Green Diary

of virtuous actions for Mother Earth

• symbolic action: keeping a personal green diary, October–December 2008, Milan–Rome–Potenza

• publication of the article Green Diary of virtuous actions for Mother Earth in the monthly Il Lucano magazine, December 2008

• environmental awareness action and writing of Green Diaries in schools: S. Maria primary school and Leopardi middle school, March–June, Potenza

Protecting the environment is no longer a subject for a few eccentrics, since the consequences of our reckless way of life are before everyone’s eyes – and under everyone’s nose: just think of the very serious example of waste….

We must face not only the urgency of an ecological conscience, but the need and the urgency of activating it in everyday life.

It is up to us to take the initiative: without waiting for “instructions” from outside, by personally carrying out “virtuous actions” – a wide range of alternative behaviours that cost neither time nor money, and in fact help us save. Once they become habits, they can produce a significant reversal of the trend… in the face of serious environmental problems.

Sharing “virtuous actions”

Our daily Virtuous Action can, if we wish, become an example, as we share it with friends, schoolmates or colleagues, neighbours, fellow citizens….

Get a notebook – or make one yourself, perhaps with recycled or, better still, handmade paper – ideally with green pages… and in it, every day, write at least one “virtuous action” you have done. A diary, indeed, as green as we would like the earth to become again.

Tiny, very simple gestures which, multiplied by a hundred, a thousand, millions – or billions, as many as the inhabitants of the globe – carry incredible weight in favour of eco-sustainability.

Besides serious separate waste collection, we could avoid leaving taps running, water plants with the water used to rinse fruit and vegetables, switch off any unnecessary light and use energy-saving bulbs, wash dishes or laundry with plain soap instead of polluting detergent, take a few flights of stairs on foot instead of the lift, or leave the car at home for short trips – which is also good for our figure and our health…

We cannot even imagine how many good habits there are to acquire: using vinegar as a descaler instead of something corrosive, lowering the home heating by one or two degrees and wearing a sweater, not leaving any appliance on stand-by – TV, computer, radio, lamps – knowing that they still consume energy, increasing, together with carbon dioxide, the dreaded greenhouse effect…

Little by little we will start to enjoy it: the task will turn into a game, a very serious one, and we will find ourselves looking for ever more complex virtuous actions, such as learning more about what we buy to eat, to dress, to paint walls, objects and furniture; thinking about good insulation or installing solar panels, up to calculating the impact of our way of life on the environment and offsetting it by planting a certain number of trees.

By seriously committing ourselves to using the Green Diary to write down our “virtuous action” every day, we will benefit not only the planet but ourselves: we will no longer feel useless and powerless, but able to do our best. Knowing that “virtuous actions” are also being carried out by others – fellow subscribers to the Green Diary – will give us more constancy and energy both in practice and in writing; it will calm our anxieties, fears and feelings of guilt, since we will be helping to heal Gaia, the mother earth who hosts us and makes us live.

There are many useful websites to visit: besides Legambiente and WWF, Lifegate, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Ecoriciclo, Climatecare, Sostenibile, Eartheasy and many others. These environmental organisations will offer countless new ideas for filling the Green Diary with our precious daily actions.

Teri Volini’s Green Diary