Essential Skill #15: Do the Worm

We all have food waste, and most of us have plants. Now it’s time to connect the dots with Essential Skill #15 in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook:

Do the worm.

It’s called vermicomposting – the process of worms consuming your fruit and vegetable waste and leaving behind a rich fertilizer for your plants.

"If one million people vermicomposted for a year," writes author David de Rothschild, "82,000 tons of food waste could be turned into fertilizer." So you’re not only cutting down on your contribution to the landfills, but you’re also contributing to the health of your plants.

De Rothschild outlines a five-step process for "doing the worm" at home:

1) Make a worm bin. You can use an 8- to 12-inch deep wood or plastic box, preferably with a hinged lid and definitely with drainage holes in the bottom. As for the size, it depends on how much vegetable waste you create each week – for every pound, you need one-square-foot of surface area.

2) Add bedding. You can shred up newspaper or buy bedding made from coconut fiber.

3) Add worms. You may already have some in your backyard, but you’ll probably need a lot more than you can find on your own – one pound of worms for every square foot of surface area. Find them online or anywhere you can buy them locally.

4) Add garbage. From potato peelings to eggshells to coffee grounds, worms will eat it all – cooked or raw. (What you do NOT want to compost are meat, bones, fat or dairy products.) As for frequency of feeding, anywhere between once a day and once a week is fine. Just bury it in the bedding and the worms will take care of the rest.

5) Harvest your humus. You can take out your vermicast (also known as worm humus or worm manure) every three to six months and feed it too your vegetable garden or houseplants.

For more information about vermicomposting, go to CompostGuide.com.

Essential Skill #14: Green Your Home

"The average home in the U.S. creates twice the CO2 of a car over the course of a year," writes author David de Rothschild in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook. That's why Essential Skill #14 is so critical:

Green your home.

"A superefficient house can cut your bills -- and emissions -- by 66%," de Rothschild adds, and here are the areas in which he suggests we have the most potential for savings:

• Thermostat - Save 4% on bills and emissions for every 2 degrees that you lower your thermostat in the winter months
• Windows - Save 20-30% on energy use with doubled-paned windows that have "low-e" coating and weather-proof seals
• Insulation - Resist heat flow with insulation that has high "R-value" options, like blown-in cellulose, recycled denim or foams like Icynene
• Yard - Save 10-15% on heating and cooling with trees strategically planted to shade your home from the hot sun and to protect it from cold winds
• Appliances - Buy electronics, refrigerators, washers and air-conditioners with the Energy Star label
• Water heater - Save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year with a blanket insulation kit for your water heater
• Bathroom - Install a composting toilet
• Floors - Replace carpet with eco-friendly flooring, like natural linoleum, cork or bamboo
• Laundry - Air-dry your clothes just six months out of the year and you'll cut your carbon emissions by 700 pounds

For more information about greening your home, check out the U.S. Green Building Council.

7 Ways To Make a Difference

This is Blog Action Day, and we're among more than 16,000 bloggers committed to posting about the environment within the same 24-hour period, with a total estimated reach of 12 million readers!

Though we spend every week here in this blog focused on the greening of our lives through The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, not often enough do we review the 7-point pledge that inspired this project -- the pledge introduced to us by Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore during the Live Earth Concerts on 7-7-07.

So on a day when millions of us are writing and reading about the environment, let's review the Live Earth Pledge of creating a sustainable world:

I pledge ...

1) To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth

2) To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral"

3) To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2

4) To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation

5) To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal

6) To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests

7) To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

Essential Skill #13: Get Hitched

Every day is a special day when you make a green decision, but even more so when you choose the fun and easy eco-options for the biggest day of your life. It's Essential Skill #13 in The Live Earth Global Warming Handbook:

Get Hitched.

"If one million couples halved the CO2 cost of their weddings," writes author David de Rothschild, "we'd eliminate 7.25 million tons of the stuff."

To green your wedding, de Rothschild suggests you:

• Have your wedding in the location that's closest to most of your guests
• Choose vintage wedding rings or recycled gold weddings rings
• Ask guests to RSVP by email or phone instead of reply cards in the mail
• Get your flowers from a local grower
• Have guests throw wildflower seeds instead of rice

We have a few suggestions of our own:

• Email your wedding invitations
• Wear eco-friendly wedding attire
• Register with eco-friendly stores
• Serve organic food from local farms
• Give your wedding party and guests eco-friendly gifts and favors

For links to a long list of eco-friendly wedding suppliers, go to EthicalWeddings.com.

Essential Skill #12: Throw a Party

"Sometimes the best way to raise consciousness is by raising a glass," writes author David de Rothschild in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook. "And what deserves a toast more than our venerable old planet?"

Essential Skill #12: Throw a Party!

Among the three "parties" de Rothschild suggests are two that you may have attended in recent weeks -- Clean Up the World Day during the third weekend of September and World Carfree Day on September 22. The other is Earth Day on April 22. It started in 1970 as "the birth of environmentalism in America," and is now celebrated by hundreds of millions of people all over the world.

You don't have to wait until Earth Day, though, to throw your next party for the earth.

For instance, this November 3rd Americans will be "partying" all over the country for "Step It Up 2: Who's a Leader?" The goal -- to demand real leadership on global warming. You can Start an Action of your own or Join an Action that's already organized in your community.

Just be sure to Invite Your Leaders to attend.

"On November 3 we'll find out who the real leaders are," say Step It Up organizers. "You're showing your leadership by organizing and joining actions in your community. Let's flood politicians with invitations to come to Step It Up actions and be leaders on global warming."

As of this writing, Step It Up participants have sent 2,610 invitations to 522 members of Congress and all 17 presidential candidates. So far, only 5 have said yes, none of whom are running for president. The more invitations they get, the more pressure they'll feel to attend, so Invite Your Leaders to Step It Up today.

To learn more about "Step It Up 2: Who's a Leader?" visit StepItUp2007.org.