Earth Care – Earth Day 2011

“All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it." - UMC Social Principle

For over 40 years, Earth Day (April 22) has inspired and mobilized individuals and organizations worldwide to demonstrate their commitment to environmental protection and sustainability.

How are you being a good steward of creation? What are you going to do today, next month, this year to be a good steward?

It can be simple:

• Change out a light bulb,
• Eat more local food
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Switch to paperless bills
• Pack a waste-free lunch

There are hundreds of simple things you can do to make a difference. Evangelize a little, share the good word; we all need to do more watch out for creation. Make you plan, commit to it. Consider posting you act of green at "A Billion Aces of Green" on the Earth Day Network. Together we can make a difference. www.earthday.org

See you at the Earth Day Festival in Forest Park, Sunday April 17th. www.stlouisearthday.org

Earth Day 40 Years Later

With the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day behind us, here are a few quick tips to help you in the months ahead.

Give Up Plastic (and Paper) Bags - Cost: $1
Neither paper nor plastic is a good choice. Twelve million barrels of oil were used to make the 88.5 billion plastic bags consumed in the United States last year. And it takes four times more energy to make paper bags. The best choice is reusable shopping bags.

Give Up Hot Water (At Least in the Clothes Washer) - Cost: $0
Did you know that only 10% of the energy used by a typical washing machine powers the motor? About 90% of the energy is used to heat the water, and most clothes will come clean in cold water. So switch your washing machine's temperature setting. For heavily soiled clothing, change it from hot to warm, but otherwise try to wash and rinse most of your clothing in cold water.

Give Up Paper Towels - Cost: $7
No matter how you look at it, paper towels create waste. Try some reusable microfiber towels, which grip dirt and dust like a magnet, even when they get wet. When you are finished with them, wash and reuse them again and again. When you absolutely must have use disposable towels, look for recycled products. If every household in the US replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels with 100 percent recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees.

You don’t need to give it all up at once. Just reduce and make progress in the right direction.

Earth Week Update #5 - Stewardship

Think about your relationship to this Earth which has been your home, and will continue to be for you and your descendents. What will be your own personal “stewardship legacy” regarding this magical and amazing sphere? Will you be a part of leaving it cleaner and more abundant, or will you be a part of the continuing degradation of its water, air, soil and other resources?

Together we can make a difference. Earth car is not something for someone else to do someplace else. It is for us where we are, at home, at work, at church and wherever we go.

The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
The Economic and Environmental Justice Program calls the church and society into a greater faithfulness to the biblical vision of wholeness and justice for all of God’s creation. From global warming and environmental racism to worker justice and poverty eradication, the program seeks to restore right relationships among ourselves, others and the created world.
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.2808983/

Earth Ministry
Earth Ministry works in partnership with individuals and congregations to respond to this great moral challenge through education, modeling sustainable lifestyle choices, and organizing for social change through environmental advocacy. While rooted in Washington State, our resources are utilized across the U.S. and internationally
http://www.earthministry.org/

20th Annual St. Louis Earth Day Festival - Sunday, April 26, 2009
Every year, St. Louis Earth Day stages what has become the oldest and largest Earth Day celebration in the Midwest on the forth Sunday of April in historic Forest Park. This premier event draws more than 25,000 attendees and 250 vendors through common interests in environmental education, celebration, and stewardship.

http://stlouisearthday.org/

Earth Week Update #4 - Recycle

The average U.S. citizen generates 5 pounds of waste per day or 1,825 pounds per year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency approximately 30% of our waste is containers and packaging. So 600 pounds are headed for trash! That cardboard box can be recycled and the plastic bag can be recycled. Close The Loop. Recycle it and keep it out of the landfill. Some Quick Facts:

• Recycling and composting diverted nearly 70 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000, up from 34 million tons in 1990-doubling in just 10 years.


• Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees.


• Recycling just one aluminum can is the equivalent of keeping a 100-watt light bulb burning for approximately four hours or having the television running for three hours.


• The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for four hours.


