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Tread Lightly on the Earth

The following are tips that will help you to care for the planet and live your values more effectively.

1. Live Your Values: Buy Local, Organic, and Fair Trade

Buy local: Energy consumption and transportation to ship from far away are serious but often-ignored aspects to what we use and buy. Buying local cuts down on the amount of fossil fuels used in transport and thus, global warming.

Links:

www.caff.org/farms/final/csas.html
http://www.lagunafarm.com/

Buy organic: Pesticides are poisons to wildlife and you. In the U.S., 8 lbs of pesticides per American, per year are dumped into our soil and water. Pesticides are a primary cause of ground water pollution and conventional farming is a major contributor to topsoil erosion. More energy is used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in the U.S. 50 –60% of processed foods in the U.S. (non organic) contain genetically modified ingredients (you know frankenfoods, crossbreeding tomatoes with cold water fish and that sort of stuff ). Industrial agriculture and factory farms pollute the earth, air, and water, torturing animals and lacing our food with toxic pesticides, diseases, and bacteria. All this adds up to buy organic!

Links

http://www.organicglobal.org/
http://www.storewars.org
http://www.organicconsumers.org/
http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/guide_printable.html

Buy Fair Trade: Many of our clothes are made in sweatshops and even under conditions of forced labor or even child slave labor. Buying fair trade products will ensure that your coffee, chocolate, and even t-shirts are produced without sweatshops or forced labor.

Fair Trade
www.coopamerica.org
www.sweatshops.org
www.responsibleshopper.org
www.globalexchange.org

The "why" of it: Factory Farming
http://www.themeatrix.com/
http://www.factoryfarm.org/

Seafood
http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_regional.aspx

Genetically Engineered Food
http://www.thefutureoffood.com/
http://www.gefreesonoma.org/
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.html
http://www.monsantosucks.com/

2. Find Connection with Creation: Grow Your Own Food

At the beginning of the 1900’s there were over 7,000 varieties of apples in the US. Over 6,000 of those are now extinct—these same rates of loss have happened in all our food crops. When you plant something unusual that you have never grown before, you help to support biodiversity. Growing your own food also decreases the waste of packaging, as well as the fossil fuels that would otherwise be used to transport your food from a farm to a market.

Links
http://www.permacultureinstitute.com/
http://www.slowfood.com
http://www.seedsofchange.com/
http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/

The "why" of it:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.html
http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-background-info.html
http://www.museletter.com/

3. Seek Truth: Choose Independent Media Sources

These days, the corporate media only answers to the bottom line.  Investigative reporting is on the decline and many stories go unreported.  There is very little accountability among politicians and corporations.  If we want to know the truth, we have to find it ourselves and read independent media.  Do your homework and write to your local newspapers about the issues that concern you.

Links

Periodicals
http://www.waccobb.net/
http://www.adbusters.org/
http://www.utne.com
http://www.motherjones.com
http://www.yesmagazine.org/
http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com
http://www.organicstyle.com/
http://www.emagazine.com/

Online only
http://www.alternet.org/

The "why" of it:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1406
http://www.commondreams.org/views/031600-104.htm

4. Support Ethical Energy Sources: Choose Alternative Energy

Global warming is a reality and we need to start dealing with it.

Links

Biodiesel
http://www.biodieselnow.com/
http://www.veggieoilcoop.org
http://www.biodiesel.org/Solar
http://www.solar-imports.com
http://www.solarliving.org/
http://www.ecomall.com/biz/solarcat.htm

The "why" of it: Global Warming
http://www.worldwildlife.org/climate/
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
http://magazine.audubon.org/global.html

5. Show Gratitude: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Compost

Our society encourages waste at every turn. Our wasteful habits are so illogical that they could be qualified as neurotic, and yet, the mainstream media depicts a canvas bag carrying individual as somehow marginal. We kill over 100,000 sea mammals every year through the plastic bags that end up in our oceans, yet we continue to use them in abundance because remembering to bring our own is supposedly too much to ask of a consumer. Let's all stop the madness.

Checklist to reduce waste:

  • Question disposable lifestyles
  • Bring your own bag (every time you shop, including your produce bags at the supermarket)
  • Bring your own bottle or cup
  • Bring your own container for takeout
  • Stop junk mail: Read Peter G. Kreitler's Witness Article, entitled "Earth Day 2004"
  • Reduce packaging: Buy in bulk from bins
  • Reduce packaging: Grow your own food
  • Choose recycled products
  • Avoid Styrofoam and plastic and choose products in biodegradable packaging instead
  • Compost!  It’s good for your garden

Links

Canvas Bags
http://www.ecobags.com
http://wwwo.ocice.org/support_ocice.html

Bioplastics
http://www.biocorpna.com/

Recycled toilet paper
http://www.seventhgeneration.com

Composting and sustainable lifestyle products
http://www.realgoods.com

The "why" of it:Your Ecological Footprint (your impact on the earth)
http://www.myfootprint.org/
http://www.bestfootforward.com/footprintlife.htm

Plastic Pollution
http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-overview.html

6. Be a Good Neighbor: Get to Know Yours

Don’t wait until a rainy day to get to know your neighbors.  Just as a spider weaves a web of support, so should we create lifelines in our social relations.  There are many reasons to get to know your neighbors.  Knowing who is around you makes you more aware and safer, but also could lead to business relationships, life-long friendships, and much more.  You never know who might be living right next door. Not to mention, you can share those rarely used items (ladders, pressure washer, shop-vac, power tools, etc.) rather than purchasing them. American lifestyles need to change from the "must-have" attitude to the "do I really need it" attitude.

 

Current CO2 Level in the Earth's Atmosphere 

OCICE is a Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative. Find out how your organization can become a cooperatiom circle.

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OCICE is proud to partner with the National Religeous Coalition on Creation Care.

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Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment
P. O. Box 555 Tustin CA 92781
501 (C) (3) Tax ID: 33-0700761