Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)

Welcome to Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW)! If this is your first visit, please click HERE for information and a complete list of all the challenges we've taken on so far.

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There's a lot of great information in this post and I encourage you to read through it ... however, if you don't have the time right now, you might find the following quick links helpful:

• The #CTWW Gang
• The Honor Society
• My Final Thoughts on Our Last Challenge
• This Week's Challenge

Before we get started, I have news to share with you! One of our very own, Kris from Outwardly Pleasant, has given birth to a beautiful little girl. Congratulations, Kris!! You can see pictures of baby girl and add your wishes HERE.

Last week we watched an exciting video on Transition Culture and then considered how we could build community by sharing green ideas with our neighbors. It helped me to realize that small interactions with the people around us can have a huge impact. For my part, the interaction happens because of my vegetable garden. My neighbors walk by and often stop to look at what we're growing. That gives me an opening to talk about container gardening. This year, more neighbors than ever before are growing things on their patios and we talk about what works and what doesn't. It's a small thing but ... as the video showed us ... it could lead to more.

The Honor Society are those people who help us spread the "green" word by writing an article about our challenges and/or leaving pertinent comments. Here's what they had to say:

In this POST Argentum Vulgaris talks about why building community is important and why being an "ex-pat living in Brazil" makes taking action difficult. Be sure to read the comments for an interesting discussion between AV and a reader who disagrees with AV's position.

Cat (aka @rulesofgreen) usually shares our challenges and her thoughts about them on Twitter ... but this week she wrote a post on her blog. In Transition Culture she talks about Collaborative Consumption and introduces us to a terrific site for sharing ... it's called Uniiverse and one will find pages on sharing gardens, services, etc. Thanks, Cat!

The title of Mrs. Green's post says it all ... How baking a cake can change the world. Wonderful article!

If you've followed Ann's blog, then you know that she's very involved in her community. By respecting both her native culture and that of her adopted home, she creates bonds which have allowed her to spread environmental messages. In Happy Gawai to Sarawak, Save the world Ann shares her thoughts on the subject.

The Accessory Lady accepted the challenge. She says "Thank you for sharing this video, I in turn shared it with a few friends an family members and asked them to pass it along. As far as community and local economy my current contribution is shopping at a food cooperative which has a very strong commitment to providing local food and products as well as running a large recycling program (recycling items that are not processed by the trash pickup), running an energy efficient location and community support and events. I think there's always more to be done so in the next couple of months I will explore and participate in more of the volunteer and community events available. Also I've found that sometimes just talking to people about the changes you've made in your daily lives is quite infectious (as he said in the video) and helps others become more comfortable in making those changes too."

Alicia had this to say about the challenge: "Thanks so much for sharing this video! I think it is so important to think about our local communities. I try my best to shop and buy locally. There is one store that their sign out front says 70% local 100% American made. I think it is important to take the time to find the stores in your area that offer locally made and grown products. I so agree that a lot of times just talking with enthusiasm about changes you have made really is infectious!"

CelloMom has already been out meeting neighbors and encouraging action. She shares this: "Talk about timing! Just before your post, I was walking around the neighbourhood distributing mosquito dunks spiked with Bt that kills mosquito larvae. The week before that, I had walked door to door to convince the neighbours that putting these dunks in our roof gutters and other places with standing water, was a better idea than having the county come and spray malathion and other crud around our yards. I've been impressed with the response. Of course, we've all been plagued by the pesky moskies. And I got to talk with a few neighbours that I had never met before, just as promised in the TEDx talk! What reminded me to comment was this article forwarded by ?@MCS_America: "Anne Mazar: Mosquito prevention doesn’t come out of a spray can http://fb.me/1gqreZkfR".

In Affecting Change in My Community [#CTWW] Katie shares her favorite way to encourage local economy and the environment. Can you guess what it is?

Our Twitter friends shared their thoughts this week:

From @givetreegifts
- @AnglianHome asked people for their #climateopinion & created an Opiniongraphic about climate change: bit.ly/KI9zwu
- Unleash the potential of your local economy & change the story of your community
- Buy Local, Eat Local – Invest Local bit.ly/LFUBU6
- Buy local as much as you can bit.ly/MWkHYx
- Buy Local, Eat Slow bit.ly/KsAZ7g

From @earthyurban
- It's Wednesday! Change the World Wednesday #CTWW do something today BIG or small that makes the slightest difference.

From @nonmom
- My #CTWW for this wk is that despite the brutal heat & humidity we had, I did not put on the AC. Saved power & used fans & the house was ok.
- I have really good blinds and drapes, they make a huge difference. A huge help. :)

From @themac533
- the video illustrated our general lack of community these days and what a great way to get it back. :)

The #CTWW Gang are those folks who share our challenges on twitter using the hashtag #CTWW. If you're a Twitter member, I highly recommend following them ... they have a lot of great things to say. Let's meet them:

@anglianhome @accessorygal @rckweddings @wandabrendlemos @bikerbabe1969 @caradafforn @greentim @givetreegifts @njtrees @ggirlggreen @groovygreenlivi @indyfoodswap @laurap26 @haroldlshaw

@laalicia @noteasy2begreen @gwened02 @rtb808 @kelly_bakes @whopaysthepiper @earthyurban @freshgreenkim @victoriabeergal @cellomomoncars @nonmom @waxelene @theriverwanders

@rulesofgreen @mianola5 @smallbits @ecowarriorme @thenewauthor @littlegreenblog @digamama @greenglobaltrvl @frugallysustain @themac533 @almosttruth @skipbang @allnaturalkatie

My Final Thoughts:

What if changing the world, protecting the environment and ultimately saving ourselves all boiled down to community ... to knowing our neighbors and supporting each other? It sounds simplistic but there is great power in cooperation. It might begin with a friendly chat over the fence ... it might end with a sustainable, Eco-friendly way of life. Just imagine!

Thanks, everyone! If you wrote an article, I have Stumbled, Tweeted, Facebooked and posted it on Google +. You can help spread the "green" word by using the share feature at the bottom of this post.

This Week's Challenge:

This week's challenge comes from Mrs. Green who is running it on My Zero Waste. She thought it would be a great activity for us and I totally agree! So ... we're collaborating ... call it a "Challenge in Stereo". Here you go ...

This week, join Mrs. Green's Use It Up challenge by going through your cupboards, freezer, refrigerator, etc. and using what you find rather than buying anything new. The idea, here, is to use what you have on hand, hopefully before it's gone "bad", and eliminate waste. Of course ... we want to hear all about your efforts.

Or ...

If you've already tackled this task and there's no food lurking in the dark corners of your kitchen, we'd like to know how you did it ... and more importantly, we'd like to know about any strategies you have for keeping everything in order.

If you have a challenge idea, please send it to me HERE. I keep all ideas and will get to each and every one.

Until next time ...

WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!