Earth Friendly

Looking for an eco-friendly activity to do this summer? Well, join the Camp for Climate Action, which will be taking place from August 27 to September 2 in England. The main themes of the camp include building, meeting, learning and taking action. You will learn how to live more sustainably through the various workshops and hands-on activities. If you’re unable to attend this camp, there will be two others: one in Scotland from August 3-6 and one in Wales from August 13-16. For more information, visit Camp for Climate Action. Happy camping!

Do you think that helping to save the environment would take too much out of your day? Everyone has to work to pay the bills and maybe you have children and pets to care for too. However, you can promote your green lifestyle wherever you go and to whoever you come in contact with.

When you set an example, people will recognize that and possibly become enlightened. If you need some motivation and ideas on how to speak to people about conservation, read the following article: Can You Be an Advocate? After reading it, you’ll realize that saving the environment only has to take up a minute of your time while you’re going through the check out line at a grocery store or enjoying your cup of coffee at a café.

Cigarette smoke is not only bad for the environment, it also poses a health risk to your furry companions you have at home. It’s difficult to stop smoking whether you have help or not, but would you quit for the sake of your pets?

If you have no idea how cigarette smoke negatively affects your dog, cat, etc., then check out this article for more information: Quit for Your Pets. It might give you more of a reason to quit, or at the very least, it might make you more conscious of your smoking habit. Making small changes to when and where you smoke can keep your pet healthy and decrease your future veterinarian expenses.

Spring cleaning can be a pain in the you know what, but it’s necessary if you want to live in a clean and organized environment. One of the best things about spring cleaning is that you can have a garage sale or donate your belongings to others who need them the most.

If you’re closet looks like a tornado went through it, you might have to spend a couple of days focusing on this area of your home. However, you can make it easy on yourself by reading the tips in the following article: Project Closet . Once you’ve set your mind to cleaning, you can put yourself on autopilot, and within a few hours you will have done some reusing, reducing and recycling.

Have you started saving up for retirement? If you are imagining yourself living in a green retirement community when you’re 65, you better start seeking the advice of a financial professional like Andy Barkate. Or maybe you want to retire early and dedicate your time to non-profit environmental groups or animal shelters.

While your intentions may be eco-friendly, your wallet might not be able to afford these lifestyles. If you have no idea what type of retirement plan is right for you, it’s worth it to take the steps to educate yourself and checking out a blog by Andy Barkate is a step in the right direction. In this down economy, it’s important to save as much as you can and plan your future out to the best of your abilities.

While you might be a stylish cat on the outside, what are you doing to make yourself beautiful on the inside too? We will be ringing in the new year in a matter of a couple weeks, so it’s time to start thinking about how you are you going to be more environmentally friendly in 2009. Below are a few ideas on how you can be greener next year.

• Eat organic food
• Buy sustainable materials like bamboo
• Consume less meat and processed foods
• Start recycling
• Start composting
• Use natural cleaning products
• Reduce your use of plastic
• Plant trees
• Adopt a highway or cleanup litter

Oh, the dreaded holiday cards. To be honest, I never send them and I don’t really enjoy receiving them (I know, Miss Grinch, right?). I know it’s important to stay in touch with friends and family, but I’m more of an electronic kind of girl so paper mail is just irritating in itself. This year PNN is making e-cards worth your while, because the more you send the more money they will be donating to help the hungry. I would definitely be more supportive of holiday cards if I received ones like this. Plus, why spend money on stamps and envelopes?

This week I volunteered at a local soup kitchen with some of my coworkers. I have to admit that I was somewhat nervous since I haven’t volunteered for something like this since I was in high school, but it was a rewarding experience. Helping the environment is also about helping the people who live on it. When you serve food at a soup kitchen, I bet you will walk out of there with more of a desire to do good. It’s amazing that these people still have the urge to walk around with smiles on their face and take time to laugh. There is so much to be grateful for, and it’s important to realize this and protect the environment that sustains us.

Being a hero doesn’t mean that you have to save everyone and everything…it’s the little things that you do, which make a difference when you look at the bigger picture. But in order to make the world a better place, we need more people willing to be heroes. When you recycle, compost and reduce your waste it makes a difference, and you also have the ability to influence people around you to follow in your footsteps. Soon the New Year will be here, so start thinking about how you are going to make the world a better place to live in.

During the holiday season, there is so much paper that is wasted. In order to eliminate the unwrapping, consider less tangible gifts. Treat your family to a vacation away from home or near home. Even if you don’t have much money to spend, you can find interesting and unique places in your hometown to visit. Trips like this make memorable gifts, and your family and friends have a chance to spend quality time together.

If you don’t enjoy Christmas shopping and getting gifts, think about making an agreement with your friends and family. For example, between you and your spouse devise different ways that you can improve your relationship. Maybe you will stop taking your stress out on your husband by releasing your stress through a different outlet like yoga, and your spouse will spend more quality time with you and the kids. You can also do this with your friends and plan to take each other out to lunch once a month.