Save a few dollars each month and donate it to a different charity. One great option for your donation is through freerice.com. For each correct answer in their online quizzes, they donate ten grains of rice to the World Food Program to help end world hunger. Think about how much rice will be donated if even half of the population did this!
Diaper with a conscience. By the time a child is potty trained, a parent will have changed between 5,000 and 8,000 diapers, adding up to approximately 3.5 million tons of waste in US landfills each year. Whether you use cloth or a more environmentally friendly disposable alternative, you’re making a choice that has a gentler impact on the planet.
When you read an online article that you found helpful, moving, or enlightening, take a moment to leave a positive comment at the bottom of the page. Acknowledge the writer for their style or content, or even add some additional information that you have about the topic. The writer-and other readers- may appreciate what you have to say. If it inspires you, share it too. I started subscribing to lifehack.org and every morning, I come in to read some truly excellent and uplifting ideas in my inbox. I share the very best ones and have heard from Facebook friends and fellow Tweeps that they love ‘em. So as the old saying goes, accentuate the positive!
“Contagious Optimist” Colleen Georges taught me this: It’s easy to judge others for their actions and take for granted those we love or meet in chance encounters. We sometimes get so caught up in our busy-ness that we forget others are busy too, they have rough days just like us, and they benefit from our kindness just as we do theirs. Go out of your way to smile at strangers, say good morning, say thank you, give a compliment, and listen attentively to someone who needs your ear. Do it because you can, because it feels great, because it makes someone else feel good. Don’t worry about a subsequent thank you; let a thank you be a beautiful perk, rather than an expectation.
Tropical rainforests take in vast amounts of carbon dioxide (a poisonous gas which mammals exhale) and through the process of photosynthesis, convert it into clean, breathable air. In fact, the tropical rainforests are the single greatest terrestrial source of air that we breathe.
What’s truly amazing, however, is that while the tropical rainforests cover just over two percent of the Earth’s land surface, they are home to two-thirds of all the living species on the planet. Additionally, nearly half the medicinal compounds we use every day come from plants endemic to the tropical rainforest. If a cure for cancer or the common cold is to be found, it’ll almost certainly come from the tropical rainforests.
Tragically, the tropical rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. According to Rainforest Action Network, more than an acre-and-a-half is lost every second of every day. That’s an area more than twice the size of Florida that goes up in smoke every year!
According to savetherainforest.org, “If present rates of destruction continue, half our remaining rainforests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no remaining rainforests remaining.”
I don’t know about you, but photos of the big patch of plastic and garbage floating in the ocean scares me more than almost anything else. Nearly 90% of plastic bottles are not recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. If you are used to toting around your green tea, juice, or iced coffee in plastic, get a cool-looking thermos instead. This is a great choice for the environment, your wallet, and possibly your health.You can guzzle as much as you want and still be green.
Some inspiration for the rest of your week:
The only way to have a friend is to be one.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
