Happy Earth Day divers!
Each year Extended Horizons honors Earth Day with an underwater reef cleanup effort. This year, we'll be headed out of Kihei along the southern coast of Maui, with our friends from Mike Severns Diving who are graciously hosting this year's event. Our goal is to collect more marine debris than any other year and document how many individual coral colonies we save. In an earlier post I listed off several local events where people could donate their time and effort to a good cause; but, the spirit of Earth Day is ideally something that can take root in each person and carry on throughout the year... and sure, living in Hawaii, being so close to nature, it's perhaps easier to remain aware of and motivated to "go green." But for you guys back home... just how to go about being GREEN... that can seem pretty overwhelming!
From Wikipedia: "Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in, first held on April 22, 1970."
So here's my attempt at a simple how-to at beginning to go green:
1 - No more Butts!!! Dispose of cigarette butts properly! (they can even be recycled)
- "Cigarette butts are the most common form of environmental litter in the world... account for almost a third of the total amount of litter found on US shorelines along."
- Discarded Cigarette Butts Harmful To Marine And Freshwater Fish -Medical News Today
- BUTTsOUT...Personal ashtray for beachgoers?
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| No Butts on the Beach |
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| What goes around comes around. |
2 - Get informed about Plastics and how they impact our environment... and next step is learning how to minimize your contribution to the problem!
Some easy ideas:- make reusable shopping bags part of your daily routine,
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| Turtles and sea birds often mistake plastic trash for food. |
- same thing with reusable water bottles & your own coffee mug,
- purchasing items without oversized plastic packaging
- recycling
3 - Did I mention Recycling?.... yup, recycle.... everything. You'll be surprised at how little trash a household makes when you sort and recycle plastics, cardboard, paper, and glass! Then add in composting, and !bam! fewer trips to take out the garbage ;¬)
Even if you chose just one of these things... making one small change, can lead to a big impact. Really? Yea... really! As you begin to behave differently, your perception and awareness can shift, leading to more change... and through your example... you might even notice your friends and family making some changes too! You don't have to be perfect at it... you just have to get started at making some changes to your daily life.
One of my favorite Green slogans?
Think Globally. Act Locally.
Ready for something more in-depth? Turning the Tide on Trash PDF
If all of us do these little things to help our environment, we might be surprised how big the results might be. It is all in our interest to protect this beautiful and only planet that we have.
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