Going Green?
“All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land … or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God’s eternal beauty and love.” –John Muir
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Romans 8:19-22
Everywhere you look, companies, The environment is not just a political concern, or a fad of “going green,” but a spiritual and moral challenge. There are little things that you can do every day to steward God’s creation. We’re not asking you march to city hall with a list of complaints or chain yourself to a tree, we simply want to come up with creative ideas to help bring positive change.
Electricity By using less energy, and “greening” the electricity that we do use, we can lighten our ecological footprint immensely.
• Replace your light bulbs with CFL (compact fluorescent) or LED bulbs. (link) • Turn off lights and other devices when they’re not needed (Electronics that sleep on a standby setting continue to pull a current even when “turned off.”) • Reduce air-conditioning use. When it gets hot, try using a fan instead.
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”? We’ve heard this saying since grade school, but most of us only really know about the third part. The fact is, however, the first two are more important.
• Reducing the amount that we consume, and shifting our consumption to well-designed products and services, is the first step. Finding constructive uses for “waste” materials is next. • Find constructive ways to reuse “waste” materials, including paper and plastic bottles. • Recycle your used paper, and plastic, glass and aluminum drinking bottles. • Supporting recycling means feeding this loop by not only recycling, but also supporting recycled products.
Conscious Consumption
• Buy organic and fair-trade coffee and tea and support local, independent farms and cafés. • Buy second hand clothing, and look for clothes made with organic cotton. (www.buffaloexchange.com) • Choose the least polluting, most fuel efficient means of personal transportation in order to reduce your transportation pollution. When possible, bike, walk, or use public transportation (www.metrolinktrains.com, www.octa.net, http://www.metro.net)
This is by no means an exhaustive list feel free to add to it below.