Jen's Green Journal

I've been an amateur environmentalist since childhood --  moved in my earliest years by the commercials with the Native American man looking on while we trash our environment with a tear running down his cheek and also by the "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" public service messages. I was about 5 months old on the first Earth Day and I won my first prize (3rd place) in 1st grade by drawing a picture with pollution and titled "The world needs more clean air"  for a Reflections contest with the theme "What the World Needs Now."

A lot has changed since then. Now the green movement is becoming mainstream, which has its upside and downside (but mostly up).

As the movement becomes trendier, lower middle-class to poor greens are starting to feel left out. We can't afford clothing made with bamboo fiber or hybrid cars or energy star homes. I took an online test to see how green I was and did rather poorly, because the test was geared to people who buy green (consumption!) and totally leaves out those of us who are reducing our footprint by reducing and reusing. My family, for instance purchases almost all our clothing second hand. While I'm glad that eco-friendly products are becoming more widely available, I'd like to acknowledge those who consume less or reuse more before those who buy the latest green goods.

That's why I love the book The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I'm not an especially frugal person, but I find (as the author does on page 222) that there's a lot of overlap between tightwaddery and green living. The Complete Tightwad Gazette has great ideas on how to reduce and reuse, and if nothing else inspires me to come up with my own creative solutions. I like to think of this book as the "Poor Green's Bible".

Even those with plenty of money could always use some tips on reducing consumption!

I'm feeling especially happy about walking these days. 

In the winter I got tired of trying to traverse all the ice on sidewalks which was especially bad this year since we had so many snow storms. After taking two falls on unshovelled walks that had turned into solid ice, I ended up spending most of the rest of the winter taking Trax with the occasional walk home from work.

I'm now back to walking to and from, and I'm now doing so every day with the exception of every other Thursday when my job requires me to have the car. 

I'm especially enjoying the 2 walk block to my 4-year-old's pre-school. Now that it's spring there's so much to look at and talk about. We've seen little buds appearing on branches one day, and tiny leaves sprout out of those buds the next. We noticed that daffodils came out first, followed by the tulips. This morning we noticed some wildflowers, and even more wonderful -- the blossoms on cherry trees are now out. Even though we are paying quite a bit more to have her at this daycare near our home, these walks make it so worth it.

Some of the walking challenges at this time of year include trying to predict the weather -- it can sometimes be hot enough that a jacket is a burden when I walk home in the evening,, or cold and windy ( and a couple of times it has even snowed)  when a winter coat is more appropriate. I'm trying to remember a sun hat and a knit hat daily, trying to protect my skin from excessive sun or my ears from cold wind depending on what's happening. I also just bought some facial suncreen from Alba which is paraben free.

Let's see -- I've already changed all my light bulbs for compact fluorescents, cut waaaay back on using the car, cut meat out of my diet (years ago), we use environmentally friendly products, buy 93% of my (and family's) clothing at thrift stores, buy wind-power shares for our electricity use, recycle, buy bulk when possible -- now it's time to up my green-ness to the next level. My plans for Earth Month include:

1. Tuning up and start using the bike I bought off Craig's List last fall -- I haven't owned a bike since I was in my early 20s and I'm hoping the old saying is true, that I'll remember how to do it once I get on it. I know that there's someone just a few miles from my house that tunes bikes up for about $15 at his home. Just need to find him again.

2. Continue to down-size our "stuff" -- even just holding on to it all can keep me in the materialism world. I've been giving some stuff away on freecycle, and will continue to do so.

3. Turn off computer strip when not using the computer and the strip for T.V. -- I keep forgetting about this one.

4. Purchase a wheeled basket/cart to carry groceries in -- I keep taking the car to do the shopping because I don't want to walk the groceries home and do damage to my back. I see older people with this type of thing and I'd like to have one, too. Hope it doesn't make me look too old . . .

I'm sure I'll add more goals as it gets closer to April. Always looking for good suggestions -- what green goals are you working toward?

I decided that I wanted to do some of my holiday shopping this year at the new Earth Goods General Store in Salt Lake City, which located at the corner of 900 East and 1300 South. I had time today to walk there, so I did.

Loved:

• The atmosphere of Earth Goods is very green -- cork flooring, natural wood fixtures. Good use of a formerly ugly building -- the building used to house a convenience store. It still resembles the general shape of a 7-11 on the outside, but is a peaceful space on the inside. The restroom is clean and pleasant.

