Happy New Earth Year!

I don't believe in Earth Day. Oh, sure I accept that folks are out there celebrating it, it's the whole concept of a 'day' for it that I don't believe in. A 'Day' makes it a carnival, a day-out-of-time/normal life.

Instead, I sort of look at today as New Year's Day of the new Earth Year. A day to make resolutions and start work on them, sort of like starting a diet or whatever on January 1.

In my fantasy, folks would have done some serious preparation for this. Say, looking over their lifestyle and the environment starting on the first day of spring and deciding on goals for the next year, and researching what it would take for them to reach those goals. The goals should be measurable, as all good goals are, so that month of preparation can also include measuring the impact on the environment you now have. After all, you can't really tell if you have reduced you car miles by 20% if you don't know how many car miles you put in weekly/monthly already.

Or, since I've been nagging the husband and son, since we have 14 meals with meat a week now, if we reduce that by 20% that means changing 3 meals a week. Functionally, that means eggs for one dinner a week, meat-free soup and a salad one (or more) lunch a week, and one 'experimental' meal a week. Which will most often NOT be experimental but will be something like quesadillas or cheese and veg pizza, but could be a stir-fry with tofu or nuts. Or I could try bean burritos (son with sensory issues will eat beans, but only if mashed) or bean or cheese enchildadas.

The other thing I'm going to work on for the year is reducing food waste. Things tend to get 'lost' in the fridge, then the stuff growing in them tries to take over the kitchen. This must end. Better menu planning and control will help that.

So, sure, I'm also doing some 'one offs' during the 'earth day fortnight'. Like repairing a toilet that's running on - but it only JUST broke, so I'd be doing that immediately whenever it happened during the year. I'm working my compost heap into the garden, but, again, that's normal before planting.

But working the compost into the garden is only normal because during the ENTIRE year I work with the compost heap, adding all sorts of veggie and fruit matter into it. I can only add eggshells to the garden because I save them all year. I can't really reduce my personal car time, because I don't have much, because my son does the grocery shopping on commute to and from college. If he was willing to take the shuttle bus to college 3 days a week, I might have to walk to the store. But I can only change myself, he is in charge of changing himself. Or not. Dammit.

What are your New Earth Year Resolutions?