Care for Our Common Home
How to Care for Our Common Home At Home
By Nick McCreary, Director of Sustainability
Happy Earth Day! Today is an important day to both recognize our success and shortcomings. Thank you to everyone who has actively cared for our common home this year. However, let us not forget that there is much work to be done. Generations of humans, other animals and plants are counting on us now more than ever. Let us all care for our common home today, so that future generations can enjoy this beautiful world that we have been blessed with. For Earth Day 2020, Sustainable Creighton is bringing you images of the Creighton community caring for our common home while at home.
If you are able, take a walk every day. Celebrate the beauty of the Earth by incorporating a nature scavenger hunt in to your daily walk. Becky Crowell from Sustainable Creighton submitted these photos of spring’s beauty.
Pick up some litter while you walk! There is no better time than now to beautify our home. Using precaution, grab a few pieces of litter every time you take a lap around the block. If we all do our part now, we can emerge to a more beautiful world.
Susie Riva-Mossman, PhD, adjunct professor of Medical Anthropology, lives in the Swiss Alps. She picked and dried coltsfoot flowers to make an herbal tea, which can help with coughing. She noted these medicinal flowers appear in the springtime around St. Joseph’s Feast Day. What’s blooming in your area?
Patrick Swanson, PhD, professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, has been working for the last 12 years removing eastern red cedars from a prairie remnant in the Loess Hills of western Iowa to support native wildflowers such as the eastern pasque flower (pulsatilla patens) and other prairie-adapted species.
Lucy Hancock, coordinator, International Student Scholar Services, shares an image from her hike at Hitchcock Nature Center. Hitchcock Nature Center is just a 20-minute drive north of campus. The Nature Center offers visitors an opportunity to example a unique geologic landform, the Loess Hills.
Nick McCreary, director of Sustainable Creighton, shows off homemade vegetable broth made from kitchen scraps. You never have to buy vegetable broth again if you save your vegetable scraps and make your own. Beware, dogs love it!
Joi Katskee, program manager, Computer Science, Design and Journalism, created a fabulous kimono out of an embroidered maxi skirt and dress. Repurposing fabric is a great sustainable activity. Joi, thanks for sharing your creativity and caring for our common home. Do you have something around your house to upcycle?
Fingers crossed that we’ve seen the last of winter weather. Now is the time to plant cold-tolerant seeds such as radishes and lettuce. They can handle some cold weather and are relatively fast growers. Wait until mid-May when the threat of frost has passed to plant your tomatoes and peppers.