• There are interesting eco-facts posted around the store, even in the restroom which educated me on how many trees could be saved if every household in the US switched to recycled TP.
  

• The store stocks cleaning supplies, school and office supplies, home decor, personal care, pet care, clothing and shoes, jewelry, toys, books and craft items - a wide range of eco-friendly products. Many were fair trade.

• Co-op America members can receive a 5% discount at the register.

• Gift certificates available if you can't decide what someone on your list might want.

• I'd forgotten to bring my own cloth bags to the store, so was happy to find out that they provide biodegradable "plastic" shopping bags. The bags were deceptively thin and I was afraid they wouldn't make the 1 1/2 mile walk home, but they were surprisingly strong and sturdy.

Not so much:

• Several items didn't have price tags - I'm not the type of shopper that likes to continually bug the salespeople (although they were very helpful and friendly whenever I did bug them) so there were many items I might have been able to purchase but didn't .
• Eco-friendly items are still priced out of range for many people. This is an issue with just about any green business that I've supported -- it simply costs more money to manufacture items in an environmentally responsible way. Fair trade items can also be a little pricey - but I'm glad to support the artisans of the products over a similar item that is cheap-to-buy-but-people-exploited.

A chance to be part of Becker's Green plans for Salt Lake City:




I also recently saw a flyer for a free lecture offered by the United Nations Association of Utah featuring Sandra McIntyre speaking on "The Ecological Footprint of Utah: Living Beyond Our Means" which will be held on November 27th (Tuesday) from 7 to 8 p.m. a the Sugarhouse Garden Center in Sugarhouse Park (1400 East 2100 South).

The flyer goes on to say that if everyone in the world lived the way we do in Utah, we would need the ecological resources of 5.4 earths to sustain our consumption. What was kind of funny was that in the next paragraph it talked about and optional dinner that was to be catered by Golden Corral -- the steakhouse! 

I hate to break it to those guys, but the massive amount of beef consumption in this country is a major contributor to our ecological footprint. I understand that not every environmentalist is prepared to become a vegan, but most are aware that cutting back on animal products, especially beef, is a very important step in the process of becoming sustainable.

Week 2: I did use the car last weekend. I had intended to walk to the Avenues library on Saturday to pick up some items on hold -- but I chickened out with the heavy rainfall. I just couldn't get up the enthusiasm to walk over a mile up a steep hill while getting soaked. [Note to self: start having reserved items sent to main library which is much easier to get to on foot.]

I did hit the Smith's for groceries just a couple of blocks away on the same trip, though, so I at least reduced potential car trips.

Some of the early benefits are in from my new walking routine: 

I could fit into pants this morning that have been too tight to wear for the last couple of months. 
My lungs feel able to take in more oxygen than usual.

The downside:

In addition to walking, I'm trying a lot of other lifestyle changes, like drinking more water. Unfortunately more water intake and walking don't always mix well as I found yesterday afternoon. Even though I used the restroom just prior to leaving work, I found my bladder uncomfortably full by the time I got to my daughter's daycare, and near miserable by the time I got home. [Note to self: no water past 3 p.m. - make up for it after I get home.]

I'm very much enjoying this. I was quite disappointed this morning that I had to take the car today because daughter #1 doesn't have school today and needed to be taken to grandparents home for the day. I hope to find some good walking opportunities this weekend.

I love alternative energy. One of my green fantasies is to have a green home and solar panels are an essential element of that. 

Right now we're poor and renting, but I still love events like this because I learn a lot and it helps to flesh out my green fantasies that might one day become reality.  

You can find Utah Solar Tour 2007 info here. There will be locations open for viewing from 10 a.m to 4 p.m on a self-guided tour route. There are tour locations in SLC, Park City, Logan, Ogden, Cedar City and St. George. 

Free event. 

Thanks to Ken at One Utah for the heads up!

Since I was fortunate enough to get my youngest daughter in a daycare/preschool 2 blocks from our home earlier this week after spending some time on a waiting list, I've not needed to use the car at all for the last few days. I can walk my daughter to daycare and then on to work which ends up being about 2 1/4 miles round trip. I've been trying to see how much I can do sans car now that my longest commute of the day is no longer necessary.

I didn't own a car until I was 28 years old, so I have a long history of walking and using public transportation. I always found walking to be a great way to clear my head and get ready for my day (in the morning) or review the day (on the way home). I was also almost 50 pounds lighter in the era when I walked on a regular basis. Of course, childbirth, my sugary soda habit, and inevitable aging also played a part in the size I've become 9 years later.

