Green Gestures around the Holidays

As many of us get ready to decorate our trees for the holidays, we wanted to share with you a little bit about a tree that ClimateMama is getting as a holiday PRESENT this year! Green Gestures, in conjunction with the Arbor Day Foundation will be planting a tree in an American forest, on our behalf, in 2014. In order for this tree to be planted, our job is to share information with you about Green Gestures; so listen up.

We love and share Green Gestures broad message that each of us CAN make a difference when it comes to lowering our carbon emissions AND that individual actions do add up. We all sometimes feel that “it’s hard to see the forest through the trees;” and with climate change, the problems seems so big that getting our arms around them and understanding that we each can make difference, often seems impossible.

Our mantra at ClimateMama and our belief is that individual actions do add up and do matter! Not only are our actions adding to the millions of other actions Climate Mamas and Papas like us are making around the world, but with each step we take we also become more emboldened to take more and more, including demanding that the companies we buy from and the politicians we support take their own actions too.

So, as you do your holiday shopping this year and prepare for your holiday celebrations and gatherings, do give some thought as to how you can make your family’s holidays more sustainable, and share what you are doing with friends and family.

Green Gestures is an initiative of the digital shopping portal Retale.com which helps bring awareness about the CO2 impacts of the internet and blogosphere. To counter some of these negative impacts, Green Gestures is planting trees. Why trees you may ask? Trees are what are known as “carbon sinks,” they absorb CO2 in the atmosphere including some of the CO2 emissions that we humans create; so this makes trees very important in our fight against climate change. As well, Green Gestures also helps people understand the impacts of paper waste. If you do use flyers and catalogues to help you decide what you are going to buy, consider “saving the paper” and using online services like Retale.com to find what you are looking for.

According to Green Gesture’s research, 100 million trees in America are cut down annually in order to produce the paper on which catalogs, weekly ads, and circulars are printed. This is because each adult in the US received approximately 41 pounds of junk mail each year!! The production of paper consumes high quantities of energy and water, and produces damaging carbon dioxide emissions. Check out some of these statistics:

As you do get ready for the holidays this year, do think about how you can make your holidays more sustainable. Is the wrapping paper you are using made from recycled paper, or better yet is it something that can be used again, like a scarf, or fabric, perhaps the Sunday comics? Can you opt out of some of the paper catalogs you get each season? And is your tree something that can be planted after you use it, or perhaps is it a tree you can use again next year? Talk to your kids and ask them for their ideas for making your holidays more sustainable.

Thanks Green Gestures and the Arbor Day Foundation for planting a tree on behalf of all of us at ClimateMama. What a great holiday present, we love it!

Yours,

ClimateMama