Heaters and Showers and Pesticides, Oh My!

(Darby) OK, so we haven't been blogging every day, but we have been following the list every day!

I'm finding some of the items on our list are hard to do with children. For example, now that the weather has turned chilly again for a few days, the action of turning down our thermostat two degrees is a tough one to follow. I totally appreciate how it saves energy (and money) and helps the environment to turn the heater down, but it's hard to see my kids freezing when they get out of bed in the morning. We did buy each of them a down comforter this year to keep them warmer during winter nights, and we also had their bedroom windows fixed last year, because we had some seals that were broken. But, still, that change from 68 to 66 degrees is quite a leap for us. I'm guessing I'll feel the same way about it in the summer months when the kids come home from camp sweaty and broiling and we've turned the A/C down...(I can just hear the whining now...)

Another tough one was on Sunday, taking a shorter shower with less hot water. I love hot showers. And, to put things honestly, my daughter is a big slowpoke in the shower. OK, so maybe if I take hot but fast showers, and she takes cool but long showers, we can balance each other out!?!

Friday's entry was to buy organic fruits and veggies for Shabbat dinner. Some friends have been challenging me on that one. They understand the environmental benefits of buying locally-grown produce, but why does buying organic help the environment? I did a little googling, and the answer was not that straightforward. But, from what I've learned, it's all about avoiding pesticides. Think about it. Farmers use up a lot more energy spraying pesticides, especially when they are petroleum-based. I also learned that over 98% of pesticides reach a destination other than their target species, polluting other species, the air, our water, and our food. (Ever seen one of those airplanes spraying pesticides? It's easy to see how this happens!) And some pesticides also actually known to contribute to global warming and depletion of the ozone layer.

Organic farming, on the other hand, relies on crop rotation, manure, compost, and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests and thus has a much lower impact on the environment. (Thanks wikipedia!! You were a big help!)

I hope that explains things a little better. This is one item I'm going to try to keep up with at the grocery store.

One final thought I wanted to end with. We went to shul on Saturday and there was a wonderful guest speaker. It was Nihli Simhai from the Teva Learning Center. Teva is a Jewish environmental educational institute that works with day schools, religious schools, synagogues, camps and youth groups to "ecologically inspire" kids and adults in a Jewish way. Ms. Simhai, who grew up at B'nai Jeshurun, did a great job of ecologically inspiring all of us to do simple acts, like to say our prayers outside in nature every now and then, in order to better feel G-d's presence. They have a wonderful website and offer a bi-weekly email called "Tikkun Tips" that features one simple change or action that you can take, every other week, to reduce your impact on the environment. I think it's a great resource, and encourage you to visit the page and sign up for the emails. www.tevacenter.org.

That's it for now. The next few actions on our list are starting to focus more on reducing energy usage. Uh oh, I'm bad with that...this is going to be a challenge, for sure!!