Earth Week Challenge 2020: Appreciation Sunday

The seven-day Earth Week series draws to its close with "Appreciation Sunday." The challenge Before It's Too Late set for this day is to "Restore your sense of connection to nature. This is what you fight for." Their two suggestions for doing so are to "Try a meditation...Say Thank You for all your blessings!" (ugh, too sappy for me) or, "If you can, spend some time in nature." That "if you can" is a necessary caveat for more people than ever these days, since COVID has made getting out into the natural world a lot harder than it used to be. Here in New Jersey, all our state and county parks have been shut down; in my town, even the tiny local parks have all the playground equipment and park benches marked off with yellow CAUTION tape to prevent anyone from sitting down and, you know, appreciating nature. You're allowed to walk past as much nature as you can manage to see in the minute or so it takes to cross this tiny park, but no stopping.

Going out for a walk on the street is still allowed, and I'm lucky enough to live in a place where you can see at least some nature just by doing that. In addition to the trees and flowers in people's yards, there are plenty of "street trees" planted along the major roads in town, including many ornamental cherries that are in full bloom right now. But unfortunately, today just isn't that great a day for going out and appreciating them. It's chilly for April, currently below 50 degrees, and it's been raining off and on all day. Even the bit of nature appreciation we were planning to do in our own yard, digging up the bed for our new flower garden, has been put off until the next sunny day. (The plants I ordered from Wit's End Gardens haven't arrived yet, though they are supposedly on the way, so it's not an urgent need just yet.)

Yesterday, however, was a much nicer day — sunny with highs in the sixties — and we took full advantage of it to go for a long walk in town and appreciate as much nature as we could manage to take in while dodging around other humans. If we could count yesterday's walk as today's appreciation, we'd be all set. But unfortunately, that's not how these Earth Week Challenges are set up. What you did yesterday, or even what you do most days, doesn't count; the only thing that matters is what you do today.

And that, for me, is a fundamental flaw in the way this entire weeklong challenge is constructed. All seven of these challenges are things that we do nearly every day just as a matter of routine. But for challenge purposes, that's not good enough; you have to do them on the specific day the challenge is set, or it doesn't count. You have to avoid meat not most of the time, but on Meatless Monday itself; you have to avoid driving not most of the time, but on Transportation Tuesday. And so on.

The thing is, this isn't the way environmentalism works in real life. If you want to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet, the best way to do it isn't to eschew meat and dairy on one particular Monday in April; it's to reduce the amount you eat of them all the time. And it's the same for all the other challenges: driving less, reducing water use, producing less waste, writing to elected officials, supporting small businesses (when you can), and appreciating nature should all be part of your regular routine. Doing them habitually has much more impact than doing them just once in honor of Earth Week and then forgetting about them until next year.

In short, I think for someone who already has ecofrugal habits, these Earth Week Challenges just aren't very useful. If I were constructing my own Earth Week series, I might keep the same basic themes — food, transportation, and so on — but I'd make them about the whole week, not just one day each. So, for instance, the Meatless Monday challenge would be, "How many days this week can you go without eating either meat or dairy?" For Transportation Tuesday, "How many days this week can you go without driving?" I'd present them all at the beginning of the week rather than shelling them out one at a time, and each day's email would just be a reminder and tips about one of them. Not only would a challenge in this format have been much easier for me personally, but I think it would also be a much more useful way to teach eco-friendly habits for those who aren't used to them.

The real message of an Earth Week challenge, I think, should be that living an earth-friendly lifestyle is a marathon, not a sprint. It's not just about what you do today, but about how you choose to live every day of your life. In other words, we should make every week Earth Week.

Earth Week Challenge 2020: Spring Clean Saturday

Saturday's challenge for Earth Week is the second one that's been revised to make it quarantine-friendly. It was originally meant to be "Shop Green Saturday," about supporting local businesses with your shopping dollars — something I only wish I could do right now. (I did the best I could by ordering online from the businesses that had Web stores, but there's only so many things I can usefully purchase that way.) Since visiting most local businesses is out, the challenge has been rebranded as "Spring Clean Saturday": "Spring clean your home with sustainability in mind. Find ways you can green and simplify your home and purchases for the future."

On one level, this isn't much of a challenge for me, because I do practically all my cleaning with a rag and a spray bottle of vinegar and water. The only commercial cleaning products Brian and I buy regularly are dish soap, laundry detergent, and oxygen bleach (which I use not for laundry but to clean the toilet, since our flushable walnut cat litter has a tendency to stain the porcelain). The challenging part, for me, would be finding the time to do a genuine, thorough "spring cleaning." In theory, I should be able to take advantage of all this "extra time" we supposedly have as a result of being home all the time, but somehow mine has never materialized. Even though I no longer spend five hours a week recruiting volunteers for the Troubadour or three hours a week traveling to and participating in Morris dance practice, the time has all been eaten up by a combination of other projects (like trying to organize two RPGs over Zoom), frantic news-reading to keep up with the latest COVID developments, and sheer psychological exhaustion.

