My 5: Hector Hernández

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

HECTOR HERNÁNDEZ:

Hernández is in charge of a gardening program for inner-city San Antonio youth. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

• Recycle whatever you can in your community: glass, paper, plastic, etc.

• Be more mindful of water usage. Right now, we’re in a drought situation in Texas, so we’re careful when we water the garden plots and make sure we don’t over water.

• Respect nature. Don’t litter. It’s our only home, so we have to take care of it and respect it.

• Reconnect with nature. Most of the kids we work with in San Antonio live in the inner city. They don’t have an opportunity to garden or go into green space. Our project gives them an opportunity to discover their own planet.

• Reuse things. Instead of throwing something away, find another use for it.

Hector Hernández

Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: Elias Simpson, Contributing Writer

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

ELIAS SIMPSON:

1. Eat local (or eat vegan). From a strictly environmental standpoint, eating local is the most sustainable practice. You support people in your community who (probably) know, love, and conserve their land. You can even visit to see the wheat that makes your bread, or the cows (if you choose to pass on the vegan option) that make your steak.

2. Ride a bike. It doesn’t need to be your bike, so long as it fits. You’ll get exercise, eliminate the need for a car (which takes a lot of resources — imagine if there were a park in place of every gas station), and eliminate transportation pollution, the number three source of greenhouse gases (first is supposedly methane from animals, see “1”; second, construction, see “3”).

3. Share a bed. I don’t mean a one night stand, rather, sharing a bed can be a sign that you share everything else — a kitchen, toilet, a broom, rugs, a bike — and that reduces consumptive demands by half.

4. Vote for hemp. I don’t mean marijuana, although that would help balance everyone’s budget (everyone’s except the drug lords’). Hemp was grown during World War Two, but has since been outlawed. It is a versatile, renewable crop that can be used for clothes, paper, and food. Aligning your political views to reverse legislation that bans hemp in favor of destructive agribusiness could make a positive impact on the environment.

5. Garden. This was also popular during World War Two. It’s funny how the current economic depression is bringing back the best in us (the U.S.). Your fruits and vegetables are freshest when picked by the hands that feed on them. It’s the most sustainable way to cultivate, and it can be profoundly rewarding and satisfying.

Elias Simpson

Contributing Writer

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

My 5: Earle Canfield, Founder, ANSWER

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

Earle Canfield, founder of American-Nepali Student and Women

EARLE CANFIELD:

• Total disarmament. Dismantle all war industries and limit armies to simply police forces. This is one of the most wasteful uses of our time, money, and effort.

• Global education about the importance of observing the natural cycles.

• Reforestation and strict laws and zoning to maintain the forests.

• Conversion to renewable and carbon-free energy generation (until nuclear wastes are neither recyclable nor non-war related; e.g., breeder reactors are not acceptable alternatives for the latter reason).
  • As a corollary, this can best be achieved on a home-by-home construct: fuel cells and windmills in every yard or on every roof.
  • As a second corollary, this includes energy of all forms of transportation.

• Learning mutual respect through our common humanity and “spiritual” connection… That’s the hardest.

Earle Canfield, Founder

American-Nepali Student & Women’s Educational Relief (ANSWER)

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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Our 5: Jon Levey and Steve Sherman, GreenChoice Bank

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

JON LEVEY and STEVE SHERMAN, Co-Founders, GreenChoice Bank and LEED APs:

Jon Levey, Co-Founder and Chief Lending Officer, GreenChoice Bank

• Ask questions and start a dialogue. The first step is simply getting the dialogue going on what people and businesses are doing to “green” themselves. Learning from others and deciding to take the first small step will lead you to further responsible choices. As a green community bank, we are not here to pass judgment on whether a person or business is “green enough.” But we will ask questions to see what they are doing and to start the dialogue. And, we will reward those who embrace sustainability by offering advantaged loan and deposit products at GreenChoice Bank. In asking questions, we might learn something new that we can share with others or use in our own personal or professional lives. And, often, the simple act of asking the questions causes someone to realize that a small change (e.g., replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs) can make a big impact on the environment without negatively impacting their quality of life. It all starts with questions and open dialogue.

• Support local businesses. Supporting the local economy and its small businesses is not just the sustainable thing to do, it’s what can help pull the economy out of the recession. It’s the local small businesses that create the innovations and jobs that jump-start the economy and lead to increased productivity and economic security.

