Greenpeace

 

Earth Day Celebration, San Diego

Cooling down from the largest EarthDay celebration in the US - Balboa Park, San Diego. What a diverse, multi-dimensional, event! At least 60,000 people in the park. Inspiring to see this enormous expression supporting protection of our environment so interwoven with so many other movements and issues and life choices. So many ways to express a responsible preference.

I get that the Amazon Rain Forest is connected by climate to the arctic tundra, I get that my choice of beverage is connected by climate to the rate of species extinction. I'm a microcosm of the bigger picture, but with the emphasis on MICRO, sometimes it's not easy to convince myself that my little efforts have any effect on it. This is what I dig about Greenpeace. They are struggling with the big issues, and against the big boys, for climate, economic and social justice. By supporting Greenpeace I can have influence in places where I never hope to go. (Except as a supporter of those who actually do go). I can take action in the broader sense.

What I think Earth Day reminded me is that in almost every area of our daily routine we can make choices that impact planetary health. Here in Balboa Park we saw better options for most of those choices. Personal, family and community health choices and options, as well. Speaking of choices in our daily routines, Greenpeace is helping me with that small-world struggle, too. The shopping guides linked below make it easy to go with the option I believe in.

We know, once again, about companies using clear-cut old-growth forest lumber to make toilet paper, and now its easy to see which companies are doing better with the Greenpeace Tissue Guide

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/tissueguide

Seafood issues in US grocery stores and markets - the Red List of fish being unsustainably or destructively harvested:

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/oceans/seafood/red-fish