston. And he always said "I just want you to care about the future of the planet for my grand kids. Don't you want your kids to have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of nature and outdoors like we do?" This strikes me daily now as I watch Harmony explore and grow and learn about her beautiful surroundings. The ocean, the redwoods, the mountains, the valleys... all of the gorgeous resources and parks we have, only because some people really still care to watch over and remain good stewards of the land. The problems we face with our environment are because some of us just don't care enough in our daily lives. I want my child to have fond memories of swimming at the beach with us, not worrying about oil, chemicals and dead sea-life.
Some of my family's daily steps to becoming more environmentally friendly:
1. we always bring our own cloth tote bags to go shopping, paper and plastic are hurting animals, oceans and forests. (plastic bags can take 1,000 yrs to decompose)
2. we don't use bleach or other potentially harmful chemical cleaning agents as they empty into the ocean eventually; and recently we learned that a specific frog species in our region is nearing extinction b/c of those chemicals.
3. we don't eat meat besides fish. there are many environmental and health reasons for cutting back on animal flesh consumption... cow manure's CO2 pollutes water and air badly, heart disease is the leading cause of death in US followed by cancer and stroke.
4. we bike more than we drive, to stores, markets, parks, downtown, beach, etc. we hardly use our van anymore, unless going up the mountain to redwoods trails or to SF. it's nice to have so much local activity nearby and not have to fill the gas tank so often. and we get air, sun and exercise.
5. Much of our diet consists of locally and organically grown food. (within 100 miles).. this ensures fresher food, less oil/gas mileage for importing and less genetically/ chemically modified food or pesticides entering our systems. less chemicals = less cancer risks
6. we bring our stainless steel water bottles everywhere to avoid buying plastic bottles which overflow in landfills and the caps kill animals/birds. (The photo above is a lot of plastic bits that were found inside one dead albatross bird.)
7. we take short showers (less than 5 minutes)... the water shortage is getting worse in California due to droughts, farm needs, and the population increase.
8. we shop for most of our clothes at "re-use/trade/vintage" stores... there are awesome shops here in town and in Frisco with great used/vintage clothing where you can also get trade credit. And we try not to buy new things unless we first donate or trade our old possessions that we haven't used/worn in a while. landfills are full of fabric/textiles/ thrown out clothing which could be donated or sold for re-use instead of taking years to decompose.
9. we recycle/ re-use anything we can.
Those are just some of our ideas on helping the environment a little each day. I know we can't save the world, but we can do our part in making it a bit better for our own kid. (oh and that cup harmony has in the pic is not plastic, it's a biodegradable corn starch cup :) > sold at http://letsgogreen.biz
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