My 5: Earth Day, Kirkwood Community College, Iowa City, Iowa

Today is Earth Day, and Iowa Citians couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful Spring day to celebrate. Blue Planet Green Living (BPGL) joined other environmental groups in an Earth Day display at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City. Joe and I had the pleasure of meeting quite a few like-minded students, faculty, and exhibitors, and engaged in lively discussions with several of them. As we did on Saturday at the University of Iowa’s Green Summit, we invited today’s attendees to write their “My 5.” We’re pleased to share with you their responses to this question:

BPGL: What are the five most important things we can do to save the planet?

Guiling Tong

Guiling Tong, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa

Save the electricity such as:

• Don’t put the room temperature too high in the winter and don’t put the room temperature too low.
• Recycle the waste product.
• Don’t waste water.
• Educate the public about the problems of this planet that we are facing  now.

Shannon Pauly

Shannon Pauly, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
Reusable shopping bags
•    Products with less packaging
•    Consume less
•    Reuse everything!
•    Energystar appliances

Tiffany Luebbers

Tiffany Luebbers, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
Recycle
Use reusable bags (other reusable products)
Use industrial hemp as an alternative resource
Use more green products
Walk (ride bikes) instead of using cars and other motor transportation

Lee Carroll

Lee Carroll, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    Renewable energy
•    Less green gases
•    Use clean water more efficiently
•    Reduce the amount of trees we cut down

Christine Thompson

Christine Thompson, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Promote alternative energy sources
•    Teach our young that this is their world
•    Restrict business and industries that continue with polluting practices
•    Each American make a decision to reduce his/her consumption
•    Share with other nations our technology and advancements in energy conservation

Meghan Kasper

Meghan Kasper, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    LEARN about how the things we do/consume have an effect
•    TEACH others about what we have learned
•    EXPLORE the face of the planet to grow a connection to her
•    SIMPLIFY our lifestyles
•    GET INVOLVED with others- don’t take on the load alone!

Scott Whiting

Scott Whiting, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•  Recycle,
•    Reuse
•    Eat less red meat
•    Reduce energy consumption
•    Buy local

Kade Wills

Kade Wills, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Become a greener planet by recycling more
•    Find other sources instead a dependency on oil
•    Reinstate the ban on drilling at National Parks
•    Start saving more of endangered species
•    Create better means of disposable waste

Adriana Fisher

Adriana Fisher, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Use more resources like solar and wind power instead of gas
•    Educate about birth control and get people to use it
•    Stop using so much stuff… reuse bags, don’t throw away so much trash
•    Stop countries from using nuclear power because the biohazard leftovers last for so long
•    Keep peaceful relations with other countries

Betsy Hood

Betsy Hood, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Use less
•    Stop reliance on fossil fuels
•    Use renewable resources
•    Walk or bike when ever possible
•    Raise awareness on issues of deforestation, desertification, pollution etc. the list goes on
•    Reduce, reuse, recycle. Most importantly, reduce.

Cindy Cochran

Cindy Cochran, Kirkwood Community College faculty, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Support recycled products
•    Develop earth friendly cars
•    Buy locally
•    Reduce waste
•    Eat less beef

Marisa Dixon

Marisa Dixon, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    Ride my bike
•    Shop at farmers market
•    Cut out processed food
•    Carpool

David Strass

David Strass, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    Stop driving
•    Turn down thermostat/air conditioner
•    Walk to work if possible
•    Buy local foods

Violet H.

Violet H., Home-School student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    Walking instead of driving
•    Don’t  leave your water running
•    Turn off your lights when you’re not in the room
•    Raise your own organic food

Erini Anthopoulos, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    Use energy saving light bulbs
•    Ride a bike or walk instead of driving
•    Plant trees
•    Bring your own material bag instead of using a plastic one.

