Our building recently planted trees along the sidewalk (full disclosure, my harder working neighbors are the ones to thank, I was away). Planting trees, which is the activity Arbor Day is centered around removes CO2 from the air, produces oxygen, beautifies the city, and helps to fight global warming.
To get involved and plant a tree yourself, take a look at this week's website A Million Trees NYC.
My friend Astrid kept me good and green by buying me a Baggu. It's the same concept as the I'm not a Plastic Bags, but it's better in one very vital way. You can scrunch it up in your purse, therefore having it on your person at all times, making the bag actually useful. I can't tell you how many deli meats and bottles of whiskey my little red helper has brought home.
Plus, as we all know now, it's just better for our planet. Here are some staggering facts:
* Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
* The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually.
* Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade – breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
* Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
It's hard by today's standards to envision a big game hunter as any sort of conservationist or environmentalist, but Teddy Roosevelt was both. One of the first, and certainly one of the most influential leaders of a conservation movement:
According to the National Geographic, the area of the United States placed under public protection by Theodore Roosevelt, as National Parks, National Forests, game and bird preserves, and other federal reservations, comes to a total of approximately 230,000,000 acres or about 84,000 acres per day!
Sagamore Hill, his home in Oyster Bay, offers a small museum dedicated to his life and accomplishments as well as a great short nature walk that takes you directly to the shore and offers glimpses of a crazy eccentric Asian palace mansion next door.
There also hourly tours of the home itself, which we just missed on our visit, but plan to return for.
A Million Trees is the perfect group to get behind this Arbor Day and really any day that you feel like making this city a better place. They have one goal:
To plant and care for one million new trees across the City's five boroughs over the next decade. By planting one million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest—our most valuable environmental asset made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land—by an astounding 20%, while achieving the many quality-of-life benefits that come with planting trees.
There's also an LA branch.
Planet Earth can be summed up in just a few sentences, because words would just fail to equal the impact of the program's stunning images.
It is one of the most amazing things you will ever see. It alone is worth buying a Blu-Ray player. It will make you love the world you live in and be fascinated by it.
With her alluringly soothing voice, I'd probably listen to the beautiful Isabella Rossellini talk about anything. Luckily for me I can hear her talk about a subject as interesting as the reproduction cycles of animals!
In Green Porno, a series of funny and quirky shorts which she created, produced, wrote and directed, the often Sci Fi-like like mating practices of insects and, in this season marine animals, are explained in entertaining and scientific detail.
Each episode features fun, handmade costumes and sets by Brooklynite Andy Byers. A recent clip about whale penises has been featured on The Soup, but you can see them all on the Sundance website.