“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”— Robert Swan
A couple of months ago, Dragonfly Nature Programs went plastic neutral. While we have always purposely designed lessons that minimize waste, waste is very hard to avoid. And so much of it, we just don’t have control over. I may be purchasing reusable, durable and non-plastic materials for a lesson but often, these products are still packaged in plastic. In both my personal and professional lives, there seems to be a limit in how green I can be when the economic systems in place aren’t driven by sustainability.
4Ocean is a Public Benefit Corporation that caught my attention years ago. Santa has more than once dropped one of their bracelets into our stockings in the Woods’ household. The company began when two surfers decided to act on the habitat degradation they were witnessing: the gross and negligent contamination of plastic in our oceans. They have a fleet of vessels and equipment; they offer full-time employment and pay living wages to clean up and process plastic waste from the ocean, additionally employing women in marginalized communities to make the bracelets they sell from the plastic they recover out of the ocean. The sale of the bracelets funds their mission: “to protect and preserve our oceans.” Our monthly offset subscription funds their good work.
Each American generates nearly 5 pounds of trash, every single day
Can you think of one disposable item you can replace? Start there and see how easy it is to practice sustainable waste reduction.
The Great Raleigh Cleanup is another organization we support. Preston Ross III is the founder and executive director and our paths crossed at an Arbor Day event in 2023. The group envisions a litter-free Raleigh and they rely on volunteers to steward their mission. Their work has expanded quickly and now they pay a living wage to unhoused residents for roadside clean-ups. Between their newly established workforce and their volunteer coalition, they’ve removed over 122,000 pounds of litter from city streets. Dragonfly Nature Programs is proud to be a Gold Level sponsor of their Earth Day event, April 21st in Moore Square Raleigh.
Our program this month, Ours to Protect, is meant to empower even the littlest among us to think of our planet as not a disposable commodity but as an invaluable, unique and worthy recipient of our care and protection. Our two-year-olds will meet the worms that break food waste down into compost. Our preschoolers and elementary students will learn about electricity generation. We are, with all age groups, encouraging a less is more mindset as a strategy for caring for the planet we not only share with billions of people but with all of the precious life on Earth. Lastly, we are inviting all of our students and school communities to participate in Earth Hour this year, March 23, 8:30 pm, local time. Globally, lights are turned out for one whole hour as a symbolic gesture, “uniting the globe for our one shared home.” This movement is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund and last year over 190 countries and territories joined in.
We encourage you all to take any little step you can, to live a bit more sustainably. Support the good work of others, educate yourself and those around you, make it personal, and do not forget whether its pulling 1 pound of plastic out the ocean, retrieving and recycling 1 pound of metal from a city street or participating in one inspiring gesture with your family, it’s all important because Earth is ours to protect.