• Build green. If you’re not building green, you’re building obsolete. Energy efficiency, improving indoor air quality, and reducing construction waste are just good business principles. It may cost a little more up front, but in the long run, you’re also saving a ton of money on operating costs, and you’re doing the right thing for the planet. Everybody wins!
  

  Steve Sherman, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, GreenChoice Bank

• Don’t print as much from your computer. We all receive tons of emails, newsletters, articles, legal documents, PowerPoint presentations, etc. It takes some getting used to, but just read the document on your monitor, and if you find that you must print, print selectively, choosing to only print those particular pages you actually need. Why waste the trees and ink for something you will only read once? If you absolutely have to print that email with all the signatures and legal disclaimers at the bottom, take the extra moment to selectively print just the first page that has the stuff you need.

• Bank with a green bank. In fact, move your banking relationship to OUR green bank — GreenChoice Bank! Or at least put some deposits in a local community bank that reinvests and supports your local economy. And choose online banking without paper statements. All these little things add up. (Did we mention that you should move your banking to GreenChoice Bank?)

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: Nell Newman, Co-Founder, Newman’s Own Organics

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

Nell Newman, co-owner of Newman's Own Organics

NELL NEWMAN, Co-Founder, Newman’s Own Organics

• Being self sufficient

• Being a mindful consumer and conscientious about what you buy and consume, and how you deal with the waste products you produce.

That’s about all we need to worry about at this point, because it covers everything. It covers your cars, your house. It’s just very important to be mindful in your existence on the planet.

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: James Glave, Author

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

James Glave, Author, Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet

To me, saving the planet means so many different things. It’s deforestation. It’s depletion of fisheries and fish stocks. You can easily get overwhelmed with what do we need to do. To me, it just comes down to global warming and climate change. Whatever we can do to reduce our emissions, we should do. So, if you’re looking at five ways to do that, I would say:

• Figure out how you can use your car less. If you’re in an area served by transit, try using it. If you’ve got a bicycle you haven’t dusted off lately, get on it. If you can move from two cars to one car, great. If you can have some kind of casual car-sharing arrangement or join a car co-op, even better. It’s really about burning less petroleum, burning less fossil fuels.

• In the States, I would certainly look at the electricity [issue], given that as much as 50 or 60 percent, depending on where you live, of your electricity is generated by burning coal. See how you can make your home more efficient, how you can use less electricity. Don’t choose the largest TV, just ‘cause the guy next door has a bigger plasma than you. Think smaller, think better, think more efficient, think easier to deal with, easier to clean, easier to repair. That’s really the big message.

• Try to shop less.

• Try to shop more locally. Stimulate your own local economy so that you can start to get it going again if it’s down in the dumps. Eat locally, as much as you can.

• Grow your own food, even if it’s just a couple of pots on the back porch with lettuce in them and herbs. All of these things will make a tremendous difference. Expecting strawberries in December is fooling ourselves. Try and look at what you’re eating and how that can be part of the solution.

Joe Hennager

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: James Glave, Author

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

James Glave, Author, Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet

To me, saving the planet means so many different things. It’s deforestation. It’s depletion of fisheries and fish stocks. You can easily get overwhelmed with what do we need to do. To me, it just comes down to global warming and climate change. Whatever we can do to reduce our emissions, we should do. So, if you’re looking at five ways to do that, I would say:

• Figure out how you can use your car less. If you’re in an area served by transit, try using it. If you’ve got a bicycle you haven’t dusted off lately, get on it. If you can move from two cars to one car, great. If you can have some kind of casual car-sharing arrangement or join a car coop, even better. It’s really about burning less petroleum, burning less fossil fuels.

• In the States, I would certainly look at the electricity piece, given that as much as 50 or 60 percent, depending on where you live, of your electricity is generated by burning coal. See how you can make your home more efficient, how you can use less electricity. Don’t choose the largest TV, just ‘cause the guy next door has a bigger plasma than you. Think smaller, think better, think more efficient, think easier to deal with, easier to clean, easier to repair. That’s really the big message.

• Try to shop less.

• Try to shop more locally. Stimulate your own local economy so that you can start to get it going again if it’s down in the dumps. Eat locally, as much as you can.

