50 simple things kids can do...

As many of you know, my minor at Baylor was Environmental Studies. My first semester at Baylor I took the intro class and fell in love. Later, I realized that I was actually falling in love for the second time in my life. I could now remember my environmental efforts as an elementary school student that included going door to door to collect change for "pennies for the planet" and me begging my parents to cut the six pack rings!

I have recently blamed Nickelodeon for this strange interest(and maybe my family of Democrats, but they take no credit). You may remember the "Big Help." each year I would call in and pledge to Ren or Stimpy how many hours I would spend helping the planet that summer. From here I started my own "recycling club" with my friends. Needless to say, that didn't work out. How come no other 4th grader cared that that glass container that his applesauce was in will never decompose?

So this past weekend I went to Abilene to stay with my parents for a few days. They have been remodeling and cleaning so I had a box waiting for me of stuff my mom couldn't toss out. And in that box I found the true culprit for my love of the Earth:

Over the last week Britt and I have both read through this. It was published in 1990 ( i was 6) and it blew us away. The content of this book is the same of articles being published today in shiny magazines about "Going Green."

At first I was surprised about this and now I am disheartened. Why did it take 20 years to make the things in this book "hip"?