The Only Planet We Have

I occasionally hear comments from people that they can't afford, be bothered or are too old to be green. I don't think we can afford not to be green, regardless of whether you believe in climate change or not, polluting the only planet we can live on is not a good idea.


Not everyone can afford solar hot water, green electricity, hybrid cars or sometimes even the extra few dollars to buy recycled paper. There are things that most of us can afford to do and are sometimes the cheaper version, may require a bit more work and regardless of age we can do them, after all, there are many people still going to be around long after we are gone, like our kids and grand kids.

Everyone always talks about the things we can do and there are many books written about it to but if we don't keep it in the front of our head we slip into bad habits, like getting plastic bags instead of taking our own. This is one of my things I forget, not when grocery shopping but when at the markets getting fruit and vege I often forget my vege bags and then for some things I have to use a plastic bag. Having thirty lychee's or cherry tomatoes running loose in the carry bag isn't a good look, luckily the larger things don't require bags.


The things that most of us can do aren't very hard nor are they rocket science. Take our own bags when shopping, even our number one and only son refuses a plastic when shopping knowing I always carry calico/jute/cotton bags around with me all the time. And really, who needs a little plastic bag just to carry a CD or a bag of lollies or whatever only to then chuck it away as soon as we get home.


Having a compost bin or pile or just digging a hole in the garden and putting your kitchen scraps in it, you then end up with all sorts of things growing. I know that is a bit wild for some people but I love finding tomato plants growing in weird places or pumpkins just growing wherever.

Turn off the lights and fans when not in the room, turn all those standby lights off, they are all just on for no-one, just like that ad on TV. We all hear this all the time, and maybe because we do hear it all the time it goes in one ear and out the other. I know I switch off when I start hearing the same old thing again, but we need to keep it in mind all the time.

Save your jars and make sauce with the excess from your garden, or at the very least make sure the jars are recycled. Or reuse the jars to store stuff in like seeds, our sugar "bowl" is an old jar.

There is always conflicting information about what is really happening with our planet, but if we keep in mind we have live here, our children and grandchildren after us, and all the animals and plant life that rely on us too, we really can't afford to make excuses and do nothing because we couldn't be bothered.

There are things we can do, don't cost much or anything at all and we are never too old. So we need to do them, they become second nature after a while, like the bucket in our shower which then gets emptied onto the pot plants. After all, we can't move anywhere else, this is the only planet we have.