Earth Day 2011: A Billion Acts of Green

Last March 26, 2011, millions of people all over the world participated in the Earth Hour, an event wherein every household or establishment across the globe turned off their lights for one hour as an act of commitment to a sustainable future.  At home, even though we were able to switch off our lights an hour past the exact Earth Hour, we extended the switching off of all our lights all throughout the night until the next day came as our simple way of participating in the earth greening movement.

Earth Day, on the other hand, is celebrated on the 22nd of April of every year, which marks the anniversary of the biggest modern environmental movement that started way back in 1970.  Earth Day Network, a non-government organization established in the United States, is continuing its commitment to build global sustainability through global events and online pledges.  With their “A Billion Acts of Green” website, any individual or organization can register an Act of Green, from Earth Day events, community activities and simple individual gestures of “greening” Mother Earth, to prove the idea that real change occurs best when millions of people commit with their actions of saving our planet.  A Billion Acts of Green is the largest environmental service and advocacy campaign in the world and its ultimate goal is to gather one billion actions in advance of the 2012 Global Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Here are some of our simple “acts of green” that I pledged for us to do at home, and hopefully, we can add some more in the near future:

Recycle more and reduce waste.  Transform recyclable materials into works of art as part of our homeschool art project.

Do not throw away scratch papers.  Re-use them for writing, drawing and other art activities, and even for wrapping.

Re-use plastic bags.  Also, use eco bags instead of plastic bags once a week when we do our shopping at the grocery store or supermarket.

Patronize locally-grown or locally-produced foods, organic if possible, as well as locally-made products, especially those made from natural and organic materials

Planting guyabano tree, which we plan to transfer to our orchard in Nueva Ecija two weeks from now.  Incidentally, I chose guyabano (or soursop, in English) because of its wonderful health benefits and healing power, which are, sad to say, not so much minded by people.

Growing organic tomato and herbs and spice like red chilis, rosemary and lemon grass in our own little garden

And of course, I also pledged to BLOG about this campaign to spread the word!

I believe it is not just our commitment to Mother Earth, but as good and responsible stewards, it is also our commitment to The One who created the one and only world we got...and what a lasting inheritance to bequeath to the future inhabitants of this world!  How about you?  Why don’t you commit your “act of green” now?  Your pledge and action will go a long way.