"Blog Action Day is an annual event every October 15th that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance." This year we are blogging about Climate Change.
Last year, Mama Camp took a trip to the Texas gulf coast to celebrate the big camper's 5th birthday. His Grandma and Great-Grammy (in her early 80s) joined us, along with an aunt, uncle and cousins. It was the summer that Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island. A week later Mama Camp checked the Mustang Island web cams and it looked like the beaches were (relatively) clean and the trip was on. The first day was picturesque -- if you just move to the left or right to keep the silhouette of the offshore oil derricks out of the frame.
Two days later when the relatives had gone home and Mama Camp remained to enjoy the rest of our family vacation, we couldn't escape the destruction that Ike brought to the area. (Yes, that's a full-length couch that has washed up on shore.)
"Mama, where did that couch come from? How did it get here? Do you think they miss their couch? What are they going to sit on? What's a hurricane? What do you mean the Earth is changing?" asked the big camper.
The campers may be too young to understand the science of climate change, but they're not too young to participate in conservation and the little things that hopefully decrease our carbon footprint. Mama Camp hopes that the more we expose the campers to nature the more earth conscious they'll become.
Rainwater Collection
Mama Camp installed four rainwater collection barrels to water the flower gardens around the house instead of using city water. Even the little camper (almost three) loves to fill the watering can to fill up the bird bath and sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle the plants. Why pay for water when you can get it for free from the sky? Wasn't rain collecting more commonplace 50 years ago? What made us stop collecting free water? Do our four rain barrels make a difference in the consumption of water? It might be a drop in the bucket (ha ha), but our neighbors one by one have asked us about them and some have even installed them. Our 4+their 4+4more...
Energy Efficient Light Bulbs
Mama Camp is lit by compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) -- a lot of them -- but we're curious about where they will all end up after their seven year lifespan. What will happen to all of that mercury?
Reusable Shopping Bags
Taking reusable shopping bags to the grocery store is the norm for Mama Camp, but it's not a new idea. The Camp Director can remember her Colombian grandmother back in the 70s taking large, red, mesh shopping bags everywhere she went, because she didn't have the choice of "paper or plastic." Will the campers know a world without plastic bags flapping in the wind, forever caught on a tree branch too high to reach?
Pre-owned Baby Gear
Between the big and little camper, we loaned all of the baby gear to fellow mommies, and encouraged them to buy from the consignment stores. It's hard not to want all brand new nursery gear with your first, but with the second you understood how most of the gear was only used for 1-3 months. There is one activity center that has gone through five mommies and is still being reused.Last year, Mama Camp took a trip to the Texas gulf coast to celebrate the big camper's 5th birthday. His Grandma and Great-Grammy (in her early 80s) joined us, along with an aunt, uncle and cousins. It was the summer that Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island. A week later Mama Camp checked the Mustang Island web cams and it looked like the beaches were (relatively) clean and the trip was on. The first day was picturesque -- if you just move to the left or right to keep the silhouette of the offshore oil derricks out of the frame.
Two days later when the relatives had gone home and Mama Camp remained to enjoy the rest of our family vacation, we couldn't escape the destruction that Ike brought to the area. (Yes, that's a full-length couch that has washed up on shore.)
"Mama, where did that couch come from? How did it get here? Do you think they miss their couch? What are they going to sit on? What's a hurricane? What do you mean the Earth is changing?" asked the big camper.
The campers may be too young to understand the science of climate change, but they're not too young to participate in conservation and the little things that hopefully decrease our carbon footprint. Mama Camp hopes that the more we expose the campers to nature the more earth conscious they'll become.
Rainwater Collection
Mama Camp installed four rainwater collection barrels to water the flower gardens around the house instead of using city water. Even the little camper (almost three) loves to fill the watering can to fill up the bird bath and sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle the plants. Why pay for water when you can get it for free from the sky? Wasn't rain collecting more commonplace 50 years ago? What made us stop collecting free water? Do our four rain barrels make a difference in the consumption of water? It might be a drop in the bucket (ha ha), but our neighbors one by one have asked us about them and some have even installed them. Our 4+their 4+4more...
Energy Efficient Light Bulbs
Mama Camp is lit by compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) -- a lot of them -- but we're curious about where they will all end up after their seven year lifespan. What will happen to all of that mercury?
Reusable Shopping Bags
Taking reusable shopping bags to the grocery store is the norm for Mama Camp, but it's not a new idea. The Camp Director can remember her Colombian grandmother back in the 70s taking large, red, mesh shopping bags everywhere she went, because she didn't have the choice of "paper or plastic." Will the campers know a world without plastic bags flapping in the wind, forever caught on a tree branch too high to reach?
Pre-owned Baby Gear
Other Reusable Items
We use empty margarine tubs as left-over containers, and then eventually as paint holders. We don't use paper plates and try to use cloth napkins, but paper napkins just come in handier with little ones. We also wash and reuse plasticware after a party. We use the backside of used office paper for art projects. The local farmer who sells his produce at the corner convenience store gladly accepts our used egg cartons to refill.
Recycling
Go to your local dump and you'll understand the need to recycle. It's huge and smelly and if we lived in a third world country you would see children climbing the mountains of trash looking for scraps to sell. The trash doesn't disappear when the trash man carts it away. Whether the mound of trash is outside of your door or outside of the city limits, it is still there.
Mama Camp is still a big consumer, but we are working on it, and the campers like to take the recycling to the bins. Mama Camp has small bins to separate the items that the city will take in the single stream recycling, and others for things that we take to the recycling center.
Local Foods
Mama Camp had a very successful earth box, and we were on our way to producing more of our own food. However, with the arrival of a new pet, we have postponed our outdoor planting projects. Our next project is to start composting more of our vegetable/fruit trash. Once this is up and running we'll revisit the backyard garden project. We are currently trying to eat more local foods by trying out Greenling, a distributor of local and organic food.
What will the campers' world look like?
At the coast, we found one intact sand dollar in the hours spent walking the beach with Grandma and Great-grammy. Great-grammy talked about when she was younger, and you didn't have to hunt for whole sand dollars; they would just wash up onto the shore where you were sitting. Really? I can't even imagine. What else will be missing by the time the campers are great-grammy's age?
Website Links:
Mustang Island, Texas
"Sand Dollars Where'd They Go?"
City of Austin Rain Barrel Program
CFL Recycling
City of Austin Single Stream Recycling
Greenling
Getting Kids Involved
A Climate of Hope: Helping Children Respond Productively to Global Warming
Mama Camp is still a big consumer, but we are working on it, and the campers like to take the recycling to the bins. Mama Camp has small bins to separate the items that the city will take in the single stream recycling, and others for things that we take to the recycling center.
Local Foods
Mama Camp had a very successful earth box, and we were on our way to producing more of our own food. However, with the arrival of a new pet, we have postponed our outdoor planting projects. Our next project is to start composting more of our vegetable/fruit trash. Once this is up and running we'll revisit the backyard garden project. We are currently trying to eat more local foods by trying out Greenling, a distributor of local and organic food.
What will the campers' world look like?
At the coast, we found one intact sand dollar in the hours spent walking the beach with Grandma and Great-grammy. Great-grammy talked about when she was younger, and you didn't have to hunt for whole sand dollars; they would just wash up onto the shore where you were sitting. Really? I can't even imagine. What else will be missing by the time the campers are great-grammy's age?
Website Links:
Mustang Island, Texas
"Sand Dollars Where'd They Go?"
City of Austin Rain Barrel Program
CFL Recycling
City of Austin Single Stream Recycling
Greenling
Getting Kids Involved
A Climate of Hope: Helping Children Respond Productively to Global Warming
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