Archive for the ‘Earth’ Category

The 40th Anniversary of Earth Day falls on Thursday, April 22nd in 2010. The ways to get involved are countless, with major events taking place in each city across the United States. As the world consciousness expands, people are making it more of a priority to tread lightly on our earth. Fuel efficient vehicles, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and basic recycling are steps many Americans already hold as priorities in their homes. It’s time to take things to the next level.

Every aspect of life is filled with options, and as a global society it is our responsibility to seek out the better ones. For every chemically packed, oil based, and earth-harming option, there is a counterpart that is a cleaner and green alternative. To truly celebrate our Earth this year, take a moment in your upcoming projects, purchases, and even daily events to consider how to do just a little bit more, with these ideas as an offer to jumpstart the creative alternatives.

One of the best kept secrets in home and office flooring is cork tiling. Cork is harvested from the bark of a cork tree without killing the tree, and is compacted into various products (including bulletin boards and wine stoppers). One rising trend is the use of cork tiling for floors, as cork is naturally water resistant, offers excellent acoustic buffers, is simple to maintain, and is a more comfortable alternative to wood flooring with a similar look. Cork floors come in a variety of colors, grains, and sizes with incredible options for customization of colors and patterns. All the while, the trees from which this amazing product are harvested remain unharmed, and ready to re-harvest in a few years time. If you have home renovations in mind, consider this product for your new flooring. And take a look at the variety of green paints that easily available at local hardware stores.

Not everyone, however, has the time, means, or desire to undertake a major home renovation or purchase a fuel efficient car. Instead, pick a new answer to an easy question: paper or plastic? Over the past few decades, plastic bags have become the assumed choice, as consumers have considered it a kinder alternative to cutting down trees. Unfortunately, many plastics are oil based products that are difficult to recycle and even more harmful to produce. Almost all grocery stores offer bags that can be purchased for roughly $1 and can be reused indefinitely, with sturdy handles and lined insides. You will find yourself carrying less bags with these alternatives, and may even start saving a few extra cents at the checkout, as some major grocery chains offer discounts to those who bring their own bags.

Lastly, one great way to reduce trash and help the environment is to create your own home compost pile. Many cities offer compost containers created from modified trashcans that have been damaged. By learning a few simple guidelines on what to and to not throw into your compost pile, you will begin using less trash and have no need for expensive soils and fertilizers. A flourishing garden also creates more plant life that convert carbon dioxide into the life sustaining oxygen we thrive on.

The ways to preserve the environment are endless and simple. It is time to replace the feeling of helplessness with an educated empowerment that will ultimately improve our world for generations to come. If you don’t have time to participate in any of the Earth Day activities this year, make it a point to implement some of these simple and necessary changes in your daily life. You, and your planet, will be thankful that you did.

Author: Meghan Teixeira
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Today we all need to take five minutes and think about our planet, our home. Let us think about all the wonderful things this place has given us. Our house, where we share with our families and love ones; our beaches, where we have fun and enjoy sunny days; our rivers, our jungles, our trees, and so many other things that we may enjoy in our respective cities.

Let’s be thankful and appreciate what we have, how lucky we for having this wonderful place, its oceans, grand canyons, Himalayas, and Niagara falls! Isn’t Earth awesome!?

Now let’s think about what are we doing today in order to make it an even better place? I don’t mean to get everybody thinking negative, as in all the deforestation, carbon gases, or global warming, pollution, etc. I mean let’s be positive, let’s us all get in a positive frame of mind and start making this earth, which we all call home, a better place. This starts with every single one of us, it is a desire which will come form inside of us, nobody can coerce you into doing something you don’t feel like, specially environmentally, nobody will come into your home and make you recycle, but we can make it a household chore and get our family involved so it will become a fun project for your children as well; whom will benefit from the example you will be setting for their future as well as earth will appreciate it!

So take five, take a deep breath, and take action! Keep in mind this place, this earth, this home is what you will be passing on to your children and grandchildren. We don’t have any other planet to pass on, so lets take care of this one. Lets do it from today, from EARTH DAY!

HAPPY DAY, EARTH!

Author: Pax Sanchez
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Are you tired of paying large amounts of electric bills? Do you suffer cutting off the time of using household appliances and your very own gadgets and equipments? There are several factors that increase power consumption. First, your household size is big and so more people utilize more electricity. Second you may have electric heats convenient for cold weather. In parallel with this, you may have air conditioners for coping up with warm conditions. Also, other high energy generating devices like water tanks, water pumps, refrigerators, dehumidifiers and hot tubs also contribute.

