***D’s Guest Post***

Welcome to Save-the-Earth Saturday! I hope you’ll join me with a story or a tip.

As I said before, today I will be talking about water. Water is needed to live. But, gas in water in NOT needed. Did you know that in 1969, a river in Ohio was so polluted, it caught FIRE! The highest flame was a height of a five-story building! I really don’t want that to happen at my lake or the Pacific Ocean or some thing! (Source:Earth Day)

When water is evaporated, luckily, chemicals don’t come too. Evaporation is when water gets sucked up into the clouds so the have some thing to rain. So when it rains, it should be fresh water, except that coal-burning power plants and motor vehicles spew pollutants into the atmosphere, that causes acid rain.

We waste a lot of water. In fact, 40% of our homes’ water is flushed down the toilet! Even watering your lawn can be a waste of water.

Chemicals on your lawn will make it turn green, but it will hurt the songbird pollution. Have you heard of a water keeper? They pull out people’s junk from waterways, like car transmissions.

TIPS:
1. Do you have low water use toilets? If not you should get them because they use less water then regular toilets, with use, as I said before, 40% of our fresh water. UPDATE: Leslie shared an excellent tip in comments – please check it out!
2. When you are taking a shower, turn off the water when you put in the shampoo or conditioner.
3. Speaking of water, you should really get detergent that doesn’t contain phosphates, because it works just as well, and doesn’t damage lakes and rivers.

We can’t live with out water, so let’s conserve it and keep it clean.

Just one more week until Earth Day! What will you do?

Source: 50 Simple Things Kids Can do to Save the Earth.

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***D’s Guest Post***

Welcome to Save-the-Earth Saturday! I hope you’ll join me with a story or a tip.

Last week, I wrote about recycling, and this week’s topic is clean air.

Air, as everyone knows, is made up of oxygen, which you breathe in, carbon dioxide which you breathe out, (and humans have increased by 25%) and this cycle also has to do with trees, which do the exact opposite.

Sadly, these trees are being cut down. To help, plant trees. Plant 2 trees for every 1 tree you meant to reproduce. Arbor Day will be the last Friday in April, April 27. This is a day when people plant trees, to replace those that have been harvested.

But trees can’t even help you with the chemicals in the smoke from factories. You gradually breathe in chemicals. Your lungs would not like to hear that if they had ears, but it is true. Some chemicals are just as bad is a cigarette. Your lungs don’t like the sound of that bad stuff.

This is not to mention the 140 million cars, which don’t help the environment. Although a hybrid could help fix that problem well. Oh! And we mustn’t forget he ozone and greenhouse effect! To help green house effect you could do an easy thing such as simply turning off the lights when you leave the room. A wonderful kind of light to get is compact fluorescent bulbs. They are more expensive but use less energy and last longer.

MORE BRIGHT IDEAS!!!

1. Try to get a smaller house. It uses less electric.

2. If you live in a city, try to ride the bus. Buses use more gas but with 25 people riding, it’s worth it.

3. Try opening a window instead of air conditioning.

4. Buy groceries from local farmers. It saves the gas on a ship from another continent.

AIR IS IMPORTANT. LETS KEEP IT FRESH.

If you have any other clean air tips, please post them in comments.

Next week I’ll be talking about clean water.

Source: Time, April 9, 2007 — The Global Warming Survival Guide (Hat Tip, Beth.)
Source: 50 Simple Things Kids Can do to Save the Earth.

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***Darla’s Guest Post***

Welcome to Save-the-Earth Saturday! I hope you’ll join me with a story or a tip.

Last week I introduced you to Gaylord A Nelson, father of Earth Day. As many people know, recycling is buying plastic and glass items, using them, and dropping them off at the recycling center. I will show you some other ways to recycle in these next few paragraphs.

Try to buy cloth shopping bags, and use them again and again. A fifteen to twenty-year-old tree is only big enough for 700 grocery bags!

To help the earth in another way, when you’re shopping with your cloth bags, look for Recycled Toilet paper and paper towels. Some brands that we’ve used are Atlantic® 100% recycled paper, whitened without chlorine. Another is Green Forest® which is also 100% recycled paper, whitened with out chlorine. We found Green Forest at The grocery store and Atlantic at Menards. They were cheap, like 99 cents, or three rolls for $1.

I got a lot of information from the book, 50 Simple Things Kids Can do to Save the Earth. (Thanks for the tip, Jamie.)

When you’re going to get eggs, get the kind with the cardboard case, instead of foam. Foam takes over 1,000,000 years to decompose.

Try to live in a pre-owned home. If your hopes are really set on a new one, by a tear down, TEAR it down and build another in its place. Animals would not notice the difference that way.

Did You Know? 90% of America’s trash is dumped into landfills because it is the cheapest way!! A way to fix some of that garbage is to stop your junk mail! Whoever gets the mail in the family will be delighted and planet Earth won’t stink!

Did You Know? A Mother sperm whale died because of a single balloon swallowed. Don’t let go of your balloons!

Did You Know? If Earth keeps going this, way, we will be losing up to three spices a day!

And Pamela mentioned a great way to recycle last week in comments:

We’ve been composting for several years. I’ve been shocked at how quickly my kitchen scraps (not cooked) and certain yard debris have filled the huge containers. Last year, using the rich compost from the bottom, my squash plant grew out of the garden and climbed a tree in the flower bed. It was so funny to see the flower blossoming from the top, and then later a butternut squash hanging in the viburnum bush.

Continue Reading »

***D’s Guest Post***

Welcome to Save-the-Earth Saturday! I hope you’ll join me with a story or a tip.

The second house I lived in was in Clear Lake WI, which was also the birthplace of Gaylord A Nelson Founder of Earth Day. I know a lot About Gaylord Nelson because of Clear Lake. The teachers say that he would visit classrooms often.

The first Earth Day was founded in 1970. It took 6 years to prepare the first Earth Day and finally make it a holiday.

Earth Day is a day to be thankful and enjoy our Earth. But Earth doesn’t enjoy us just sitting back! Earth wants to be clean so do some thing it likes such as riding a bike to school/work, take in your recycling. Remember! Earth Day is on April 22, 2007!

Next week, I will be talking about recycling. (The interesting parts any way!)

Please share any tips you have related to conservation, or to help people prepare for Earth Day. Here are some great Earth Day websites for kids:

Kaboose
Helpful Hints for Planet Earth
CNN

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This post is a part of the Carnival of Homeschooling at Alasandra.

D is writing a research paper on conservation, so in the weeks leading up to Earth Day (April 22) D will share with you some information she’s learned, as well as tips on recycling, clean water, and clean air.

She’s titled her series, “Save the Earth Saturday,” and has invited you to join in if you have tips to share. You can write posts of your own, or leave suggestions and links in comments.

There are little and large ways we can help to save the Earth. Let’s share what we know!

Feel free to use the button if you participate on your blog. See you next week for Save the Earth Saturday!

(Waterfall photo taken in Ontario, just north of Sault St. Marie.)