By Carol Walker
Perhaps some of you read the “50 nifty eco-friendly things,” one from each state, that were listed in Parade magazine April 19. This listing focused a spotlight on Earth Day, April 22.
From Oregon came the idea of Portland Composts! — a program that allows residents to put anything compostable out on the curb for weekly pickup, substantially reducing landfill waste. In Indianapolis, a hospital was constructed from local and recycled material and rainwater is collected from the roof for use in toilets. An organic garden on the roof provides healthy food for the patients.
But the most remarkable one I read came from California. Bea Johnson, her husband and two boys generate one quart of waste a year. One quart a year! They live a modern life with a T.V. and an automobile, but they live simply. Johnson has a website ZeroWasteHome.com and has written a book, “Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste.” These might be worth checking out, especially at a time of the year when a person gets the itch to get rid of stuff and simplify our lives.
Earth Day had its beginnings with Gaylord Nelson who in 1962 was concerned with environmental problems like deforestation and wanted others to share his concern. He convinced President John F. Kennedy that this was an important issue and the president set out on a five-day, 11-state conservation tour in September of the following year.
Kennedy’s tour and Nelson’s continued speeches to audiences across 25 states got the attention of many people, but Nelson thought politicians were still not listening. In a speech in Seattle in September 1969, he announced he would stage a nationwide demonstration on April 22, 1970, and invited everyone in the audience to attend. Word got out and millions of people across the country participated. In March of the following year, the UN Secretary-General signed a proclamation to establish Earth Day as an official international holiday.
Whether or not it was intended to coincide with Earth Day, the clean-up day in Hill City on April 20, seemed to fit the theme of the week. Prior to April 20, Dave Guerre, chairman of the clean-up committee, spent a great deal of time organizing the details for a day that involved downtown business owners and public officials in the effort of brushing and washing sidewalks on Main Street and Railroad Avenue in preparation for a street sweeper that came through the next day. A dumpster and a trailer for recyclables were filled as businesses lightened the load of unused junk. In the days surrounding clean-up day, the garden club, Masons, the broomball gang, Boys and Girls Club, Lions, Leo Club, the senior center and the Boy Scouts all helped clean up and beautify a corner of our world here in Hill City.
God gets the credit for the recent luscious rains that will enhance the emerging spring beauty of the earth, but I believe it is our responsibility to look for ways to care for and sustain the beauty of the world around us. Kudos is due to all those who took time to do just that in recent weeks.
Perhaps some of you read the “50 nifty eco-friendly things,” one from each state, that were listed in Parade magazine April 19. This listing focused a spotlight on Earth Day, April 22.
From Oregon came the idea of Portland Composts! — a program that allows residents to put anything compostable out on the curb for weekly pickup, substantially reducing landfill waste. In Indianapolis, a hospital was constructed from local and recycled material and rainwater is collected from the roof for use in toilets. An organic garden on the roof provides healthy food for the patients.
But the most remarkable one I read came from California. Bea Johnson, her husband and two boys generate one quart of waste a year. One quart a year! They live a modern life with a T.V. and an automobile, but they live simply. Johnson has a website ZeroWasteHome.com and has written a book, “Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste.” These might be worth checking out, especially at a time of the year when a person gets the itch to get rid of stuff and simplify our lives.
Earth Day had its beginnings with Gaylord Nelson who in 1962 was concerned with environmental problems like deforestation and wanted others to share his concern. He convinced President John F. Kennedy that this was an important issue and the president set out on a five-day, 11-state conservation tour in September of the following year.
Kennedy’s tour and Nelson’s continued speeches to audiences across 25 states got the attention of many people, but Nelson thought politicians were still not listening. In a speech in Seattle in September 1969, he announced he would stage a nationwide demonstration on April 22, 1970, and invited everyone in the audience to attend. Word got out and millions of people across the country participated. In March of the following year, the UN Secretary-General signed a proclamation to establish Earth Day as an official international holiday.
Whether or not it was intended to coincide with Earth Day, the clean-up day in Hill City on April 20, seemed to fit the theme of the week. Prior to April 20, Dave Guerre, chairman of the clean-up committee, spent a great deal of time organizing the details for a day that involved downtown business owners and public officials in the effort of brushing and washing sidewalks on Main Street and Railroad Avenue in preparation for a street sweeper that came through the next day. A dumpster and a trailer for recyclables were filled as businesses lightened the load of unused junk. In the days surrounding clean-up day, the garden club, Masons, the broomball gang, Boys and Girls Club, Lions, Leo Club, the senior center and the Boy Scouts all helped clean up and beautify a corner of our world here in Hill City.
God gets the credit for the recent luscious rains that will enhance the emerging spring beauty of the earth, but I believe it is our responsibility to look for ways to care for and sustain the beauty of the world around us. Kudos is due to all those who took time to do just that in recent weeks.