What do you believe in?

I believe that most decisions we make whether it’s as individuals or together as a society is based on the belief that we are doing something that is good either for ourselves or our neighbors.

So what exactly do you believe when you decided to switch from bottled water to a Brita filter? Maybe you were motivated by something other than you pocketbook/wallet when you decided to leave your car at home and walk/bike/take public transit to work.

Personally, I am afraid that if I don’t do my part today, years from now, when my children ask me what I did to help protect our planet – and I say nothing… their eyes will fill with tears and disappointment. Life can be hard enough. When I ride my bike or choose produce that was grown local, bring my own bag to carry home my groceries, turn the faucet of when I brush my teeth, these are all simple decisions I make for something I believe in: a beautiful healthy planet for everyone to enjoy now and far into the future.

So what about you? Why do you do what you do?
What have you changed to do your part to protect our planet? Have you ever volunteered?
What do you believe in?

Discuss below.

Comments

[Just a Dog]

Do you use toilet paper? If so you contribute to the destruction of the forests.

Do you eat meat? If so you contribute to the horrible deaths of Earth's animal population.

Do you use a computer? If so you contribute to the tech-waste dumps of the world - no matter how you might think you recycle your waste.

Do you use a cell phone? Same as above.

Do you use weed killer because you're too lazy to manually remove unwanted grass or weeds? You Earth killer!

Do you take a bus? If it burns anything then you have contributed to the planet's poor atmosphere.

You can make your blog green but you - along with all other humans - are the problem, not the solution.

[Joan Erlanger]

We installed a 1500watt solar PV system in 2004.
We installed a multipure filter on our kitchen sink, so we never have felt the need to buy bottled water.
I walk to the gym in the morning.
We keep our thermostat at 55 degrees at night.
My car gets 40mpg on the open road.
My computer was a gift...used but useful. Only new component is the CPU.
We don't have cell phones.
We grow all of our own veggies and berries organically on our little place in town.
We can/freeze our own food supply, so we have very little "trash" that is not recyclable in our household. We contribute about 6-8 garbage cans of waste per year for our 2-person household.
We buy our staples in bulk and take our glass containers to the store and refill them. I've has some of these jars for more than 30 years.
Why? Because we think it is the least we can do for ourselves and our friends and neighbors and the planet.