Make the Commitment to Go Green.
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GoogleEverybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Mark Twain+++++++++++++++++++++
We are in a war that many believe is about oil, our planet is warming due to the amount of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere, and we daily drive our families all over communities designed for the automobile. That's enough to send anyone under the covers, swearing off NPR forever.
So when we noticed this month's Working Mother Magazine, GO GREEN, we got excited. The issue features green companies, tips from environmental stars and ideas to help "ride the earth-friendly bandwagon." The article "Eco-family: Too busy to be green? Take small steps that make a big impact" gives a long list of 1st steps. And we all know that 1st steps lead to bigger steps . . . and those eventually lead to cultural shifts. It all starts with commitment.
This month's MAU action is to make a pledge to take substantial "green steps" between now and Earth Day 2008 (April 22nd). Be bold and look at: how you shop, how much you throw away, driving habits (including sports practices), etc. Involve your family in crafting the pledge; we’re talking around our dinner tables at night, working together toward sustainability. One ten year old declared, "We have to reduce our trash!" (partially because it's his job to take out the garbage) and he's right, so that's on his family's green pledge list, joining that of another of our family’s wherein “playing compost” and Community Garden is a favorite game of a two year old. When you gather as family—perhaps even over the holiday feasting in which many of us will participate over the coming weeks and months—what will your children contribute to the mix?
Click here and submit your commitment to MAUReceive a green MAU bumper sticker! (Good for Volvos AND Radio Flyers, bicycle helmets, strollers, stainless water canteens and guitar cases!)
MAU will also post a variety of these ideas on the MAU blog to inspire others to change habits.
From our personal commitment, we will engage our communities, influence decision makers and VOILA! create cultural shifts that ensure a secure and sustainable planet for future generations.
Hop on the green bandwagon, change habits and enjoy the wild ride!
And for sustaining your commitment all through the year, purchase the 2008 MAU Handbook for tales of inspired and story-changing individuals, tools for engaging in mother activism and issue based actions each week of the year:
http://www.mothersactingup.org
Manufacturer's Conscience
I am a member of MomsRising, and I'm a manufacturer of designer baby bibs, Big Bellies. I agree 100% with US companies needing to be held accountable for providing families with safe, high-quality products. Corporate greed needs to be curbed or our children will suffer.
I decided to do something about this by making a differece personally. We make safe bibs in the USA with high quality materials purchased from US companies. We also are being reviewed for green business status by Coop America.
Please support companies who are trying to make a difference! It will send a message to those big companies, and the "little people" will reap the rewards!
I think that there needs to
I think that there needs to be a huge paradigm shift in how we look at the environment. For many decades, you have had to choose between environmentally-friendly and affordable. While many strives have been made to make things both environmentally-friendly and affordable, for example: Trader Joe's and the Nature's Promise line at some local grocery stores, it has been extremely slow-going. I think that it is extremely telling that they have made hybrid cars and suv's but noone has come out with a hybrid minivan, hence if you have more than three kids, you have no choice but to drive something that is only environmentally friendly if you divide the amount of people that you drive per mile driven. We have a flexfuel van, but don't put flexfuel in it because it seems incredibly selfish to waste enough food to feed a person for one year so I can go to the store.
Pledge or no pledge, you are right there are small steps that we can do to help save the planet. However, the burden of saving the planets need to be taken to the manufacturer's who give us the small tasks of changing light bulbs, but who refuse to green their processes, which would make far more of a difference. Or who make us decide between which poison we have to feed our children with, because we can't afford the healthy alternatives. Or who make toys that we are afraid to give our children for fear of lead or whatever else they might put in it, just to save a few bucks. We might do well and remember that the past re-calls are what we found to contain lead and the workers in China who made the toys were probably put in a risky situation themselves.
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