Something you may not know about me is that I’m a bit of an environmentalist. On my recent nine day writing road trip I carried bags of plastic bottles and aluminum cans home with me because Northern Michigan only recycles Michigan made plastic through the depository system, and the cabin I was at in Northern Minnesota didn’t have a recycling pick up in it’s rural community. This might sound absurd, but just like the man in the famous starfish story, I believe every little bit counts and helps keep our planet habitable longer.

I’ve written about the environment in the past. You can check out 4 small changes I made last summer as I endeavored to do my part for the planet in this blog post, and read about the interesting relationship I, as an author, have with trees and paper consumption in this post.

Lately the news about climate change and the rate of our eventual destruction has been alarming to say the least. Glaciers melting at an unprecedented rate. The US’s exit from the Paris Agreement. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the way it dominates environmentalists’ time and resources.

But, amidst all this doom and gloom, there have been a few pieces of good news. Recently, a plastic eating bacterium has been discovered. Scientists are making plans to use this bacterium in oceans to eat away at the massive water pollution problem. Want to hear something crazy? I wrote a YA science fiction novel about this EXACT CONCEPT in 2014. Want to hear something EVEN CRAZIER? My “pollution eating solution” was called PE328; the real one is called PETase.

Last week, I saw (and am now clinging to) another bit of good news.

I shared the above image on my Facebook page and it sparked this conversation.

Here is a link to the article Sandy mentioned.

For those non-writers in the crowd, Anne Lamott is a famous writer who wrote a book called, Bird by Bird in which she teaches others the art of writing. (Side note, If you are the binocular bearing type and want to learn about actual birds, slide on over here for a different kind of blog post.)

Here’s a quick excerpt that explains how the book got it’s title and also one way to approach writing.

All of these pieces and thoughts and conversations sparked an idea. Why not? Why couldn’t authors save the world? Why not readers for that matter was well? In this post I am challenging you to plant a tree. More if you are inspired and able!

Maybe, we can make a difference, tree by tree.

Like Dr. Suess said,

I care. I care a lot. And I’m going to do something about it.

Want to join me?

** If you liked what you read on my blog today (or are in search of weekly word nerd goodness) and would like to have it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning, you can sign up HERE. As always, feel free to share this post with others you think might be interested via email, Facebook or Pinterest. **