Earth Day 2009: Going a little green can win you a new True Fit helmet and save you a little green!

an American Mom in Paris on April 21st, 2009 at 9:18 pm

I have two small children ages 4 years and 21 months. I am on an extended 3 month trip to Paris with my family. While Paris is a beautiful city rich with history, elegance and glamor, it is also a city that is filled with pollution, graffiti and trash. I am always amazed to see the defacing of statues and monuments that quite possibly are older than my entire country. I believe the city takes pride in their sanitation system. The city has multiple trash receptacles on pretty much every block, and the sanitation workers are constantly patrolling these receptacles and changing the bags. I have seen street sweepers daily, and the trash cans in buildings are collected daily. There is even a city sewers tour (that I have yet to go on) that shows how superior the Parisians are at removing waste. With all of the time spent removing trash you would think the city would be much cleaner… On the contrary, there is trash everywhere! On earth day, I plan to read to my children the story the Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Then I plan to take them to the Champs de Mars park that is located right by the Eiffel Tower. My family has spent countless hours mesmerized by the grandness, engineering and beauty of this incredible monument! We have also enjoyed the simplistic pleasures of running in the lawn, playing in the playgrounds, and riding on the fabulous carousels (among other kid friendly rides). I plan to have my children help me pick up trash and take this teachable moment to open up a dialogue with my children about how important it is to take care of the places we love. Paris has a fabulous transportation system. The Metro and the city buses are accessible all over the city, there are also bikes that you can rent by the hour 24 hours a day EVERYWHERE (all you need is a credit card, it is self serve and you return the bike to any bike stand). One would think that with such a popular, efficient and economical travel system in place traffic would not be a problem… On the contrary the streets are jam packed! And the exhaust fumes coupled with cigarette smoke can be stifling. On Earth Day my family and I plan on trying to reduce our carbon footprint by walking or taking public transportation when necessary. We also plan on using our own cloth bags when we go to the market instead of taking plastic bags. While we do those things in our everyday life, we have not really discussed why it is important to our children. By continuing the dialogue about taking care of the places we care about and applying it to everyday life, I hope it will be a big ah ha moment in my 4 year old’s eyes and she will see how big gestures like picking up other people’s trash and smaller ones like carrying your own reusable sack and walking instead of driving in a car has a huge impact. And she will become a role model to her 21 month old brother. As a family I hope we can reduce, reuse, recycle and try to do these small things in our everyday life and not just on Earth Day.