Eco Friendly Things to do When you're Bored!👍

We are all going to get bored some time in the week, with a virus going round or not. If we were allowed outside multiple times in a day right now, the first thing I would say would be: go outside. Go to the park, to a national park even. When you're outside you will probably find something to do, and if not, get out a bin bag and some gloves(if you are for some reason carrying them around) and do some litter picking!

Yes, I understand we can't do that much now (and that most people wouldn't be bringing a bin bag and garden gloves wherever they went) so there are some other things you can do right now. 

1. Exercise! If you haven't heard of him (which I expect most people have) you can do P.E. with Joe [Wickes]. This is just a sort of workout every weekday that Joe Wickes streams at 9:00 am onto YouTube that keeps you fit and healthy. If for any reason you cannot get onto YouTube or something, there is other types of exercise you can do. For example, you can use skipping ropes. My mum is trying to buy some but they won't come for another month. You could also go out for a daily run🏃‍♀️ (however, that would count as your exercise outside for a day here in England). And you can just do anything that will get your heart rate up.
2. Of course, you can't just do exercise for every hour, every second of the day, so you need other stuff to do. For example, art. I know this is not some people's favourite thing, you might even detest it, and some people find it hard. However don't you think this is the perfect time to get better? No, I'm not forcing you to do it , that would be bad😂. Just for all the people who like art, that's what you can do! And you don't have to have fancy paints and pencils -because if you don't have anything like that you'd have to buy some and they usually come wrapped in plastic which is bad for the environment- you can just doodle!
3. Bake (or cook)! I have lots of friends who love doing this and show pictures of cakes and meals they have made, and I quite like doing it too. But, if you don't have an ingredient I understand that you might not be able to buy it so you might have to put baking and cooking on hold.
4. Play games! I'm sure we all have some sort of board game around the house- personally, I have many. And playing board games with your family uses less electricity than playing on a play station or whatever, and right now we also should be saving electricity.
5. And last of all, read. As I said last week, you can use Borrow Box to find new books to read.

Anyway, thank you for reading this post and I hope everyone has something to do now. I also hope everyone is feeling well!

Violet

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Borrowbox! 📲

We all know that there is a huge virus going round, causing people to go into self isolation. Being a child, I'm going to be set loads of lessons to do everyday, as are other kids. But, I can't be doing lessons all day, so what can I do?

Remember that tip I wrote, about being an eco friendly bookworm? (Click here if you want to read over it again.) Well, I wrote about buying books at charity shops, or libraries. Libraries are very good for the environment; but not so good when there is a virus going round for you could easily share germs while sharing books. And we're just not allowed into libraries right now.

That's very sad for me, so when my mum got this app called Borrowbox, I got excited. (By the way, this isn't a sponsorship😅) Basically, Borrowbox is an online library. You're probably wondering how you can borrow books online. Easy! They aren't actually real books, what you borrow are e-books/audio books. So, on the app, it tells you: what books you're borrowing, what books you are reserving, what books are being borrowed right now and when they are free for you to borrow them, different ages like adult, young adult and children, and you can even add books to your reading list.

Now, Borrowbox isn't new. The only thing they have changed is that you can go on the online library without a library card. Usually, you'd have to have a library card to sign in, but - because of the virus - you can't go into the library to get a card if you don't have one.

Borrowbox is free, and means if you read all the books on your bookshelf, you don't have to re-read, you can just find one on the online library😁. It is efficient and eco friendly which is all I need, and I love it! I hope you will get the app, I really like it. Anyway, see you next week!

Violet
         xxx

Public Transport!🚌

"The greenhouse effect is a warming of Earth’s surface and the air above it. It is caused by gases in the air that trap energy from the Sun. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases. The most common greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be too cold for life to exist."

When I was small, I never understood why public transport was better for the environment than cars. I guess I thought that since it was bigger and there were loads of people on it, it would let out more fumes. But now I know.

