Mother Nature Network recently ran a story on the 10 Greenest Cities in America. Some of the top ten cities may surprise you and some of what is happening across the country may as well.
I was surprised that Oakland, California has the nation’s cleanest tap water and also hydrogen powered buses. Chicago has over 2.5 million square feet of rooftop gardens of some sort and has recently planted over half a million trees throughout the city.
This is all good news. More and more people are recognizing that the future of our cities depend upon a greener today. As recycling and other programs become mainstream momentum builds for even more sustainable opportunities. Greener habits are becoming a new lifestyle. In fact much of this “greening” is nothing new but rather how people lived half a century ago when resources, and what they provide, were appreciated more. Growing some of your own food or knowing who grows it used to be commonplace. We have given away so much of our power and trusted that the companies that provide our food, body care products and cleaning products (and also medicines) would not be allowed to sell us products that could make us sick. This unfortunately is not always the case so we must recapture our power and pay more attention to what is going into our bodies, in our homes and businesses.
We all have a role to play and the more that each of us incorporate new habits the greener our cities will become and the healthier we all will be, as well as our planet.