So cleaning my entire house from top to bottom was definitely not on the agenda. But I happened to have one cleaning task on my list aside from the weekly sweeping and bathroom cleanups: cleaning the stemware rack in the kitchen. This was one of my favorite birthday presents from Brian, but it has one problem: situated as it is near the stove, it tends to accumulate a grimy film of oil and dust, and because the top of it is over my head, I don't usually see it and remember to clean it. So I only notice it when I happen to touch the surface, as I did yesterday, and go, "Ick!"

This was a job my usual vinegar-and-water mix definitely couldn't handle, so I pulled out another green cleaning product from our collection that doesn't get used as often: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day, an all-purpose spray that comes in a variety of scents. We bought this to clean the painted walls next to the stove, which also tend to accumulate oil spatter, and it did just okay at that job; however, on the wood of the stemware rack, it fared much better. Simply spraying it on and wiping it off was all it took, as you can see in this picture. (The right side has been wiped, the left has not.) It was so easy, I went ahead and cleaned off the top of the microwave and the range hood as well while I was at it.

So that's my spring-cleaning task for today. Maybe I'll get around to tackling the rest of the house when I have fewer other things to worry about.

Money Crashers: 3 new pieces, 2 updates

Several more of my articles have appeared on Money Crashers in the past few days — some new, some older articles that needed to be refreshed with up-to-date numbers. Some of these were meant to be published for Earth Day, but only one of them actually made it onto the site in time; however, they all appeared during Earth Week, at least, so that's sort of a win.

The new pieces are:

1. Latte Factor – Giving Up Lattes Won’t Make You Rich But Here’s What Will

In this piece, I quibble with financial guru David Bach's famous "latte factor" formula: the idea that you can become rich by just cutting out some small indulgence, such as a daily latte, and channeling that money into investments instead. The problem: the math doesn't add up. This piece show exactly why the latte factor doesn't work, and explains how to tackle the much harder jobs that actually will make a difference: minimizing your fixed expenses, maximizing your income, and choosing the right investments.

2. 14 Disposable Items You Can Ditch to Save $1.5K This Year – Alternatives

This is the piece that got published in time for Earth Day, though it had actually been in the works for months. It covers a lot of the same ground as last year's Thrift Week posts, showing how reusable alternatives to disposable stuff — water bottles, soda bottles, batteries, paper towels — can keep money in your pocket and help the planet at the same time.

3. What Is the Freecycle Network – Give & Get Free Stuff

An updated version of a piece done in 2012 by another writer, this one is also relevant to Earth Week because it deals with reuse. It sums up a lot of what I've said about Freecycle on this blog over the years in a single post: how it works, what it's good for, what kind of problems you can run into when Freecycling, and how proper Freecycle etiquette can make the process smoother for everyone.

The updated pieces are:

1. How to Save Money by Living Green – Saving Electricity, Gas & Trees

One of the first pieces I ever published on Money Crashers back in 2015, this article has been updated with new prices and other facts that reflect changes in technology and consumer behavior over the past five years, such as improvements to energy-efficient light bulbs, the continuing decline of paper newspapers.

2. How to Save Money With Your High-Speed Internet Service Provider

This 2018 piece is newer, but even two years have brought about significant changes in the spread of high-speed Internet and the prices people pay for it. And, with so many people moving more of our lives online in response to COVID, it's timely.

Earth Week Challenge 2020: Civic Friday

As Earth Week moves into the weekend, the Earth Week Challenges move from personal to collective action. Day 5 of Earth Week is "Civic Friday," the first day with no cutesy alliteration, and its challenge is to "be vocal and exercise your power as a voter and influencer." Specifically, the challenge asks voters to:

1. Write letters to their elected officials on "policy and business actions" of their choice, and
2. Recruit at least two friends or family members to take part in the Earth Week challenge

For those who can't decide on an issue to write about, the website suggests the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which I blogged about here back in January. I'm definitely gung-ho about this issue, but I've already written to all my elected officials about it, not to mention calling up my Representative every month to noodge him on the topic.

So, instead, I decided to settle for a smaller actions related to another topic they suggested: fossil fuel divestment. I don't work for a company or other organization, but I'm associated by marriage with Rutgers University, so I signed a petition urging the university to immediately stop all new investments in fossil fuels and ditch its existing ones within five years. (I even shared it with my whole dozen friends on Facebook, for all the good that will do.) If you're interested in finding (or starting) a similar petition for your workplace or another organization you're involved with, you can look for one on GoFossilFree.org.

As for the second part of the challenge, recruiting people I know to take part in the Earth Week Challenge — well, I'm doing that right now, right?

Earth Week Challenge 2020: Trashy Thursday

I'm now halfway through the series of Earth Week challenges. Today's "Trashy Thursday" challenge is to "Say no to single use plastic straws, bags, cups or styrofoam. Try to create as little trash as you can today." Strategies for doing this include "All the R's for a Zero Waste Life":

1. Refuse: Don't buy stuff you don't need, or buy stuff with packaging you don't need.
2. Reduce: Buy less stuff, or buy stuff with less packaging.
3. Reuse: Choose reusable containers rather than disposable ones.
4. Repair: Fix things when they break rather than replacing them.
5. Re-purpose: Put waste products to new uses.
6. Recycle: If you can't eliminate or reuse it, put trash into the recycling bins.
7. Rot: Compost organic waste, like food scraps and yard waste.