To address the leading problem among household of increasing high energy bills, an earth for energy manual is released in the market today. It can also be downloaded via the internet, upon the earth 4 energy site. This contains the alternative renewable energy solutions right at your very hands.

The earth for energy manual gives the step-by-step guidelines along with detailed illustrations on how you make a windmill and make solar power. You heard it right. It’s a do-it your own guide to building either a windmill or a solar grid right at your own homes. The benefit is that you don’t have to invest for hundreds or even thousands of dollars to ask service agents to install these. You can save up to 2700$ by employing yourself and making your own crafted generators for over a couple of days or for weekends time.

To make a windmill is to extract the usable energy from the free blowing winds around the area where you live. Similarly, to make solar power is to harness the free energy from the sun. However, since it is more likely that not all days will be windy or sunny, it may be helpful to build both instead of opting for only one. Some days are sunny but not windy. Likewise, some days are windy but not sunny. In parallel with this, windmills also apply during the night.

It looks like you have natural access on a 24/7 basis to renewable energy sources. You may have not realized how great help making your own windmills and solar power generators until you see your electric bills. Many testimonials from the subscribers of earth for energy manuals proved that they slashed almost 80% of their power consumption, consequently paying less and saving more.

There are also a number of good reasons why you need to switch to alternative energy sources using earth for energy manuals from earth4energy.com. First, you cope up with the increasing demand for electricity without paying high amounts. Second, you reduce 80 % of your power consumptions and even eliminate it at all once you generated and produced more from your windmills and solar generators than what you used.

Third, you install and make a windmill for a minimum of 100$ and make a solar power for another minimum 100$, which totals only 200$ compared from standardized costs of 1000-3000$ from service operators and manufactures. And lastly, you become a good agent in counteracting the adverse effects of global warming that the world experiences today.

Author: Ben Whitman
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Earth Day just finished for 2008 and I wanted to share why I don’t like the idea behind it. The whole ideology behind it is of anti-human. It’s all about hating our success, our luxury, our standard of living, our accomplishments as human beings.

I want to get the point out there that I’m not saying we should trash the Earth. I think it’s perfectly fine wanting cleaner air and cleaner water, but this movement isn’t about a cleaner Earth, it’s about being against mankind. The bad pollutants we had have been pretty much taken care of at this point. Yes there is pollution out there, but it’s really not that bad for us. If you go back before the time we started mass polluting, which was before the industrial revolution, people didn’t live that long. Our lifespans are twice what they were and it’s because we’re producing more. We are bringing up our standard of living and pollution is a by-product of living longer. If I had to choose no pollution and die when I’m 35, or a pollution and live until I’m 75, I’ll take the pollution, please!

We have environmental extremists that hate mankind just for wanting to improve themselves. Driving a car is a bad and evil act. Cutting down a forest, so we can grow more food to feed people is evil. They believe that we are no more important than an a rat or a tree. I disagree so much. I’m against Earth Day because I’m a humanist. I care about human beings more than rats, trees, bugs and seals. I think it is immoral to protect trees from being cut down, when people are starving to death. If this act of caring for human beings is evil, than I’m just one evil guy.

Earth Day is nothing more than a holiday to celebrate your hatred of mankind. It is a declaration that you put rats, bugs and trees ahead of a starving child. It’s a view of the world as something that mankind isn’t worthy of, but other animals are allowed. I think people need to stop celebrating such a degrading ideal and celebrate a holiday that recognizes a high standard of living as a great thing. We should be proud we get to eat everyday, we get sleep in beds, we get warmth and we have internet. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Author: Craig Nash
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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As we concentrate on what we are endeavouring to achieve in our personal lives, our field of vision narrows to our own specific goals and intentions. These are frequently distinct from the remaining milieu of humanity and Mother Gaia. According to the latest theory (String Theory) in quantum physics, we are all connected by energetic forces. We are individuals inextricably bound together in a breathing, living and organic universal sea.

This interconnectiveness often goes unnoticed. In short, we forget that we are energetically connected. Consequently we become unconscious as to exactly what happens to the energy, psychic and otherwise, that we release into both the physical and non physical universes.

On New Year’s Day I received a “psychic flash” that there was a reciprocal relationship between the energy we put out and what happens on the face of Mother Earth. The psychic awareness I received related to the fear that Western countries have focused on terrorism over the past few years and the recent terrible tsunami tragedy in Asia.

