"Earth Day [April 22nd] is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment." — From Wikipedia

Our generation is causing a much more negative impact on the earth (and atmosphere) than all previous generations, and the harm we cause will be dramatic if we don't all start doing our part.

The idea of changing habits can seem like a daunting task. You don't have to read books or become an expert on environmentalism or "green" living (such an overused term) to be able to start making a small difference now. Those small differences can add up and make an impact over time.

It is more expensive to eat/use organic products instead of conventional and heavily processed ones, but the overall costs to our health and the environment to manufacture conventional products are much more expensive in the long run. If we all do what we can and gradually make changes, it can lead to big benefits overall for our health and the environment.

The Mindful Use of Essential Oils

As avid supporters of holistic aromatherapy and the sensible use of essential oils, we can make a big difference by being mindful of the quantity of essential oils that we use.

For essential oil usage, less is more. (See AromaWeb's Essential Oil Safety Article).

It takes a lot of botanical plant material to make just a small quantity of essential oil. (See AromaWeb's Essential Oil Yields article.) Using essential oils sensibly instead of using synthetic substitutes can be especially beneficial for our health as well as the overall impact on the earth and atmosphere. But because it takes a lot of plant material to manufacture essential oils, overusing essential oils is especially wasteful of plant life.

Using undiluted essential oils topically can be sensitizing and harmful to our bodies over time and wastes our precious natural resources. For more information, read AromaWeb's Guide to Diluting Essential Oils.

For more ideas on how to be mindful when using essential oils and to better understand the oils that are most threatened, please read the following articles:

• Guide to Essential Oils and Sustainability
• How to Use Up Those Aging Essential Oils
• Essential Oil Disposal
• Essential Oil Yields
• Essential Oil Costs and Pricing

Learn More About Earth Day

Learn more about Earth Day by checking out the below links:

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

Earth Day Network
http://www.earthday.org

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