I’m celebrating my birthday in conjunction with the 35th Anniversary of Greenpeace. Here are 35 thing you can do for me:
• Believe in Global Warming. It is real.
• Drive a hybrid.
• Swear off plastic bags. They are rampant in our oceans and wildlife feeds off them, thinking they are plankton. Bring your own bags to the supermarket and visit oceans.greenpeace.org for more on how to Defend our Oceans.
• Support renewable energy. Install solar panels on your house.
• Bring your family to visit our newest and fastest ship, the Esperanza, when it makes a stop in San Diego in November.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
• Write about environmental issues.
• Place environmental messages in your lyrics.
• Use musical instruments made of wood approved by the Forest Stewardship Council. For more info, visit www.musicwood.org.
• Support wind farms, even when they interfere with your view.
• Learn to drive a Greenpeace Zodiac.
• Provide bail money for a Greenpeace action.
• Participate in a peaceful direct action with Greenpeace.
• Eat organic foods. Support farmers’ markets.
• Restrict your fish consumption: fish may be good for you, but not when it contains mercury. And overfishing is perhaps the single biggest, most immediate threat facing the world’s ocean. If in doubt about what to eat from the sea, check out www.seafoodchoices.org for a list of “safe” fish, retailers and restaurants.
• Don’t use anti-bacterial soap: the chemicals they contain wind up in wastewater and ultimately in the environment-and anyway, studies suggest they’re probably no more effective at combating germs than normal soap and water.
• Participate in a beach clean up.
• Conserve energy.
• Conserve water.
• Don’t litter, and confront those who do.
• Stay away from genetically engineered foods.
• Help build a PVC-free Habitat for Humanity House.
• Avoid farmed fish. Huge amounts of fish are caught to feed aquaculture species, and fish farms can cause severe damage to coastal environments.
• Use energy efficient lightbulbs.
• Turn those lights off when you’re not using them.
• See “An Inconvenient Truth.” Tell a friend or a family member to see it too. And have them tell another friend…
• Take your own coffee cup to be filled up at your own local coffee shop.
• Print on both sides of paper.
• Dispose of computers and other electronic products responsibly. Every year, hundreds of thousands of old computers and cell phones are dumped in landfills or burned in smelters. Thousands more are exported, often illegally, to Asia, where workers at scrap yards, often children, are exposed to a cocktail of toxic chemicals and poisons.
• Don’t run the dishwasher until it is full.
• Speak out against wars of any kind.
• Stay informed except when you can’t take it any more. Then, take a short break and get back to it.
• Support Greenpeace, one of my favorite organizations. Operating in over 30 countries worldwide, they’re active day in, day out where it counts: on the front lines to protect the planet.
• Listen to my song to celebrate Greenpeace’s 35th Anniversary — I will post it when it is ready.
• Wish me a Happy Birthday!
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