Ideas that don't involve light switches for Earth Day

I have never been one for "Earth Day" or "Earth Hour". Mostly because changes need to happen every day and turning off the lights for an hour really isn't doing all that much.

That said, I feel like events such as Earth Day can be used to help promote awareness and maybe do something a bit more politically active. That political part of being a Greenie is often the hardest, for a whole variety of reasons.

Yesterday, while driving the 5 hour drive from Sydney Cape Breton to Halifax, I was listening to an account of the recent student protests in Montreal. These students have the courage to stand up and say "NON" to officials and the status quo.

We can use tomorrow as an opportunity to do the same.

Some ideas for Earth Day that DON'T involve turning off your lights or recycling:

1. Start your weekend with Free Earth Day Karma Yoga in the Park.

Today at 11am, Halifax YITP will be practicing by the ocean to re-centre and reconnect with Nature. Be flexible- maybe today will be better weather than tomorrow.
If you don't own a studio- approach the owner about supporting an impromptu YITP in your city for Earth Day.
Or take a second to do a google search of your city to see if one is already being hosted!

2. Look to see if there are community-type events in your city/town/neighbourhood. It's a great way to connect with others who are also concerned about the Planet.

3. Use this community event to try Greenie Networking. Seriously, most of the time it's pretty awkward to bring up things like resource/tool sharing in random conversations ("so... do you have any tools you'd like to share? I've got a hammer..."). But on Earth Day, with a little finagling, it's totally appropriate. Try something like: "I always wish that our neighbourhood had something like a tool sharing library.... it would be so easy to set up." And wait and see what happens :)

4. Find a protest/march going on in your city and join! For all you Montrealer readers, there will be an Earth Day Rally going on concurrently with the student march. If I lived in Montreal, that's where I'd be (after some serious, grounding, yoga).

5. Haligonians: Go check out the Tree Planting happening tomorrow! HRM will be helping to plant 200 trees, and all are welcome! Check out the HRM Planting Awesome page, or Planting Awesome's website for details.

Use Earth Day for an extra bit of Eco Activism!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com