The lower energetic forces are keeping people and governments’ stuck on the fear point of terrorism is not helpful to the Earth or her family. Whatever we do, say, think or feel is a force in itself. These forces will express themselves in some way and we may not understand their exact energetic consequences. The Earth has her own intelligence and does things her own way just as our very earthly bodies are a microcosm of her and have their own corresponding intelligences.

It is important to remember that whatever we energetically concentrate on is what we will get more of. Attention brings Manifestation to a certain degree. This may not however be a direct manifestation as it is the underlying energetic principle which directs the outcome.

If we wish to win lotto for example, we may find a new source of abundant energy enters our lives. A new career, a new creative project or a baby may arrive. Often we can be so focused on a particular outcome that we don’t hear what the universe is telling us. Also, we may not understand the underlying energy that is directing our attention.

Ideally, we can remember that everything and everyone are interconnected. If we are fear based in our desires then we will receive something back from the universe which elicits more fear.

What is important to realise is that we can choose to focus more on love and positive, nurturing, abundant vitality, not fear nor the lower base vibrations of lack and poverty. This way we can connect more consciously with one another in open communication with open hearts. We can come to realise the full extent of our interconnectivity with each other and our wonderful home Planet Earth and her other animal inhabitants.

Author: Rose E Smith
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The 40th anniversary of Earth Day was April 22nd; a day coinciding with the World People’s Conference on Climate Change. A lot of schools talk about Earth Day, but to bring home the fun and education of Earth Day, here is a list of activities to do with your kids.

These tips will help give you a nice work life balance. Participating in activities with your children allow your mind to rest from the rigor of work but also stay engaged on a topic that will benefit the quality of your children’s future. Even single working parents can take the time out of their evenings to do these fun and engaging free activities. Balancing work and life can become challenging, but being more aware of the Earth helps provide a nice work and life balance by taking the daily stress and tension out of your day.

* Plant trees
o Research what kinds of trees grow in your area the best, buy one from a nursery, and plant it in your backyard! There’s no better way of being a green parent!
* Reuse things
o Find old bottles, toilet paper rolls, pieces of paper, old wrapping paper, anything! Find a new way of using it, or create a new arts & crafts project by decorating these old “useless” items with markers, stickers and glitter!
* Draw using old supplies
o Create masterpieces with old crayons and oil paints and reuse them in whatever creative way you can
* Word puzzles
o Pick synonyms of “to save the Earth” or other phrases that revolve around Earth Day
* Interactive games
o Use charts, challenges and interactive games to create a good work life balance with learning and fun for you and your kids
* Handicrafts
o Use recyclable items to make creative and education items; create a make-shift band out of trash!
* Poems and songs
o Dedicate all your artistic writing to Mother Nature and write down other ways to help save the Earth.
* Learn and teach
o Write letters with your kids to your county or state delegates, urging them to take better care of the environment.
* Bring them to a Farmers Market
o Bringing kids to a farmers market can be a fun outing and a more educational way of shopping for groceries! All food in farmers markets are organic, and a lot of the merchants will talk to buyers about the harmful

Author: Melissa Rubin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Drifting memories of the ruined Poompugar came back to me while I was moving around the altered coastal line of Mullaitivu, and the prehistoric asteroid, which struck the Planet. Geologists Gary Byerly, Xiaogang Xie, Donald Lowe and Joseph Wooden of Louisiana State and Stanford universities published in the journal SCIENCE about the strike. They had found traces of an asteroid-collision that they said would have created a giant tsunami that swept around the earth several times, inundating everything except the mountains and changed drastically and almost all life on land was exterminated. When the asteroid hit, it was vaporized by the extreme energy of the impact.

Condensation of this vapor produced droplets of melt, called spherules, which dropped into the roiling sea over the next few days and were deposited in layers on the sea floor. This cataclysm some 3.5 billion years ago is the earliest known meteor to hit the Earth, and one of at least four that have been identified in a geologically brief 300-million-year period.

They identified traces of the event in some of the oldest known rocks on Earth – in South Africa and northwest Australia. It is believed there was even more water covering the surface of the Earth than it is today. It would have taken about 30 hours from impact for the tsunami to travel all the way around the world. Then, of course, it wouldn’t stop, but bounce all the way back till it met itself 30 hours later, then bounce the other way again, setting up a harmonic. The water would likely have inundated everything but the mountains, and drastically eroded the continental landmasses, changing their coastlines dramatically. The heat of the impact would have evaporated the upper 30 to 300 feet of water in the oceans. It would also have killed everything, or almost everything, that was alive at that time on land or near the ocean surface.

