Hey everyone, I just joined and I thought it would be great to share with you some of the things I do to help nature and explain how you can do the same, although many of you may already do so. (I know it's long, just stick with me, ok?!)
First, find out more about your electricity company. Visit the website, make some calls, write a letter...anything! Find out if they have any alternative sources of energy or environmentally friendly programs. For example, here in Florida many of us recieve power from FPL (Florida Power and Light). I visited the site and found this great program called
Sunshinenergy, which helps lower CO2 emissions and develop clean energy sources. For only 10$ extra in the bill we are able to stop thousands of pounds of CO2 a year! So make an effort to check out your electric company and if nothing like this is avaliable, it wouldn't hurt at all to write a letter suggesting it!
Also, check out your garbage company. If you don't already recycle, call them up and figure out how you can! I'm not sure if other states charge, but all I had to do was call and they dropped off a plastics bin and papers bin for free and I recycle at my home. My science academy also called and set up a recycling program there, it saves tons of paper. And a lot of kids now recycle their plastics and aluminums from lunch, it's great.
Next, find out about what is going on in politics regarding the environment and give them your opinion! New laws and bills are made constantly and you can help them be passed in nature's favor. There is a great website called
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) which is free for all to sign up with. They organize information about the bills and laws regarding the environment and give you the option of sending a letter or fax to those in charge. The letters are pre-written or you can send your own custom letter. It is all done online, so it is very convenient. The site also shows success and failures, but the success is great and the more people, the more bills that will be passed for the better. (You don't even need to leave your computer chair for this one!)
Now a lot of us are students, including me, and are required to volunteer for highschool. So put the time to good use by volunteering at places like animal refugees, zoos, nature parks, etc. If you aren't sure about what is in your area or if they have volunteer opportunities, find out!!! Most likely there is something for everyone to do. I personally volunteer at all three periodically. If you don't have a lot of free time you don't have to do it all the time. But set aside a couple of days for you and friends or family to get out there! If you want to get some people out of the "Eeew dirty and boring volunteering" mood set up some activites before or afterwards like a lunch or outing to the movies or science museum to make the day fun. Also check with your city or town and find out what you can do! For example, here in South Floirda many people dump garbage and dirty water down the storm drains and it leads into the intercoastal which is very environmentally important. So some classmates and teachers and I got with the local city and drove and walked around attaching notices to the storm drains telling citizens that it drained to the inercoastal! Believe me, you can do a lot for nature. (And I am sure everyone in this guild knows that!!)
Another thing to do is inform others about the issues going on. Last year a group of us set up a skit to do in elementary classes about water conservation. We also made brochures and coloring books to distribute to the libraries. We made a board and brought the information to a local gathering where the adults could also hear what we had to say. This takes some time and effort but it is really worth it! If you get teachers and the school involved you can really do a lot because they have many connections and resources.
Ok, now all of you can do these things if you don't already! If you can't, well...tell someone else about them!
Looking forward to spending time with this guild, Afalewyn.
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