BLOG ACTION DAY

Blog Action Day is Monday, October 15, 2007. It's a day that people are joining together to write about an important topic - the environment.

One of the biggest issues facing our world is the need for clean drinking water in many poverty-sticken countries. I know how easy it is for me to get a drink of water, to purchase bottled water, and to use an enormous amount of water everyday.

Check out this quote [which I first read on the Made To Stick blog]:

In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It’s so good the EPA doesn’t require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35.

The report went on to say that if we paid our water bills based on what we pay for bottled water, our bills would total over $9000 a month.

Does it seem that something is out of balance here?

The difficulty with embracing an environmental cause is that it appears so large and ominous people question whether they can actually do anything to make a difference.

The answer is YES...you can.

While I haven't completely sworn off bottled water, I have begun REFILLING my bottles with water from the tap. By doing this, I am saving money and using less resources.

Ultimately, the goal of any environmental cause is for individuals to create a smaller footprint on the earth. To use less, conserve more, and reuse more (ie, recycling). This way, there'll be more for those who actually need it.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: What is something you can use less of? How can you create a smaller footprint on the earth?

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: In what ways are you taking care of the environment? Share your efforts in the comments below.

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Tim Milburn
Student Leadership Consultant & Speaker
www.studentlinc.net

Comments

[tim]

@Cecilia - Thanks for visiting the site. It's great to have a visit from Sweden! I went and visited your site to read more about the sheep, but unfortunately, I only speak English (way to go on knowing more than one language!).

@Rosa - I think water in Hawaii would be wonderful. And I love your new word - "make-a-difference-able." I'll have to use that again somewhere else.

[Cecilia N]

Hi, I live in Sweden and we too have very good water in the tap. Interesting that about the water bills. I'll have to tell my daughter who use a lot of water in the shower. ;-)

My blog today is about mowing thwe lawn. We use a machine like in the top picture. But my husband thought about sheep this summer. He could get off the 1½ hour weekly job, I could have free yarn. (And it will have a better sound and other good effects as well.) But our hound (on the picture) and the authorities wouldn't approve, I guess. (We live in the city.)

[Rosa Say]

This is just one of the reasons why we have counted our many blessings living in Hawaii too Tim: Our water is wonderfully pure (and delicious!) straight from the tap. The only time we buy bottled water is when we are traveling, or for the ease of icing water bottles in a cooler for sports, picnics etc. Yet even then, if we know each other as family and do not have guests with us, the bottles have been re-filled from the tap!

The other point of your post resonates with me as well: We think of environmental issues as so big, but individually we are more powerful and make-a-difference-able than we realize.