In other words, do all the things that I try to do all the time anyway, and am doing even more now, as COVID stops me from going anywhere or buying anything beyond the strict necessities of life. Even if I weren't already reusing straws and avoiding takeout cups, I wouldn't have much chance to pick any up when all the eateries are shut down. (Okay, Dunkin is still open, but it's not much fun to go there when you have to take your drink home to consume it because you have to wear a mask in public.) And while some stores, most notably Trader Joe's, have entirely banned the use of reusable bags during the pandemic, these days we're not going out to stores at all until we absolutely have to.

So, yeah, not much to report as far as today's challenge goes. If I were to "share a fun photo" on Instagram of myself completing the day's challenge, as the editors suggest, it would just be a not-much-fun photo of me sitting at my desk typing, just as I do every day. (Well, I guess I could get Brian to take a picture of me darning his socks, since I have a small pile of those to fix after yesterday's load of laundry. That's not much fun, but it's better than nothing.)

Money Crashers: 2 new articles

Money Crashers has popped up two more of my articles. One is in honor of Earth Day and deals with sustainable fashion choices. You may be thinking, "Wait a minute, haven't you already done an article on this topic?" and the answer is, yes, I wrote this one back in 2016. Money Crashers even had me update it last month and split it into two articles, one on general shopping tips and one on sustainable clothing brands. The piece on sustainable brands was supposed to be prioritized to get it published by Earth Day, but as usual, Money Crashers had a little bit of trouble with its timing. However, it did manage to squeeze in this other piece, which is an update of another writer's article on ethical clothing choices. The main difference between this and my older piece is that it covers clothing that's worker-friendly as well as planet-friendly, but as you might expect, there's considerable overlap between the two. (The site even chose some of the same stock photos to illustrate both pieces.) But there's some material in this one that wasn't covered in the first, so if you enjoyed one, you might like the other.

5 Tips to Buy Ethical and Eco-Friendly Clothing & Fashion on a Budget 

The other is about deals and discounts for senior citizens — defining the term loosely to include everyone who's old enough to be a member of AARP or AMAC (the Association of Mature American Citizens), both of which accept everyone over 50. There's nothing complex about this one, just a long list of deals available to seniors, grouped together into categories. It covers bank accounts, classes, travel, entertainment, insurance, and more. For anyone who's over 50 (or who's about to be and is looking for a silver lining), it's worth a look. 

Best Deals & Discounts for Senior Citizens (List)

Earth Week Challenge 2020: Water Wednesday

Day 3 of the Earth Week Challenge is "Water Wednesday." Today's challenge is to "Become mindful about your relationship with water. Learn about local water issues and how you can protect your access to clean water."

Well, I could just argue that I've already done that, dust off my hands, and move on. But the email I received goes on to suggest several more specific and concrete tasks to complete:

1. Find at least three ways to conserve water in your home or daily habits.
If they're asking me to name three ways I already conserve water in my home or daily habits, I could do that without breaking a sweat (which would also save water). I've already written 25 posts here about my water-use habits, including one Money Crashers article specifically on ways to reduce water use at home. But if they're asking for three new ways to save water that I haven't adopted already, I'm not sure I could manage that. At this point, I've already harvested all the low-hanging fruit: washing full loads of laundry, using a water-saving shower head, using drought-tolerant plants in my yard, and so on. The only things left are either prohibitively difficult or expensive (like installing a greywater tank) or simply unacceptable to me, like holding my showers to a three-minute limit. I don't have many extravagant habits, but I like to take my time washing my hair and shaving my legs.

2. COVID-19 water challenge: Save water while washing your hands, turning the faucet off while you lather your hands for 20 seconds.​
I'd already tried this, and as far as I can tell, it did no good. After taking 20 seconds to lather up my hands without the water running, I just had to spend another 20 seconds rinsing off all that soap. The process ended up taking twice as long and using just as much water.

3. Meditate on how you are thankful for having clean water. 
I've done this before, not in any really focused way, but every time a news story happens across my path about places that are struggling with water shortages or pollution. I can take a few seconds now to express my gratitude, once again, that I can drink water straight out of my tap and don't have to shell out ludicrous amounts of money (and consume ludicrous amounts of packaging) for bottled water, but it doesn't make me any more aware of the problem than I was yesterday.

There was also a "bonus task" created by Audubon Florida, which involves writing a story about the Everglades for a specific audience, but this was a lot more time-consuming than the others, and I couldn't see how it would directly help anyone. So I've set that one aside to revisit when I have a little more time to spare.

So, all in all, I didn't do much of anything differently for Water Wednesday than I would on any other Wednesday. I did wash one very full load of laundry, but that was because we hadn't done it for over a week and I was nearly out of socks; I did take a shower, because I had skipped it yesterday; and I washed my hands the same way I've been doing ever since the COVID outbreak started. The only specific action I took in honor of the challenge was to try to mimic Brian's low-water washing method when cleaning up the lunch dishes. But I probably didn't manage to keep my water use quite as low as he did.