Fitness, Health and Earth day seem like maybe they are not very well linked at all but I think that there is a case to be made that being greener is a lot healthier way to live.
Being the father of two your kids we have been bombarded this week with Earth day events and stories from school. I remember when I was growing up the whole recycling concept was just picking up steam and a few years later in Vancouver we had curb side recycling, something that my adopted city of Calgary does not yet have 🙁
Anyway being green, I believe, is a lot more global then it used to be. Sure we in North America are the greatest consumers of all kinds of products but around the world our influences are being felt here are a few ways that I can think.
Nice bright fruits and veggies – I can get a banana or an apple any day of the year from the supermarket. One of the many ways that farmers in other countries make my food more appetizing is to use pesticides and fertilizers to make the fruit look better in the supermarket. Not good for the environment or even me personally.
Fancy packaging – Every product that we buy from a store is packaged to the hilt so that it will be that much more attractive on the store shelves – There is not other reason for this overpackaging – This is not only labor intensive but also all of the plactics created and trees cut down to make the cardboard packaging creates a negative oxygen balance in the atmosphere that stops the environment from cleaning itself.
Steroids and beef – I am a big meat eater and one of the great advances in the meat industry over the last 20 or so years is the pumping of steroids and other drugs into animals to make them bigger and to help make the meat taste better. I know that these additives are just the meat version of what we are doing with fruit and vegetables but it is polluting our bodies and not good for the environment as a whole.
So today as you go about your day see how many times that you have a chance to make a different choice, sadly I find not as often as I would like. If you want to read more earth day and environmental information I find that Tree Hugger is a great website to learn more as well as very entertaining to read.