• Recycling benefits the air and water by creating a net reduction in ten major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water pollutants.

At LUMC we have dumpsters on the parking lot to simplify your recycling of paper and aluminum.

Recycling Light Bulbs
With lamps such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), mercury content needs to be taken into consideration before disposal. Mercury is an extremely hazardous waste and is a major health concern when it comes in contact with humans and animals. In humans, mercury can cause brain and kidney damage. Place your CFL bulb in a plastic bag and drop them off at Home Depot or Lowes. Both have collection bins near Customer Service or the check out lanes.

City of St. Louis Recycling Program
Recycling is easy! The City of St. Louis offers twenty-six drop-off locations scattered throughout town. By taking just a few minutes each week to sort your recyclables, you can help to reduce waste and benefit the environment. Above and beyond recycling, you can reduce, reuse, and buy recycled. Use these pages to learn more about what you can do.
http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/recycle/

Web Innovations & Technology Services
For electronics recycling (and reuse) WITS has a great program. Also, most retailers will accept your old electronics when you purchase a new one, just ask.http://www.witsinc.org/EDay2009.html

Earth Week Update #3 - Reuse

Earth Day is a time to celebrate gains we have made and create new visions to accelerate environmental progress. Earth Day is a time to unite around new actions. Earth Day and every day is a time to act to protect our planet. Some easy ways to reuse material:

• Repair items as much as possible.


• Use durable coffee mugs


• Use cloth napkins or towels


• Clean out juice bottles and use them for water


• Use empty jars to hold leftover food


• Reuse boxes


• Purchase refillable pens and pencils


• Donate extras to people you know or to charity instead of throwing them away


• Reuse grocery bags as trash bags

Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Energy Center:
a nonregulatory state agency that works to protect the environment and stimulate the economy through energy efficiency and renewable energy resources and technologies.
http://www.dnr.mo.gov/energy/index.html

Environmental Protection Agency – Earth Day
EPA's Earth Day Web site offers you many tips and fun ways to protect the environment and your health every day.
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/index.htm

YAHOO Living Green – Reusing Stuff
Reduce, reuse, recycle — most of us make a habit of recycling, while the first two "Rs" go ignored. However, we can reduce how much stuff we need to recycle by reusing what we already have. Pass along usable goods to other people instead of throwing stuff in the garbage, and people will do the same for you.
http://green.yahoo.com/living-green/reusing-stuff.html

Earth Week Update #2 - Reduce

Although we can do a lot to clean up pollution after it's in the environment, preventing pollution in the first place is even better. We can do that by changing how we manufacture as well as how we behave: reduce how much you use, reuse what's left when you're done, and recycle what you can't reuse

Reduce - The benefits of preventing waste go beyond reducing reliance on other forms of waste disposal. Preventing waste also can mean economic savings for communities, businesses, schools, and individual consumers.

National Geographic:
Simply changing a light bulb can help reverse the effects of greenhouse gases (video)
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/global-warming-environment/this-bulb-ngv.html

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Educational Toolbox - Reduce Waste: If not you, who? is a consumer-focused public education campaign. Anyone can educate about waste reduction — we all have the chance to be teachers! Here are resources to help you spread the word in your community.
http://156.98.19.245/download/index.html

Earth Week Update #1: Why We Care

This week we celebrate Earth Day. On Sunday morning at Lafayette Park UMC we dedicated a new tree on Lafayette Ave. a reminder of our commitment to the environment.

From the General Board of Church and Society - UMC:
The crisis facing God's earth is clear. We, as stewards, have failed to live into our responsibility to care for creation and have instead abused it in ways that now threaten life around the planet.

"The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the ever-lasting covenant." - Isaiah 24, NRSV

The scientific consensus is clear that human activities are leading to a warming of the surface temperatures of the planet and the effects of this warming are being felt now and will be felt more intensely in years to come.

As a matter of stewardship and justice, Christians must take action now to reduce global warming pollution and stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world whose land, livelihood and lives are threatened by the global climate crisis.

- From the General Board of Church and Society - United Methodist Church