The San Diego Filipino

It was wonderful to see all the people celebrate Earth Day at Balboa Park. I remember when the festival was just beginning. My daughter, way back, started the Ecology Club at her high school  – that was in 1990 and we would all go to Earth Day as a family.

Right now we are trying to meet the 20 gallons of water a day challenge, installed solar lights outside,  and I am working on getting a solar cooker. We’ve cut down to about thirty-five loads of wash a year by investing in lots of clothing so that we do our wash at the end of every month.

I am so conscious of water use that I get very disturbed when I see the faucet  continue to run after someone washes his or her hand, grabs a paper towel, dries the hands and then uses this towel to turn off the faucet. That is plenty of water wasted. I do understand the intent behind this action of letting the water flow but under our desert-like conditions I think we’d better conserve. There is an another wasteful practice that I notice — and that is in the kitchen during the last stages of clean-up. I have seen the faucet running while the sink and the counters are being cleaned.

Let us be good to the earth so that the earth will be good to us.