Blog Action Day... What am I going to say?

Today is the first ever "Blog Action Day" -- A day when bloggers around the web will unite to post on a topic that is on everyone's mind... The Environment.

I registered to participate in this event because I believe there are things we can do to be more Earth Friendly and I think it's very important to teach my kids to respect the Earth and treat her kindly. I do not believe we've wrecked the Earth beyond repair. But I do think it's just responsible parenting and my duty as a parent and a human to treat the Earth with respect and pass that on to my kids.

We try to do our part by recycling as much as we can, we use green grocery bags for our shopping and reusable containers for our lunches, we walk when we can instead of drive the car and such. We do some, but I know we could do more. We're taking babysteps getting used to change one step at a time.

So, I've been trying to think what I could write about. And then this weekend we were out with the kids and while we were in the car we were listening to a CD with some songs on it that we like. One song was Coyahoga by REM. Josh LOVED this song.

And if you know my son, you'd know the next question he was going to ask.... "What does Coyahoga mean?"

I didn't know. I told him to ask his father. Rich didn't know either. So, we did what any computer literate family of the '00's (hmm... should that say "early 21st century?") would do -- we Googled it.

And lo and behold, Wikipedia came through for us.

Turns out, the Cuyahoga river in Ohio which has been very badly polluted over the years. Going back as far as 1936. The river has sparked many environmental and clean water acts and agreements and such and apparently is starting to become clean again clean -- or cleaner. Clean enough that in 1998 the Cuyahoga river was recognized as one of 14 American Heritage Rivers. It still as a ways to go, but the clean up efforts are working.

So, what started as an innocent question from a 6 1/2 year old, became a learning experience for us all!

And, if you are looking for simple ways to go green and not break the bank (and actually it's cheaper than not being green) drop by my friend Amy's website -- The Crunchy Domestic Goddess. She's always got great suggestions and advice.