I thought it might be fun to log my "carless miles" as well as my experiences with walking vs. driving in the city. I plan on using Trax as well, but I'm unsure about the new bus system -- I've been hearing a lot of negative things about how much longer it takes and how much further from destinations the new routes take people from.

I also want to see how many days a month I can go without using the car. I have the advantage of living fairly centrally located in Salt Lake City. I live less that 3 blocks from the nearest Trax station and I work just over a mile from where I live. I will have to use the car for a work related task every other Thursday, and probably for major grocery shopping trips (although I can manage small purchases on foot since we aren't too far from WIld Oats and Smith's Marketplace). I also live within walking distance of my older daughter's school, our bank, our dentist and our pediatrician's office.

The last day that I drove the car was Sunday, September 16th .Here's the week so far in carless miles:

Monday - little over a mile.
Tuesday - 2 1/4 miles walking; 1 mile Trax
Wednesday - 2 1/2 miles walking
Thursday - 2 3/4 miles walking; 1 mile Trax

Miles including getting to and from daycare and work, errands, parent co-oping at older daughter's school, and parent meeting at same school later in the week.

I know what I should be doing to live a green life, but sometimes I'm just lazy, unorganized, or hesitating to take that first step. Sometimes fate intervenes as it did a couple of weeks ago.

The clothes dryer in the house we rent died on us. Our landlady can't afford to replace it right now, and neither can we. I had the idea a year ago of stringing up some rope in the back room we use for laundry and hang drying everything the old-fashioned way, and now with this fortuitious event we have begun doing just that.

With all our lightbulbs now replaced with compact fuorescents ( we did that shortly after we moved in), the dryer was probably the biggest electricity drain. Not any more. 

We do have to be more organized about doing the laundry on a consistent basis, since we can only hang up about 1 load's worth of clothes at a time and it takes roughly a day to dry. The winter could be problematic, though, since there's no heat to that back room.

----

In other Green news, I was able to (finally) get my daughter enrolled in a daycare very close to our home - and even better -- on a direct route to my work. 

I will now be able to walk my child to daycare and then on to work from there almost everyday (I do need my car for a work related task 1 day every two weeks). 

We'd been on waiting lists for two nearby daycares for quite some time. For the past two years we've had to  drive about 3 1/2 miles to her daycare which was in the opposite direction as my job. 

This change will save a lot of CO2 and other pollutants from being spewed into the air, and I will hopefully be able to lose a few pounds as well!

There are some issues that many green folks just don't want to address. I'd like to call them "Green Taboos" because these issues are often either uncomfortably ignored or quickly dismissed by many greenies. But these are important issues and we have to look at them if we are truly invested in preserving our ecosphere.

The first taboo I've been thinking about is the green taboo of vegetarianism/veganism. While almost every vegetarian I've ever met is an environmentalist, there really isn't as large a percentage of environmentalists that are vegetarian or vegan as you would think. This is a difficult topic for many meat-eating greenies to discuss.

I've learned not to be overly judgmental of meat eaters, even though I've been a vegetarian for 12 and a half years now, mostly due to the difficulties I've had adopting a vegan diet. My primary reason for adopting a vegetarian lifestyle is environmental -- I read a quote somewhere that said "A meat-eater with a hybrid leaves a bigger carbon footprint than a vegan with a Hummer" -- but it was easy for me to give up meat because I've always been on the squeamish side and just the thought of where that hamburger came from was enough to kill any cravings I might have had. For many years I've wanted to go vegan but have found that step to be much more difficult because I really love cheese, yogurt, ice cream, whip cream, sour cream and feta omlettes (and the sqeamish thing doesn't work as well for that stuff). So I understand that for those that love meat as much as I love cheese, going vegetarian must seem like torture.

There are ways to eat meat in a more sustainable way, but even so meat-eating greenies would need to cut way back on the amount they eat to make the kind of difference we need to make for the climate crisis we now face.

There had been news about this issue from time to time. Common Dreams ran a story today that also comfirms the need for us to eat a lot less meat (and other animal products to a lesser extent) or give it up all together. From Britain's Environmental Agency: Go Vegetarian To Stop Climate Change:

When U.N. scientists looked at all the evidence, they declared in a 408-page report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow that raising animals for food is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all vehicles in the world combined. And scientists at the University of Chicago showed that a typical American meat-eater is responsible for nearly 1.5 tons more carbon dioxide a year than a vegan. (emphasis mine)

Again the dilemma comes if you really love meat and other animal products. In my opinion, every little bit helps. It can be as easy as starting with one meatless meal a week , then try one meatless day a week, and so on. I think it's better to cut back in a gradual and sensible way and never completely give up meat than to ignore this issue because you feel unable to become a full vegetarian or vegan.

A great resource for veggie food ideas and recipes: http://www.vegcooking.com/

I'm borrowing some resources from my food blog, Planet on a Plate, for conscientous carnivores:

• Eat Kind

To find farms using non-factory farmed methods:

• Eat Well Guide

• Eat Wild

Grass and pastured-based farms:

• American American Grassfed Association

• American Pastured Poultry Producers' Association

Humanly-raised:

• Heritage Food

Sustainable Fish:

• Seafood Choices Alliance
  
• Fish Forever Certification (from Marine Stewardship Council)

I also highly recommend the book, "The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter" by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. I've also been told that The Omnivore's Dilemma addresses this topic, although I have not read it.

More to chew on from the Common Dreams article:

Indeed, study after study has shown that animal agriculture contributes to global warming and environmental destruction, yet instead of urging people to go vegetarian, most U.S. politicians and environmental spokespeople just continue to hype hybrid cars, recycling, and fluorescent light bulbs as solutions to our spiraling environmental problems.

(snip)

Carbon dioxide emissions aren’t our only environmental concern, of course. There’s deforestation, water and air pollution, world hunger, and more. According to Greenpeace, chickens raised for KFC and other companies that “produce” chicken flesh are fed crops that are grown in the Amazon rain forest. And according to the U.N. report, raising animals for food is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”

The entire article can be read here.

Lots of "green" happenings this weekend -- unfortunately (and yet, fortunately) I'll be at the Nevada Test Site this weekend for an activist gathering at the Peace Camp (which will give me some fascinating blog topics for next week) and I will miss these green events:

Live Green Festival -- May 12th (10 am to 6 pm) Library Square (210 E. 400 S.)

Features:
-Alternative Transportation Exhibitors
-Locally-Grown Yard and Garden Plant Sale
-Sustainable Building Products & Businesses
-Community Advocacy Groups
-UTA Rideshare Bike Week Information
-Eco-activities for kids
-Food Vendors & Squatters Beer Garden (e2 business)
-Pedal-Powered Music Stage with Red Rock Hot Club and Shake Your Peace

More info at Down Town SLC


Home Electronics recycling event - May 12th (10 am to 2 pm) 175 E. 400 S. (west parking lot of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce building). Half a block from the Live Green Festival above.

Proof of residence required (driver's license, utility bill) some restrictions apply.

Residents of Salt Lake City can recycle their home electronics for free. Accepted items include computers, monitors, printers, keyboards, televisions, VCRs, DVDs, and cellular phones.

More info at xmission

Wasatch Gardens annual plant sale -- May 12th (8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) Rowland Hall 720 S. Guardsman Way

The event is free to the public and is focused on home gardening, drought-tolerant landscaping, and sustainable vegetable growing. The Annual Plant Sale offers Heirloom Vegetables and Drought-Tolerant Perennials and Naitive Utah Perennials at nursery prices to support the programs of Wasatch Community Gardens. This is a wonderful opportunity for people interested in water conservation, landscaping, heirloom vegetables and home gardening to learn more and purchase hard-to-find plants from our outstanding selection from a variety of local growers and heirlooms from multiple seed sources

More info at Wasatch Gardens

I'm giving away an Earth Day goodie bag that I put together in celebration of Earth Day. But I don't want this to be a prize for an already converted greenie. This is all about trying something new, so if you:

• Live within 10 miles of downtown Salt Lake City, and
• Don't use environmentally-friendly cleaning products on a regular basis, and
  
• Haven't switched out your incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent ones yet, and
  
• Are open to learning and trying new things
  

 . . .then this contest is for you. You could win an earth day goodie bag, in a reusable cloth shopping bag with Albertson's logo and filled with :

• ! roll (120 2-ply sheets) Seventh Generation 100% recycled paper towels
• 2 75-watt equivelent compact fluorescent lightbulbs
• 1 bottle Seventh Generation natural dish liquid (citrus scent)
• 1 can Bon Ami earth-friendly cleanser
• 1 Endangered Species brand 3 oz. chocolate bar
• any other earth-loving thing that I have the urge to add to the bag in the next few days

The reason you need to live 10 miles or less from Salt Lake City:  I will be hand delivering the bag to you, or if you prefer, letting you pick it up from me in order to save shipping hassle and charges.

If you'd like to win this Earth Day Goodie Bag, please do the following:

• send an email to green jenni blog [all one word, no spaces] at yahoo (dot) com with the words "Goodie Bag" in the subject line so that I don't delete your email as spam
• in your email, tell me one  thing that you pledge to do in the next year to help protect or preserve the environment or to live a greener life -- you won't be judged on what you action you choose. Please include your zip code in the email, so I can be sure that you are within my delivery distance.
  
• Email me by noon on Wednesday, April 25th

I'll conduct a random drawing (with my family as helpers and judges) from all entries received. I will also highlight the best suggestions/pledges in a blog post, and I'll credit you if you like, or keep it anonymous -- whichever you prefer.

For those that live outside of the SLC area, or who are already living a green lifestyle, I'd still be glad to include any earth/environment ideas and goals that you have. You can comment to this post or email them to me at the address above. Please put "earth day" in the subject line.

I love entering contests and always thought it would be fun to host one for this blog. Thanks to Jenny Chang at Iron Weed Films, I have the opportunity to sponsor my first contest.

The prizes: Five Earth Day filmfest DVDs from Iron Weed DVD-of-the-month club which features the films "Blue Vinyl" and "Crude Impact"

The Rules: I'm pretty sure that you must be a resident of the U.S. (for mailing purposes - I'll check on that). If you have a Live Journal account, just respond to this post indicating that you'd like to enter. If you don't have a Live Journal account, email me at green jenni blog (all one word with no spaces) at yahoo {dot} com and put something like "contest" or DVD in the subject line so that I don't delete your email as spam. All "entries" must be made by 8 a.m. MST Thursday (April 19th). I'll write up each name on a slip of paper and have my 3 year old draw the 5 winning names out of a bowl. My husband will serve as the contest judge. If you are a winner, I'll let you know and then you can give your mailing address and Jenny at Iron Weed will mail it out to you.

About Iron Weed:

"In the spirit of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Ironweed, the acclaimed new DVD-of-the-month club, is tapping the power of film to mobilize audiences and raise environmental awareness this Earth Day.

Hailed as a “monthly progressive film festival on DVD” by the New York Times, Ironweed introduces film-lovers to provocative, socially-conscious independent films you won’t find at your local multiplex. Each month, subscribers receive a limited edition DVD, which they get to keep, showcasing feature films, shorts, and resources that explore the issues raised by the selected films."

(snip)

"Founded by Adam Werbach, who made history in 1996 as the Sierra Club’s youngest-ever president at age 23, Ironweed will feature the 10 original short films that won the Convenient Truths contest (http://truths.treehugger.com/) on its June 2007 DVD. A joint effort between Treehugger and Seventh Generation, and endorsed by former Vice President Al Gore, the contest asked entrants to submit short videos on everyday solutions to climate change.

To become an Ironweed member, visit www.ironweedfilms.com. Subscriptions range from $14.95 (monthly), less than the cost of two movie tickets, to $160 (annual)."

Good Green: We walked/strollered and took the Trax to the Step it Up event on Saturday. I also sent my "step it up" message and signed up to get the latest editon of the Redirect Guide, which is due out this week. I also learned a few things about becoming more green that I wasn't aware of.

Bad Green: We got Pie Pizzeria pizza slices at the event, which had a cardboard holder, and of course being very greasy, need several paper napkins to eat. We could have brought a packed meal if we were thinking ahead. It also would have been nice if the organizers (and I'm aware that the event was put together in less than 3 weeks, which compromises some things) had invited earth-friendly food vendors. There were 2 booths were you could get food: The Pie and a hot dog stand. There was also a tent where you could buy canned soda.

My family went to the main Step It Up event at Washington Square yesterday. We had a marvelous time: the weather was neither too hot nor too cold and the blossoms were out on the trees; there were a lot of interesting things to see like alternative vehicles (natural gas, converted electric,hybrid) and green organizations; a play area for the kids, great music (we were there for Salty Roots and Los Lobos). There was also a place that you could write your love letter to the earth and an internet cafe so that you could send your "step it up" message to law makers. After a very enjoyable and fulfilling day, I meditated about how we could have such a great time at an event dedicated to such a serious issue like the climate crisis.

