How to help the planet.

[Billy]

I would like to create a list of the various ways in which we can help the planet.  I am sure that there will be some disagreements, but it is my hope that we can learn from and encourage one another to grow.  Helping the planet is helping ourselves.  I shall start us off:

• buy locally produced and organic food and/or grow your own
  
• recycle (soft plastics are recycled separately)
  
• compost
  
• walk and/or take public transport rather than driving (where applicable)
  
• go vegan
  
• buy and spend less
  
• buy second hand
  
• buy from ethically aligned organisations/companies (i.e. ethical.org.au)
  
• join a bank which doesn't participate in environmental destruction (they do exist)
  
• say no to plastic bags
  
• meditation
  
• chanting (lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu)
  
• live simply and minimally (look up minimalism)
  
• love self and other
  
• use less water (i.e. water efficient shower-head, take shorter showers)
  
• plant some trees
  

I am still working on a number of these myself.  It is my hope that I will be able to integrate them all sooner rather than later.  

Also, does anyone know if electricity is used when appliances are turned off but the power source is on?  

[Monica]

Great list! I would add:

Plant some fruit trees and a garden in your yard if possible, to grow some of your own food. (Even an apartment patio can accommodate a few veggie plants.)

[Billy]

Great list! I would add:

Plant some fruit trees and a garden in your yard if possible, to grow some of your own food. (Even an apartment patio can accommodate a few veggie plants.)

I need to start doing this.

[Aion]

Commune personally with plants and animals, this investing in them aware identities.

[native]

I'd like to buy a scooter..less gas. Electricity is only used when the appliance is running.

Also, one thing I've started doing in the past few years is blessing my food and communing with the natural world like Aion mentioned. I feel that it has vibrational effects and I do it simply because small sacred rituals are entirely absent from our lives. In cultures that revere nature and see everything as sacred, misusing the earth's resources is not within the realm of possibility.

I think that focusing on being grateful in general alters our consciousness and helps us remain in a positive state.

[Diana]

Commune personally with plants and animals, this investing in them aware identities.

It is really amazing the difference this makes. And the difference goes both ways. This can be easily seen in plants that you love, and the way they flourish. I have a rattlesnake who lives in my front yard. We (my boyfriend and I) call him Severus (I name a lot of the frequent animal visitors to my property). People generally hate rattlesnakes and kill them whenever possible. I have to be careful in the summertime here in any case, so allowing a rattlesnake to live in the front yard (desert, not grass) isn't stupid as most people think. It's actually smarter because they are territorial and I know he's there (of course, I don't have children or pets). But that's not the point. The point is not separating myself from nature; not hating species; not creating walls; and living in harmony. I did the same thing when I lived at my previous house in dense scorpion territory. All the scorps came to my backyard because everyone around me was spraying poison. I just let them hang out. Occasionally one got in the house and I just took it outside in a glass. It is a way to live in love, not fear. And as I said, I'm not acting stupidly thinking that nothing can hurt me if I love it. I'm trying to dispel human judgments and separation, and accept animals that are so often hated. This is why I feel it goes both ways. These animals receive energetic thoughts all the time from humans, whether or not they understand it.