Earth Day

Thank goodness for social media. Otherwise, I would totally have forgotten that today is Earth Day. But since I log into my computer the first thing in the morning (sometimes before I even hit the shower), I got many friendly reminders from my like-minded buddies on Facebook. It got me thinking about things I could do to help the environment. I will admit that I have great intentions in this arena, but my follow-through isn't always the best. But at least I'm thinking about it, which is the first step to taking action. Here are some of the ideas that went through my mind this morning...

Things I contemplated doing to save the environment

• Skip my shower to save water, keep chemicals in my shampoo out of the water supply, etc.
• Begin turning my hair into dread locks since it's so tangled anyway...less need to shampoo
  
• Following the "If it's yellow, let it mellow..."rule Michelle taught me from camping in Maine to decide whether or not to flush the toilet.
  
• Call in sick from work to avoid the commute and subsequent CO2 emissions from my EOS.

After a bit of thought, I figured these weren't totally reasonable, and some were completely silly. Although taking a sick day tempting the way I was feeling this morning. So I didn't do any of them. I did make my best effort in other, more attainable ways.

Things I did do to save the environment

• Took a shorter shower since I didn't need to wash my hair today anyway
• Did not let the water run while I was brushing my teeth
  
• Reused my Starbucks cup sleeve
• Unplugged my computer and cell phone chargers
• Drank water from my Big Dogs mug all day at work instead of buying more bottled stuff.
• Signed up for paperless billing with AT&T for my new iPhone.

So I'm not the most impressive environmentalist on planet Earth, but it's a start...