"Human society sustains itself by transforming nature into garbage."  Mason Cooley

"It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish."  JRR Tolkien

"Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations."  Jean Paul Richter

It seems that we humans are caught in the crushing curl of our own giant wave of trash. A long, sad and glorious tradition of using and dumping that spans the entirety of our time on earth.

We have evolved in so many ways yet our methods of dealing with our detritus have not changed that much. Dumping, burning, waste minimization and recycling follow us everywhere we go on Earth, like the swirl of brown dust that follows the beloved Pigpen in Charles Schultz's Peanuts cartoon. Lovable and messy, that's us!

Here are some ways we can all help to green our less-than-stellar human trash-timeline:

1. If we won't or can't clean it up, do not bring unnecessary stuff onto a beach, park, campsite or any other dedicated open space. Always follow the "pack it in...pack it out" principle. Leave nothing, take only pictures. Birds, fish and wildlife everywhere will want to hug us! This also sets a really great example for our small humans, who will inherit the Earth.
2. Leave each place we go cleaner than we find it. I have always admired people on the street who pick up and properly dispose of other people's trash everywhere they go. These are true everyday heroes. It is a great green exercise to bend, pick and toss, any trash we come across, into the proper receptacle.
3. Become aware; keep our friends close, keep our trash closer. By keeping a close watch on how much trash we throw away we can begin to get an idea of the magnitude of our own personal trash cloud. Remember: out of sight, out of mind.
4. Can we please quit building giant floating trash islands in the middle of the ocean. Swear a solemn oath to never, ever again avail ourselves of the dreaded plastic shopping bag. Let's start and or sign a petition to get them banned in our state, province or country. Just imagine, if we can, a landscape without dirty plastic bags blowing in the trees, what a concept.
5. Keep it in our car and not on the roadway! Roadway trash--typically cigarette butts--is a huge problem for the environment. Newsflash: cigarette butts are extremely toxic and chock full of water, soil and animal poisoning chemicals. Yikes, did we know this before we smoked 'em?
6. If our tendencies run towards laziness, consult the Lame Environmentalist for some great ways to trick ourselves into being green.
7. Let's all go to our windows, open them and shout "Let's love the earth and leave it better than we found it!"
8. No more excuses, we all know the drill by now: reduce what we consume, reuse it until it disappears into thin air, and recycle the rest.
9. The time is right for us all to get over our big-bad-old-selves and just do it!

Have a really great green day one and all!

(Photo credit:thelastminute on flickr)

The frog was not talking about his garden when he sang "it's not easy being green" he was talking about his soul. Cultivating a green soul is not always easy but it is more worth the doing than just about anything I know.

When it becomes our goal to nurture nature we begin to cultivate a relationship that supports our entire ecosystem.

Remember, if it is poisoning the frogs, birds and insects, then it is probably poisoning us and our kids. So this year take a vow to ditch the pesticides and herbicides and grow a lawn and garden that the frog would be happy to sing his heart out in. Here are some helpful tips:

1. Let's begin by considering our home, garden and environs as part of our immediate family and treat them with the love and respect that they deserve.
2. Keep it simple, let some of the marginal areas of our small or large acre go native or wild. This makes less work for us and helps restore depleted habitats for pollinators and small wildlife. There is no shame in, as Jane Austen puts it, "a prettyish kind of little wilderness on one side of your lawn." You gotta love the style of those nature loving Victorians.
3. Growing grasses, flowers and vegetables that are suitable for our zone helps to maximize gratification from our landscape. Having our soil tested then amending it properly and organically is key.
4. Always choosing to go green with our dollar by sticking to organic and green gardening sites, seeds and supplies for our landscape, is easier now than ever.
5. Making Green Hour activities part of our family's daily routine helps us to build a healthy relationship with our environment. Remembering to dream green by visualizing our lives, our gardens and our planet greenly helps to reinforce their health via "ye olde power of positive thinking."

Happy green planning and I'll see you over the fence this spring with lots of green gardening tips!

(Photo credit:ms.lume on flickr)

Is this deformed cyclops frog real? Thankfully, it's not. I triple-checked, because you never know these days. Real and really freaky froggy mutations eerily similar to this Photoshop tweak aren't too far off in the future, give or take a leg or three.

The evidence, according to an Associated Press report released today: An alarming 1,895 species of frogs, toads and other amphibian cousins are dropping like their favorite food at an alarming rate. Why? Because of toxic fungus- and algae-brewing industrial and residential runoff water pollution and pharmaceutical-loaded pee from you and me. But you knew that. Don't forget climate change, habitat annihilation and ozone thinning.

Poor Kermit. Miss Piggy's codependency isn't enough. He has to have major existential issues, too. Literally.

And when frogs have problems, so do we, the fertilizer-sprinkling two-leggeds who endanger them. See, certain amphibians, like frogs, are indicator species. Basically, they are the first animals to show up warped when something's rotten in Denmark, and in the rest of the world and our environment. When frogs grow freaky, biodiversity scientists cry Red Alert. For example, they're warning that "up to 30 percent of all species on Earth could vanish by 2050 due to unsustainable human activities."

If you think mosquitoes are a pain now, just wait.

Actually, please don't.

Don't wait until Kermit ends up like the countless webbed wonders that died off before scientists could discover them. How can you help? Start by reading this and picking one or two easy action items to help slow the fast-forward plight of the frog. When you do, you also help the birds and other wildlife that rely on frog eggs and tadpoles for survival, and you help yourself and everyone else in this great and greatly diminishing web of life.

(Photo credit:flickr, azrainman)