Can Healthy Choices Make Every Day Earth Day?

by Loey Werking Wells
 
What good does it do to eat organic vegetables when your drinking water contains lead?  Do you feel chained to your treadmill because the air pollution is so dire, there are warnings against walking outside? Does it make sense to try to live healthier, when talk of global warming melting the icecaps, wastes from feedlots polluting the water stream and a major bee die-off, is on every front page?   
 
Of course it does, and Earth Day is a good reminder that every choice we make can help determine the quality of our existence on this spaceship Earth—our only planet. Changing out a few light bulbs for compact fluorescents, or bringing a shopping bag to the grocery store, are helpful, albeit tiny steps towards a greener lifestyle. But we can do more; aiming to live a healthy lifestyle and steward our planet go hand-in-hand as we make choices, from cradle to coffin, that affect our inner and outer world. 
 
Some choices are simple, and even enjoyable. Replacing an errand with a walk or bike ride, instead of driving not only does amazing things for your body, but reduces carbon emissions, traffic congestion and even saves money.  Planting a garden and/or frequenting farmer’s markets ensure that you’re getting some of the freshest foods in the country; food that hasn’t been picked unripe and then trucked for miles. Eating a diet lower in the food chain (centered around grains and fruits and vegetables) has been proven to be better for our bodies—that’s old news—but the effect that has on the environment is just being understood.  Recently on NPR’s Morning Edition, Roz Nailer, of Stanford University’s Food Security and the Environment program said that if Americans cut back their meat consumption by 20% it would be the energy savings equivalent of each person changing their regular car in for a Prius. (Morning Edition, April 16, 2008). 
 
Engaging in your community, either by volunteering, writing letters to your congressperson, or learning about environmental issues can offer huge benefits to your mental health. The planet can also benefit, since there are as many non-profits working on  problems, as there are issues.  During the 1970’s the United States passed some of the most comprehensive legislation protecting the environment ever passed in our country. The Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency were created in tandem with the recognition of the first Earth Day.   However, these laws have become progressively weakened over the past eight years, as we’ve seen corporate interests outweigh the public common. There is plenty to be done to strengthen these existing laws, and our collective action may prove key to ensuring our bodies get the safe, clean water, air, and food we desire.
 
Much of healthy living means using common sense and having some balance in our lives. Our great grandmother’s weren’t fretting over carbs and additives, and their footprint on the earth was far lighter than most of ours. They weren’t mindlessly consuming everything in sight, and treating the globe as their own personal disposal bin. It need not feel like a Sisyphean task trying to keep our bodies healthy and our ecological home intact, however you come about it, the results can be similar.  But seeing results becomes more important as many of us—including Earth Day—reach our forties and realize we’re not getting younger, but (hopefully) we are getting smarter.