Why we need to be "green"?

No, I'm not talking about being a green-minded or to be a La Sallian (though I am one or even both! haha! Joke!). Being green is to be conscious of our impact to the environment and in what ways we can do our share to help save this awesome planet.

Stronger typhoons, extreme weather conditions like massive flooding, severe drought in unusual places, melting of polar ice caps, among other things happening around the world, are the results of human activity - dumping more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We must now CLEAN OUR ACT or let our children suffer the consequences.

Ever since I got into handmade papers, I became more aware of the term sustainable development, environment-friendly processes, fair-trading and NGOs (non-government organizations). I became an advocate of buying Filipino handmade products and going for greener practices. What I, together with my family and staff, do may not have a huge impact to save the earth but at least we do our share and also to become good examples to our children.

* garbage sorting -> recyclables (paper, plastic, metal, glass), biodegradables (for compost)
* converting our ornamental garden into a vegetable garden
* unplugging unused appliances
* consuming locally-produced organic brown rice and lesser red meat
* no to plastic bags as much as possible when we buy from the market
* no to styrophor products and yes to reusable containers
* replacing all incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)
* I have yet to pass the "bill" to our house of congress (my bossing) to replace our 13 year old refrigerator and air-con!

Also, buying locally-made products is one practice we try to promote in our family and my clients and friends. Especially this time of financial crisis worldwide, we need to support our local producers and exporters (exports are down when there is a slowdown in economic activity in the world market). Not only we cut down on the need to transport goods (hence, reducing fuel consumption = less carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere), we help our Filipino businessmen thrive in the business which in turn help sustain or better, provide more jobs to our fellow Pinoys. I will expound on this on my next post.

And so, last Friday, I took one step to become greener. I signed up with Greenpeace to take part in protecting our environment. Upon signing up, I was given a Simple Lang pamphlet - simple ways on Energy ([R]evolution - and a brochure about the organization.

When my youngest saw the pamphlet, she began reading it and asking why's and what's. Of course, conversations like this excites me! The more you talk to me about what interests me, the more daldal (talkative) I get! Haha! :) The she asked about what is incandescent bulb and CFL's so we went to the kitchen and showed her a rarely, if not, used bulb that her Lolo Duddy installed ages ago. She said "Oh, that's bad. That bulb eats up more energy!" Then I showed her what CFL is in our bathroom then she said, "This is better!" So now, my 6-year old daughter knows the difference between an incandescent bulb and CFL.


And I thought, am I seeing a future Greenpeace activist in da house???? :)