The scientists said, “There was almost certainly life at that time. Primitive, bacterial life, and if the impacts were made by a meteor 20 miles in diameter, they would have killed everything on the surface of the Earth. First a hot steam of molten rock and water would have withered most life, and then the massively destructive tsunamis would have destroyed even more. After that, years of incredibly cold winters, caused by particles in the atmosphere blocking out the sun, would have conspired to kill nearly everything else. Anything that survived would have been in deep rocks or below the surface of the Earth.”

Author: Rajkumar Kanagasingam
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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As most of us know that “Live Earth” (The Concert for the Climate in Crisis) is taking place on July 07, 2007 (7.7.07), the series of music concerts are taking place concurrently across 7 continents, with over 100+ artists from all over the world performing, and with a global audience of over 2 billion! Live Earth is the predecessor of Live8; the only difference is Live8′s aim was to ‘make poverty history’, while Live Earth aims to address the global environmental issues and calls for the individuals, corporations and governments to take action!

Live8 concerts, which were organized by Bob Geldof and took place 2 years back, were successful in a way that it convinced the G8 summit (especially its most active member, US) to double their aid to the poverty-stricken African countries. Live Earth, which is organized by the ex-US Vice President Al Gore, aims to make the world more environment-friendly through these groundbreaking gigs.

Talking about Live8 and Live Earth and so many international charity or purpose-aimed concerts that take place everywhere around the world, it’s time our local artists should join hands for a huge concert to address the issues Pakistan is going through, which includes poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and of course the judicial crisis…the list goes on.

Pakistani artists can contribute a lot. There had been charity gigs in Pakistan but they were either on a low-level, didn’t carry a message or they were commercial — their idea of a charity gig is limited to raising funds for NGOs. If we look at this broadly, music artists can help in communicating the message that needs to get through, like fighting poverty, judicial-issues, end to feudalism, tackling corruption and so many major issues Pakistan is going through. Charity concerts do not necessarily have to be to raise funds.

There should be a series of concerts that can take place in all major cities of Pakistan and they should carry ONE message, so that the awareness of that issue is raised. High profile celebrities can be responsible to make such event possible, like Bob Geldof, who is a celebrity himself and has enough contacts with musicians and artists, made Live8 a success story. Al Gore’s Live Earth has the same tale. I’m hopeful that in the lights of people like one of the most influential Philanthropist, sportsman and Politician Imran Khan, President Musharraf and others who have influencing power over people, can make such events possible and yet successful.

One question that rises as to why this event would be different from all the other concerts taking place in Pakistan every week and why people would want to be a part of it. We can again follow the strategy Geldof and Al-Gore used that called the people to unite in the name of issues like peace, tackling poverty, fighting illiteracy, environmental issues and so many other positive messages, and the people turned up in millions. Other way of calling people would be to ask artists who have not performed in a long time, either because they left music or their band broke up, to have their reunion and people will certainly come to witness them play. Rock legends Pink Floyd kept their squabbles aside and reunited after 25 years to play at Live8 and people stormed in to watch them. We can have our local disbanded groups like Vital Signs, Junoon and others to have a one-time reunion for these off-date concerts with other artists, thus assuring huge audience.
Instead of using long rallies, walk-a-cause, processions and violent strikes as protesting tools, it would be better to have a purpose-aimed concert to highlight issues or convey the message peacefully and effectively.

My idea is simple: ALL living music artists Pakistan has ever produced, on ONE stage, with ONE message.

Hussain Shafiq

Author: Hussain Shafiq
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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In the United States today, over one billion obsolete or used cell phones are kept hidden in drawers and lockers long after the owners forgot about those old devices. Every year, more than one hundred million mobile phones are replaced by users – less than twenty percent of these units are recycled or sent back to manufacturers for proper disposal. When you recycle or donate cell phones, you are helping not just the environment but non-profit organizations as well, to continue their beneficial work.

One organization stands out from among the various groups now running cellular phone collection and recycling drives across the country. Your cell phone donation will greatly help in Rock the Earth’s creative and vibrant approach to environmental advocacy.

What is Rock the Earth?

Rock the Earth (RtE), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working in tandem with the music industry to promote awareness of environmental issues and to help defend threatened ecosystems and communities in the United States. Every year, it holds a summer tour throughout the US where volunteer musicians perform and help focus public awareness on environmental issues and concerns.

