Is your Mom still buying disposable nappies for your kid brother/sister?!! Shopping is great fun! But have you ever shopped keeping the earth in mind? Did you know those dreadful disposable baby diapers your mom might buy for your kid brother or sister would cost the earth one beautiful tree? The tree that gives you shade on a hot day, and cuddles several pigeons, squirrels and sparrows in its branches?
Have you heard about the kids who baked the Rainforest Snacks to help save the environment? Fifth grade students in King City, Ontario, raised $ 141.73 in a bake sale to protect 7 acres of rainforest forever! Here is one of their recipes. The ingredients rely on a growing rainforest, not a cut one.
Colin and Adrian's Food-from-the-rainforest Squares.
¾ cup (175 ml) honey.
1 cup (250 ml) peanut butter
1 cup (250 ml) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. (5 ml) vanilla
1 cup (250 ml) peanuts
3 cups (750 ml) Rice crispies.
1.Melt the honey and peanut butter in the top of a double boiler.
2.Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are melted too.
3.Remove the double boiler from the heat and stir in the vanilla, then the peanuts and then the Rice Crispies.
4.Press into a square cake tin. Slice when cool.
Now bite into a hunk of rainforest richness!
I was reading this book World Wildlife Fund Take Action An Environmental Book for Kids by Ann Love and Jane Drake (Beech Tree) and was amazed to discover what kids can do to help save the planet. Read some of these tips and find out if you are following any of them today. If not, then start immediately!
1.Turn up your nose against careless pesticide use and disposal around your house. Instead of using chemical pesticides, plant onions, marigolds and garlic to keep insect pests away from your garden. Meet the ladybug, that destroys pests naturally. Even ordinary soap and water sprayed on plants, discourages pests.
2.When shopping remember that paper, plastic, metal, food, all affect wildlife in some way. So buy only what you need, use less, choose what will last. Buy products in returnable or refillable containers. Take your own shopping bag.
3.Hang wet clothes outside and let the sun dry them for free. Give the dryer a rest.
4.When the custodian of a school in Ontario pointed out that it took around 200 kids to produce 11 large bags of lunch garbage a week, the kids changed their bad habits! They looked carefully at what they were throwing out. One class made posters to show how garbage litter hurts people and wildlife. They hung the posters in the hall. They made signs explaining recycling alternatives. A third class made ugly garbage monsters out of the lunch waste, inventing names and life histories for them, and the creatures were hung out in the lunch room! The kids managed to bring down lunch garbage waste from 11 bags to 3! Walk, bike or take a bus when you can.
5.You can do the same by coaxing your mom to give up using paper towels, paper plates, paper cups, disposable paper diapers etc. Why not use steel cups, plates and mugs? Old saris and old shirts and dresses can be used to make nice nappies for the baby! They are safer and cheaper and can be re used!
6.Say no to Styrofoam. Kids in New Jersey called themselves Kids Against Pollution and coaxed their school board to ban Styrofoam in the school cafeteria. When a national television show featured their good work, lots of other kids across America joined up!
7. Tell your parents that leather jackets were made out of an animal’s severe misery. Go for synthetic ones.
