Monday, October 15, 2007

Blog Action Day

Blogger has nominated October 15th for a mass environmental awareness campaign. Bloggers are invited to register their blog and post an environmental-issue-related post on that day.

I have made a list of actions I have explicitly taken during October in order to reduce carbon emissions and engage in ecologically sensitive issues. We are all told that little actions taken close to home can have a large effect on reducing emissions. Here are my actions:
  1. I have not used my car for 3 weeks. I have felt a little bit claustrophobic, but only because I have not yet got to grips with the local buses.
  2. By shopping locally, and using our independent butcher and organic veg box scheme I have further reduced our household waste (which only consists of non-recycleable waste packaging thanks to our council recycling scheme, home composting and Bokashi system).
  3. We had a no electricity day where we turned off all electrical appliances, and told stories and played games by candle light - little chap though this was great.
  4. Replaced 5 more light bulbs with environmentally friendly ones - all our lights on the ground floor are now eco except the kitchen spotlights.
  5. I washed all our woollens by hand and only used the washer for the spin cycle (drip dry is not an option in winter when things have to be dried inside!).
  6. I freecycled a large pile of our old and unwanted items (mostly baby stuff and old office equipment).
  7. We turned an unused area of hardstanding in our garden into a new flower bed, thus improving rainwater drainaway, and improving the wildlife environment. We are planting it with a range of wildlife-friendly shrubs.
  8. I signed us up for milk delivery from our milkman - I have opted for locally produced organic milk which is not available in the supermarkets. This will support local organic farming and reduce waste (as the milk will come in reusable bottles not plastic containers).

We have not found this tasks to be be difficult, and have enjoyed the feeling that we are deliberately and conscientiously doing our bit. It will be interesting to see what other posts are published by participating blogsites today.

Blogger has also suggested that another way to support Blog Action day is to donate one day's earnings to an environmental charity. I am donating today's earnings to Green Peace.

Blogger will be producing statistics relating the the "reach" of Blog Action Day. I shall report these back when I see them.

6 comments:

bowledover said...

You have done well mac's niece with your contribution to Blog Action Day and started three weeks ago, I will make efforts to do more for the environment.

Mac's niece said...

Well 2 weeks of doing without the car was due to having to lend my car to eco-warrior as his was in the garage so I cannot really take much credit for starting early! Some of the other items I have been thinking about for a while, and blog action day just gave me the necessary kick start.

Dancin Fool said...

Well done Mac's Niece. Top list of action points. And thanks for the heads up about Blog Action Day.

Dancin Fool said...

P.S. I am still really impressed with the hatometer! You can just imagine all those needles clicking!

Mac's niece said...

Still haven't posted my little hat in yet - will do that this week (not that you will notice my little batch on the hatometer - but is good toknow that every little bit helps!).

Liked your blog action day post BTW - I have been impressed by how many ecover products are now available. BTW there was a test on TV and ecover did significantly better in a t-shirt wash test as compared with ionising balls and soap nuts.

Dancin Fool said...

Hello, thanks for the information about ECOVER. It's always good to collect the supporting data for future reference.