Rock the Earth is currently working on several projects to help protect the environment and represent individuals and communities that are threatened by others. To mention a few, RtE is actively involved in helping: preserve roadless national forests from commercial encroachment; protect endangered wildlife in the United States from the dangers of pesticide; defend the portion of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon from commercial interests; advocate to force cruise companies to lessen the impact of their operations on the environment; and protect the rights of indigenous people in Nebraska from the effects of expansion of a large uranium mine in the area.

Rock the Earth’s upbeat and, well, musical approach to environmental advocacy has naturally attracted high-profile personalities in the music and entertainment industries. Alicia Keys and Kris Allen are both ardent supporters of RtE. Performers and groups like Sheryl Crow, Ozzy Osbourne, Ratdog, Keller Williams, Jack Johnson, Incubus, Bon Jovi, Bonnie Raitt and Disco Biscuits have at one time or another volunteered their time and talent to perform in RtE’s annual summer tour.

How you can help

Rock the Earth, has recently launched a mobile phone recycling drive to help create awareness of the dangers of improper disposal of cellular phones. As we all know, cellular phones dumped in landfills pose a potential danger to the environment and to our health because these can leak toxic heavy metals, like lead and mercury, to surrounding soil and underground water ways.You can help support their projects by visiting rocktheearth.org or you can donate cell phones at their mobile phone campaign web site rtephonedrive.com.

You might also want to become a member of RtE and be a part of a great movement of music lovers and environmental advocates worldwide. It’s not very often that you can find something that has no use to you anymore, but could mean so much to the environment. That cell phone gathering dust in your locker is one. Donate cell phones and let’s rock the earth, today.

Author: Michael Arms
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Earth Day is April 22, and while it’s important to get involved on this day, there are things we can do as families that will make a huge impact throughout the year.

It starts with helping our kids to celebrate the world in which we live, and it continues with helping them to love it so much that they want to do everything they can to help protect it. Here are six ideas to help your kids celebrate and care for our earth:

1. Get out and enjoy it. Researchers are now saying that simply getting kids outside in nature may be the most effective way to raise their awareness of environmental issues. Suddenly, these problems that they hear about on the news and in the classroom have a real impact on their daily lives. They see firsthand how a forest or a beach or a tidepool or a meadow is teeming with life, with ecological relationships that are interdependent, delicate and complex.

To encourage your kids to get out there and enjoy the natural world, you may have to purposefully inject some extra excitement in the idea, but just at first. Take your dog (or a friend’s dog) for a walk in the woods. A dog’s love for nature, and subsequent enjoyment of it, is infectious. Create a list of things to find and make your adventure into the outdoors into a scavenger hunt.

If possible, and if your kids are old enough to be by themselves out there, find a safe place for them to play in a natural environment. Allow them to go there to get away, to sit and think or to talk with their friends. Make a point to get the kids out in nature every day. Better yet, go with them.

2. Watch “An Inconvenient Truth” as a family for inspiration. Invite some of your children’s friends over to watch it with their parents and talk about some initiatives that you can each commit to or some larger projects that you can work on as a neighborhood or community.

3. Help your kids learn about endangered animals. Together, look into organizations that help endangered animals and see how you can get involved.

4. Reduce and re-use, then recycle. Lots of kids get excited about recycling. Fewer are into reducing or re-using. Model to your children a healthy pattern of consumption. Talk frequently about the many benefits (which go way beyond environmental) of living a simple life and of being wary of a lifestyle of mass consumerism. As kids spend more time outside and less time at the mall or watching television advertisements, this shift may feel increasingly more natural to them.

5. Teach your kids about potentially harmful chemicals and how they can be everywhere in our world: in the foods we eat, in the supplies we use to clean the house, in our paint, in our cosmetics, in our lawn care products. Turn the search for these things into a game and allow your kids to be detectives, learning about and seeking out these harmful chemicals and then finding natural alternatives.

6. The next time you take the kids to the grocery store, see how you can minimize the amount of packaging that you purchase. We have been known to purposefully not purchase an item because of the manufacturer’s use of wasteful packaging. It won’t take long for the kids to realize that the best item in the store for minimal packaging: raw fruits and vegetables.

In our family, the more we can make these life changes into a game, the more apt the kids are to follow suit. Help your kids to understand how one person really can make a difference (especially when that person is part of a committed family or group) and review often the personal impact that you all have made.

Author: Jamie Jefferson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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