• Grow your own food, even if it’s just a couple of pots on the back porch with lettuce in them and herbs. All of these things will make a tremendous difference. Expecting strawberries in December is basically we’ve been fooling ourselves. Try and look at what you’re eating and how that can be part of the solution.

Joe Hennager

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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Choosing to Value a Sustainable Life

Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet

My 5: Molly Long, A.W.E. Consulting

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

Molly Long, Environmental Auditor and Consultant, A.W.E. Consulting:

Molly Long, President, A.W.E. Consulting, Environmental Auditor and Consultant

• I think the right people doing the right jobs is number one, because it really does take that— the people with the knowledge doing the right thing.

• Believing that each person can make a difference as an individual. Whenever you take a small step, you do make a difference. It may not have worldwide impact, but you are doing something to at least make your own environment better. If everybody did that, we’d all make a big difference.

• Recognizing that moving the problem somewhere else is not a fix. We’ve got to deal with the problem where it is occurring.

• Communicating. We’ve got to have the ability to talk to each other and be open, not just to different understandings, but to different cultures and the different ways people have of approaching things.

• We really have to get out of this disposable mindset.

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: Snezana Pavlovic, Niš, Serbia

Snezana Pavlovic, Student, Niš, Serbia

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

SNEZANA PAVLOVIC:

• Be informed and have an ecological conscience about our environment.

• Systematically work on problems of pollution by passing effective laws.

• Think globally – act locally.

• Start young. Teach children that nature must be respected just the way it is, and that nature is not just a resource and waste dump. It is not there just because of us and for us. We depend on it more than on anything else.

• Work on your desires and wishes so that they are in coordination with nature: That is ecology!

Snezana Pavlovic, Student
Univerzitet u Nišu
Filozofski fakultet
Niš, Serbia

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My 5: Dr. Jeff Murray, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

Dr. Jeff Murray, neonatologist and medical geneticist

JEFF MURRAY:

• Love your children and and all children.

• Work to make the planet 5 percent better than it was when you got here.

• Work at what you most enjoy, but realize not everyone thinks what you enjoy is most important.

• In the end, it’s all about family.

• Nadie debe tener dos de cualquier cosa hasta que todos tengan uno.
  (No one should have two of anything until everyone has one.)

Jeff Murray, MD
Department of Pediatrics
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: Dr. Philip Landrigan, Mount Sinai Medical Center

BPGL: What are the five most important things that we can do to save the planet?

DR. LANDRIGAN:

Dr. Philip Landrigan

• I would say it really comes down to taking deliberate, conscious steps to protect children from toxic environmental exposures in early life. For example, never sand down old paint during pregnancy because of the risk of lead.

• Minimize use of pesticides or eliminate it.

• Stay away from plastics, go to glass bottles and stainless steel containers.

• Get plenty of exercise.

• Stay happy.

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc
Professor and Chairman, Department of Community & Preventive Medicine
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Children’s Environmental Health Center
Mount Sinai School of Mediciine

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: Miriam Kashia, Peace Corps Volunteer

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

MIRIAM KASHIA:

• Make changes that reflect your increasing knowledge and concern, and tell people what you are doing to inspire others.

• Join and support some of the excellent environmental activist organizations (NRDC, Sierra Club, a local group, etc.).
  

  Miriam Kashia, Peace Corps Volunteer, Namibia

• Stop waiting for “someone else” to take care of the problem (the government, big business, environmental groups, “Tree Huggers,” and so on).

• Simplify, simplify, simplify. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore.

• Be ready to make so called “sacrifices” to save the planet. This means me and you. We may discover that sacrificing complexity and excess has intrinsic rewards.

Miriam Kashia, Peace Corps Volunteer (2005–2008)

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

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My 5: Lindsay Render, University of Iowa

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

Lindsay Render, University of Iowa

LINDSAY RENDER:

• Cut down on the dependence on technology. Live simpler lives.

• Have fewer material things; lessen your material lifestyle.

• Do the little things, like recycling.

• Take the time to educate yourself and learn the ways to do better. A lot of people say, “Oh, it’s great to be green,” but don’t actually look into it and find more ways to be green than just recycling. Like James Glave said in Almost Green, “It’s not a destination.”

• Teach your kids what you learn about how to live greener. It has to start early, so it becomes a way of life.

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