Alexa Johnson

Alexa Johnson, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    Buy less things we don’t need
•    Public transportation
•    Be aware of home appliance use
•    Reuse water bottles and cans

Dan Kramer

Dan Kramer, DJKramer.com, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Utilize recyclable products
•    Stop purchasing bottled water
•    Create a compost unit
•    Preserve and protect our surface water
•    Use more environmentally friendly household products

Chelsea Beckley

Chelsea Beckley, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Use reusable bags
•    Recycle
•    Get rid of medications properly
•    Walk or ride bikes instead of driving a car everywhere
•    Exercise

Katrina Haywood

Katrina Haywood, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Recycle
•    No more toxic dumping
•    Educate our children
•    Don’t litter
•    Do away with cigarettes

Jenna Driscoll

Jenna Driscoll, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Find alternative energy sources
•    Find alternatives to fossil fuels
•    Reduce CO2 emissions
•    Educate the public about being environmentally friendly
•    Have more fuel-efficient cars

Byron Stokes

Byron Stokes, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Consume more fruits and vegetables
•    Use public transportation
•    Use renewable energy
•    Recycle plastics
•    Buy organic goods

Kristine Elder

Kristine Elder, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
1.  Recycle
2. Save energy
3.  Walk more,  drive less
4.  Use less plastic bags
5.  Picking up trash off the street for a more beautiful world

Lynn Zeman

Lynn Zeman, Iowa City, Iowa

•    Govt Energy policy
•    Renew/rebuild electrical grid
•    Café standards/alternative energy vehicles
•    Landfill issues
•    Water quality

Claire Eileen Core

Claire Eileen Core, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Food

o    Distribution of food in not only this nation but in the world is sickening. I don’t know the specific numbers but I know there is enough food grown in this world to feed more of the world’s population. Huge amounts of grain, corn and other crops are grown in this country and not fed to hungry people but to animal production. This isn’t an efficient system!
o    On the topic of ‘animal production’, CAFO’s are huge contributors to land, water and air pollution as well as unhealthy meat from these plants and make the family farm almost diminished. Which brings me to my next point…
o    Eat local, organic (and vegetarian)! It’s healthier for your self, your community and planet. YAY
o    Grow gardens for communities, neighborhoods and schools. It brings pride into the food you eat, teaches people how to be self-sufficient, brings back a connection to the earth, cost less than store-bought products, and so much more

•    Back to Nature. When people are in nature, seeing, feeling, knowing nature people will begin to care and love it.

Salama

Salama, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    I think we need to Recycle more, instead of everyone driving cars
•    We can car pool
•    Use less electricity when possible
•    And buy more efficient cars so less emission is being given off

Josh Reeder

Josh Reeder, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Cessation of the consumption of nonreplenishable resources
•    Get Outside!
•    Buy less “stuff”
•    Buy locally
•    Teach the above principles to prosperity

Lisa Bonar

Lisa Bonar, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
1.    Start a war on consumerism, buy less, you don’t need all that STUFF!
2.    Talk to your kids, your friends, and people standing in the checkout line with you, about the resources used to make and transport all the STUFF television has convinced them they need.
3.    Write and call your legislators to persuade them to support legislation that will reduce our impact on the earth.
4.    VOLUNTEER, there are lots of organizations that are working to save the planet.
5.    Go vegetarian and eat organic as much as possible. A far higher percentage of crops goes to feed livestock than to feed humans. You can get 12 pounds of wheat from an acre, or 1 pound of meat. Intensive farming and livestock raising contributes an atrocious amount of pollution to the environment.

Sammy Pottebaum

Sammy Pottebaum, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Make more of the energy we use in the household energy efficient/energy saving
•    Create more opportunities for bicycling downtown, or between cities.
•    Gardening in a variety of ways, dry farming, or hanging vines
•    Create more tax incentives to have energy efficient homes
•    Bring the downfall of Monsanto and strip malls

Natalie Niemeyer

Natalie Niemeyer, Kirkwood Community College student, Iowa City, Iowa
•    Conserve energy
•    Conserve water
•    Find alternative energy sources
•    “GO GREEN!”
•    Reduce and recycle

DRAWING

Everyone who entered their “My 5″ qualified to enter a drawing for a new Blue Planet Green Living canvas shopping bag or a copy of Greg Johnson’s book, Put Your Life on a Diet: Lessons Learned from Living in 140 square feet. The winners were:

Sammy Pottenbaum: Put Your Life on a Diet, autographed by Greg Johnson

Cindy Cochran: Blue Planet Green Living shopping bag

Earth Day 2009

Whatever your day included today, we hope that you were able to spend some time considering actions you can take in the quest to protect our planet. If you’d like us to publish your own “My5,” send it to julia@blueplanetgreenliving.com with a photo. Let’s make every day Earth Day.

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Related Post:

My 5: Green Summit, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA