I walked into a coffee shop on Earth Day and overheard an interesting exchange between the barista and a regular customer.
The barista said to the regular, “Where’s your cup today? You usually bring one, and it’s Earth Day.” He replied, “I forgot it this morning, and besides, every day is Earth Day to me.”
I have to side with the customer on this one. A single day of awareness will not do the trick. I know that I’m not the only one out there who understands the importance of doing more. There are hundreds of Change It Alum across the country that are fighting for change every day.
Take, for example, Betsy Ott. A Change It Alum, a Campus Coordinator with Project Hot Seat, and a full-time student at Northern Michigan University. Betsy has been working hard to get her Congress-member to take a stronger stance on global warming and to increase the coordination and dialogue of progressive groups on campus.
In the short time that I’ve known Betsy (since joining Greenpeace staff in February), I’ve been impressed with her ability to run a strategic global warming campaign in a community that has previously had little experience with the issue. But, that is changing. I saw evidence of this with my own eyes a couple of weeks ago when Betsy and her cohorts at NMU brought together 200 students, faculty, staff and community members for a rally around progressive issues.
Join us at Change It. We need more leaders like Betsy in the social change movement if we are going to really see the change that we need.
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Dude! I am a full-time
Dude! I am a full-time barista at a great local coffee shop, and believe me, the amount of disposable items I see being thrown out digs at me every day...well, at least it used to... SO, first we coordinated an efficient recycling program at the shop, both out on the floor and behind the bar/in the kitchen. THEN, using Earth Day as the kick-off "excuse", we ordered thousands of stickers that say MAKE EVERY DAY EARTH DAY BRING YOUR OWN MUG and spent hours putting them onto every coffee lid. We backed these up with tons of little statistics we had posted at every trash bin, plastic water bottle, etc. Before we knew it, the majority of our regulars began replacing their daily disposable cup with a reusable mug, and still continue to do so weeks later!!! That's not all--because our coffee shop is the most popular in St. Louis, :) other small restaurants and such have begun to follow our lead and encourage recycling, switch to sustainable paper products, and so on, as we help them to do so.
I had to share this story, it was eerily reminiscent of the one posted above!
If you want to know how you, too, can purchase these stickers or find sustainable products for your local restaurants , let me know and we'll keep spreading the Bring Your Own Mug message!
Peace,
Chelsea
Anyone know of a friendlier
Anyone know of a friendlier personal website site? Something a more vibrant green maybe? Myspace is not my thing, and please don't say face book! Here is a short essay that may give you some background on why we are in the current situation we are in. It started with the mechanical revolution and an effort by the aristocracy to change peoples view from that of being part of nature to that of being removed from nature, once we remove our selves from the passive mother earth it is easier to exploit it for the gain of those at the top of the food chain, except it's a web a cycle of interconnectedness. Ya, interesting stuff.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=10316461...
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