Wednesday April 22, 2009 was the 39th Earth Day.  It always revitalizes my goal of treating everyday as if it IS Earth Day.  I think of “green” as an action and success color.  To me green symbolizes earth, nature, and life.   Especially, during Spring season, green IS life in abundance.  It signifies a renewal of life, health and the environment, while evoking a sense of calm, balance, harmony and stability.

My goal is to share with you ways to become Earth conscious, energy smart and optimally healthy.  So, when the following segment crossed my desk the other day, I felt compelled to share it with you.

Richgail Enriquez is a video journalist for Current TV and San Francisco IAM.

She  recently did a story on a neighborhood in the  SF Bay Area, where people
call a center to harvest their extra fruits and vegetables from their
backyards. The donations go to the needy and low income families.
People who signed up to participate get a tax deduction. The program is called:

“Gifts from Our Gardens”

Check in your local area to see if such a program exists or how, you may be able to  create one. Perhaps, you could even start a community garden.  Another way to help, is by donating to your local food bank, or shopping at Farmer’s Markets.

Here’s another story she  did on SF Bay area youth involvement in the “green” movement.

Here, also is another one of my favorite sites from National Geographic.  It is the “Green Guide to Everyday Living”.  I hope you find this information as inspirational and helpful in your quest to live “green” as I do.  Here’s to working toward a better tomorrow!

On this Earth Day, my hope is that this will help you relax, and become even more inspired to do all you can to help save our beautiful planet!

On April 2,2009, ATP’s Earth Drive opened in Sunnyvale, CA with great success.  ATP®, is a leading flash memory manufacturer known for its high quality, durable memory solutions. They continue building upon the success of Project:Earth Drive with this year’s Earth Day celebration.

Entering its second year, Project:Earth Drive, a reforestation program initiated in conjunction with a partnership with American Forests, continues garnering attention from supporters of the cause who are concerned about the state of the environment.

Founded in 1991, ATP is a leading manufacturer of high performance and durable flash memory solutions as well as DRAM memory module products. With strictly regulated ISO 9001 certified facilities and advanced technologies in memory packaging, testing and qualification, ATP offers a broad range of the highest quality DRAM memory products for mission critical applications such as server blade, workstation, network communication, and embedded systems. ATP flash media products offer protection from water/moisture, dust, static discharge, and extreme temperatures.

“Since the launch of our EarthDrive USB series, more and more corporations, organizations, and educational institutions have come to us with interests in supporting the program,” said Michael Plaksin, ATP Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Earth Day should serve as a reminder for all of us to examine what we have done in conserving the environment. Through this program, we continue to inspire and motivate everyone to take part in this critical global effort.”

Contest

ATP is also calling for personal stories about planet preservation as part of its 2009 Earth Day celebration. Personal accounts about ways to help preserve and enhance the environments can be emailed to earthdrive@atpinc.com. Every week throughout the month of April, ATP is giving away one 2GB EarthDrive to the winner. Every winning story will be posted at their site.

“Through this contest, we want to show our appreciation and encourage even more people to join the momentum and support the cause.” The ATP Earth Drive was also recently chosen by OverClockersHQ to receive the Editors’ Choice Award. “It looks like earth friendly doesn’t necessarily mean “hippie grade”… I am very impressed; the ATP [EarthDrive] was quite literally off the charts for performance in the low level bench mark,” said Justin Desjardins of OverClockersHQ.com.

“Every day, people around the world are taking simple steps in their daily lives to make a difference in their environment. As simple as these actions may seem, they are actually significant, because collectively, the impact is so powerful,” Plaksin continued.

Through Project: Earth Drive, each Earth Drive sold will contribute towards American Forests’ Global ReLeaf projects. American Forests’ Global ReLeaf projects allow for tree planting throughout the United States as well as on a global basis to offset our carbon footprint and replenish the environment. With the launch of this important program, ATP has already helped plant thousands of trees on a National and International basis. American Forests already planted more than 25 million trees through over 500 projects on a global basis. Be sure to go to the text link here for more information on ATP Earth Drive and the Earth Drive Project.

Last Saturday, March 28, 2009, proved to be the most successful Earth Hour ever.  With nearly 4,000 cities and  towns participating in over 88 countries world wide, the message of caring about climate change  was sent loud and clear.

