Every Day Should Be Earth Day

The other day someone asked me what I was doing for Earth Day. My first response was, ’launching this blog.’ (which btw - was enough for one earth day.) Then she said, ‘Oh, I’m sure you’ll be doing something special outdoors.’ That’s when I thought, huh, I often don’t do anything particular on Earth Day. Perhaps I should not admit this in my first blog post, but I suppose it’s because to me, every day should be Earth Day. Later that evening while cooking dinner I thought more about why this is. I suppose having worked in the Environmental field for close to 20 years now, having spent many hours of volunteer time on environmental projects, written local stories on environmental issues and “going green”, and teaching part-time in Environmental studies the past five years, every day for me is like Earth Day. Every day I try to be conscious of the resources I am using - how much I drive, whether I am eating local, etc etc. However, I am far from living a sustainable life. But I want to be. That's why I am starting this blog. For me in part it’s to push myself to really live more sustainably, by doing such things as converting my lawn to garden, making a much bigger commitment to bicycling regularly, and overall reducing my waste, energy and resource useage.

So this Earth Day - the 40th at that - I’m recommitting myself. I’m going to put up the clothesline I bought last year and hang my clothes outside to dry. I’m going to buy a clothes rack for drying inside (wood stove’s generate great heat for that.) I’m going to once again start turning off my hot water heater during part of the day, along with the garden and biking more. Now that I work more on the west side of town, it’s a longer ride than to Broadway, but I will do it. And, I’m going to start riding the bus when I can. 

So is there something you can do to take that extra step, go that extra mile for Earth Day?

I hope to create here a fun forum to share ideas, resources, and things other people are doing. There are plenty of people in Saratoga “going green” and living more sustainably. I hope others will share what they know too so we can build a community of people and resources interested in sharing and supporting one another.

And, let me know what special thing(s) you did this week to Celebrate Earth Day.

(I rode my bike into town, had a pleasant walk in the state park, and prepped for our 'green' bike riders - some of us from Sustainable Saratoga will be riding in the Artis Parade on Saturday at the Mardi Gras celebration on Beekman St.)

By the way - as one of the co-founders of the Sustainable Saratoga Task Force, I encourage anyone interested in getting involved to attend our next task force meeting. We have lots of great projects happening this year. So, come hear Joe Miranda, Saratoga County Recycling Coordinator, speak about recycling in the county on Tues, April 27 from 7-9pm at the Saratoga Springs City Hall, 3rd floor music hall.


Happy 40th Earth Day!

Amy Stock

Sustainable Living One Day at a Time