Step It Up collage

Good Green:

I've gotten a lot better about bringing reusable cloth bags to the store when grocery shopping. I even have enough now for large grocery trips, thanks to the cloth bags that Albertson's sells for 99 cents each - a bargain by reusable bag standards, and with the 5 cent bag credit for each used, you only have to use your bag 20 times to have it pay for itself. The cashiers seem to like them as well -- the flat bottom construction of the Albertson's bag makes the job much easier. You can fit about twice the amount of groceries in one of these bags vs. the plastic variety.

Bad Green:

I love the dollar store. But the dollar store has a lot of cheaply made items that use up resources, and then there's the ethical dilemma about the working standards and pay for the people that produce all that stuff. We live about 1/2 a block away from a dollar store and it is a big temptation for me (I get especially weak when I hear the siren call of the office and school supply aisle . . .)

I am not a car person -- never really have been. But then came the Mini and I understood for the first time the lust-like enthusiasm that car lovers feel when talking about automobiles. But then . . .

A couple of weeks ago my family visited the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In the lot we parked next to the most adorable car I've ever seen -- even cuter than the Mini!. We all got out and spent 10 minutes admiring it when someone came towards us. We asked if it was his car, and he said it wasn't and he was just coming out to ask us if it was ours. He did know a little bit about the car, though. He told us that it's called a "Smart Car" and it's a joint project of Swatch (remember the watch company that was popular in the 80s?) and Mercedes-Benz.

These cars are a common sight in Germany, and there have been recent imports to Canada - the car we saw at the museum had Canadaian plates -- but I couldn't find any info on the web telling me whether these are available in the U.S. (especially Utah) yet.

This car gets 46.3 mpg in city, and 68.9 mpg highway.

The problem with a car like this one for our family is that it's only a two-seater. In a perfect world, it could be our second car and we could get a hybrid Civic for the family car . . . ah, dreams . . .

In recognition of Earth Month, I'm bringing back the Good Green/Bad Green series I did last April. This is a way for me  to evaluate what I'm doing right and what I can improve -- and publicly admit my green faults and pat myself on the back for my good green deeds.

Good Green: I signed up yesterday  to bring our Blue Sky blocks up to the amount of electicity we use each month. We had only be purchashing 2/3 of the amount we use. For an increase of $1.99 per month, our home will now be 100% wind-powered.  Blue Sky program from Rocky Mountain Power

Bad Green: My brother-in-law left us his car when he went on a trip to Chile a few weeks ago. We are normally a one car family, and we make do with one car by taking turns walking/traxing or careful planning. We took advantage of the ease that an extra car brings, and we've gotten pretty used to having a car available whenever we've wanted it for the past 3 weeks. It will take some mental preparation to go back to the old (and earth -friendlier) way of doing things.

. . . and so does the new project some friends of mine have taken up: Petroleum Peace Offering/No Drive Day

My post about the petroleum peace offering "What are we willing to sacrifice for peace?" made TreeHugger's Blog Love list. TreeHugger is the biggest and best green-living blog out there. I've been picked for their blog-love before, whenever I've hosted the Carnival of the Green -- this is the first post all my own to get that honor.

One of my favorite months -- April -- is finally here. I decided last year that I needed more than just a day to reflect on the Earth and all her inhabitants and what I can do to leave this planet better than I found it, so I spent all of last April as Earth Month, and I'm doing the same this year. I will be focusing much more on making improvements to my eco-lifestyle. I even plan on having a contest or giveaway sometime this month to celebrate.

There are a few events focusing on environmental issues this month:

April 10 - Nuclear Utah: Lessons from the Past, Thoughts on the Future, 7:00 p.m. University of Utah's Union Theatre. A panel discussion representing four different perspectives on nuclear issues in Utah

April 14 - StepItUp Climate Action Day. Global warming awareness events around the nation. Ten events in Utah, with three events in Salt Lake City with a different focus at each: Liberty Park, 12-2 p.m., focus on sun salutations.; Sugarhouse Park at pavillion nearest the pond (12-4 p.m.), focus: Spring Run-off celebration; City/County Building at Washington Square, 3 - 7 p.m., focus on political action. (note: the times listed conflict with other times I've seen for the StepitUP events, which might be due to the different events not wanting to conflict with the others. I'll try to keep this updated as I get more info). For the other Utah StepItUp events (Ogden, Park City, Provo, Smithfield and Springdale), please go here.

April 22 - Earth Jam, all day. Festival in Liberty Park celebrating Earth Day.

VegFest, which has been held the past few years on Earth Day won't be happening this year.