So. Public Transport. Buses, trains, trams, cable cars, tubes, etc. You probably know this, but the reason why public transport is better for the environment is because they move more people with fewer vehicles, meaning they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    "Land, oceans, and plants absorb, or soak up, energy from sunlight. They release some of this energy as heat. Greenhouse gases absorb the heat and then send it back toward Earth. Without greenhouse gases, this heat would escape back into space.

Scientists believe that human activities are increasing the greenhouse effect. When people drive a car or operate a factory they burn coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. This adds extra greenhouse gases to the air, and the extra gases trap more heat. Many scientists think that this has led to global warming, or a steady rise in the average temperature of Earth’s surface."

I got most of that from Britannica Kids, just so you know this isn't from my brains.😂

Don't forget, you can also cycle to places since that is keeping you and the environment healthy. But also, if you live in an area with not much public transport, don't feel guilty since you have an excuse. Just try to do as many errands in one car journey as you can!

Thank you for reading this blog. Yes, most of it was made up of the definition but I hope you got the point of this tip🤩. See you next Sunday!

Violet             xxx

Don't judge a vegetable by its shape!🥕

You know that saying, 'don't judge a book by its cover'? It means you should only think about what something is like on the inside, not just looking on the outside and going, 'you don't look good'. Well, have you ever thought of that as fruit and vegetables? You see, some people will only buy the fruit and vegetables that look perfect.  For example they wouldn't buy a carrot that has a knobbly bit on it.

Think about it. Would you judge a book by its cover? Would you judge a person from their looks? If the answer is no to those questions (which it should be by the way) then you shouldn't judge a vegetable by its shape. Yes, it's a weird argument. But more than fifty million tons of fresh fruit and vegetables are being discarded across Europe every year for being ugly, says a report from scientists at the University of Edinburgh ("The beauty of ugly fruit"). And that's quite a lot.

You wouldn't usually see weirdly shaped vegetables and fruit when they're in packaging, which leads me onto this. You really should buy loose fruit and veg! Well done if you are. You can easily get re-usable, small, mesh bags to put things like: oranges, apples, carrots, potatoes, onions, etc. Have you seen those pictures of individually-wrapped potatoes? That sounds so weird and bad right? Well what about the things you see all the time that are individually wrapped? Like cucumbers? That doesn't look so weird. If your local supermarket wraps fruit and veg individually (some do), try sending them an email to convince them to stop. Of course, it might not work but it'd be good to try.

Thanks for reading my post for this week, I was looking forward to write about this. I hope you liked it and see you next week.

Violet
         xxx

Being a Child Climate Activist! ✔

This blog isn't a 'life story' on how I became a climate activist because then it would be called 'How I became a Climate Activist - My Life Story.' Which it isn't🤷‍♀️.

No, it's going to be about how there are millions of climate activists in the world, most are children. So, the children go on climate strikes in the middle of a school day, you probably know about that, going around blaming their parents and the government and all adults on how they've ruined children's childhoods. And I'm not going against that, but young climate activists have to think about their individual impact.

Are they being hypocrites?🤔 Think about it. There are new toys, phones, clothes, games coming out, probably everyday, and if they're one of those people that just buy things as soon as they come out, it's not very good for the environment.

I have a phone. It's not an iPhone, it's not the latest one and I don't have a decorative phone case for it, just a plain greyish, transparent one. And do I care? No! A phone is a phone. In the end, they all basically do their job and that's all you really need. Phones have harmful metals inside of them to make the battery and the wires and things, so before you go and throw out or buy a new phone (just because 'it's the latest thing' or 'it's better') think; do I really need a phone when I have a perfectly good one here? (Of course phones will break sometimes and that's when you'd need to a new one).

Phones are just one of the things though. As I said, there are clothes, games, etc coming out, getting people to buy things they might already have.

All I'm saying is 'Waste not, want not', if you are grateful for what you have, you're probably being better for the environment (although I'm not saying everyone buys everything new, or has everything they want).

Thank you for reading this post - it's not exactly a tip - I hope you understand it. See you next Sunday!

Violet
         xxx