The next big event in  the “green” movement, is Earth Day, which is April 22.  It is my pleasure to keep you informed on natural living tips and ideas, as well as, environmental issues that are important to us all.

I believe that this Earth Day page will offer you the power to find; natural cosmetics, resource conserving appliances, and tips on how you can do your part to reduce waste for the environment.  You will also find meaningful eco-tips at Become.com’s  “Earth Day Tips and Resources”

So, what is Become.com all about?  They are a comparison search engine designed to help consumers doing product research on the web. They crawl over 3.2 billion web pages specifically from guides, expert reviews, consumer reviews, articles, specifications, forums, merchants, and a variety of other useful information to help consumers make better buying decisions.  Become.com also has a “Nearby Stores” feature that allows users to plug in a zip code and get store names, addresses, phone numbers, hours and Maps.  This feature can help you go shopping in your community, and be armed with informed choices.

They also have a blog  about featured green products that they carry.  It is a relatively new blog for them, but they are anticipating more eco-friendly product posts for the near future.

Become.com was recently named one of the best deal-tracking websites by PC Magazine, and selected as Best Search and Comparison site by the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing at the University of California, Riverside .  At the following link, you  can also view additional industry recognition and awards for Become.com

It is my hope that the information provided here, along with what Become.com has to offer, will help you in making the best and most informed  decisions in your green living quest.  Together lets work for a better tomorrow, and the best Earth Day ever.

With oil now in excess of $135 a barrel, there seems little likelihood of any kind of quick turnaround. In fact, it appears we may as well get use to it.  After all, many European countries, Ireland and the UK have been seeing prices of $8-$10 a gallon for awhile now. So, by the 4th of July, it will will be $5 a gallon, and by Labor day $6, with no end in sight.

By doing the basic math, we have much to complain about. Yes, oil prices are high, however, paying for gas is still the cheapest cost of operating a car. With the price of everything going up, we should be complaining more about the lack of purchasing power our money has. We want the Feds to “do something.” What good does it do to complain?  They are responsible for degrading our currency.  The dollar falls, oil prices go up and the politicians have a hay-day trying to deflect criticism. They clamor about the “windfall profits” the oil companies are making, but do nothing to decrease our dependency on foreign oil. Let’s face it the pain at the pump and in our wallets is bound to get a lot worse. 

Has public interest waned about the environmental movement?  Have worries about inflation, the high cost of energy, the war, and the general pace of global events, wiped out public concern about the environment?  I doubt it.  But those (the government) we want to take action – AREN’T.

How soon we forget the first Earth Day. It was April 22, 1970. It became the awakening of the Environmental Decade.  We became concerned and aware about the deterorization and crucial issues that affect all life forms on our planet.  We took notice of our mindless disappation of our resources. We paid attention to our wasteful consumption habits, and how those habits affect the natural environment.

Our oil consumption was high in the 70’s. Our own U.S. oil production declined and by 1973 -36% of our energy consumption was in foreign oil. The OPEC cartel was the cause of the rising oil prices then, as it is now.  The Mideast Oil Crisis was the onset of the international oil embargo. It brought panic to our nation. The Mideast oil producing nations, cut off exports of petroleum to many Western Nations, including the U.S. and the Netherlands. They were angry over our involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflicts.

Then as it is now, there were high consumption levels and panic stricken people.  Oil prices skyrocketed to what would equal about $2.80 a gallon today. There were lines at gas stations. People blamed the government, the gas companies, the Arabs and the embargo.  It wasn’t even the price so much. The people were willing to pay the price, but there was an actual “shortage.” Gas stations would run out of gas to pump. Some even went out of business.  The oil embargo lasted six months and was over in March of 1974.  Project Independence was created in hope of freeing the U.S. completely from our dependence on foreign oil by 1980.

For years we have been aware of alternative energy sources.  Still today, we are more dependant on foreign oil than we were in the 70’s.  The oil shortage and embargo of 1973, created an growing awareness, that changed our views on energy useage.  It led people to choose economical solutions and make wiser personal choices about their energy consumption. It became popular to use less fossil- fuel, and pay more attention to how much we consumed.  The difference is today, we have no choice. We are being forced to make changes.