Earth Day Action: Drink Tea

By Dale Sorensen

Dale Sorensen is an Island musician who enjoys a good cup of tea to relax after a stressful day of performing or teaching.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard drinking “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”

Recently I learned that the Star Trek series on TV are not documentaries, but in fact fictional accounts of an imagined universe, and that we mortal humans have access to only one habitable planet. Gulp. As I try to come to terms with this realization, and face the fact that climate change is the biggest threat to our one home (and not the Cardassians), I ask myself what I can do to mitigate its effects and reverse this human-caused threat to our planet.

In 1970, others must have asked themselves a similar question, because on April 22^nd of that year the first Earth Day was launched. Every year on this date, Earth Day reminds us to stop and think about our collective home and what we can do to protect it. Earth Day is basically just like New Year’s Day, except instead of making resolutions based on personal goals, we take environmental action focused on survival. Hopefully some of our Earth Day resolutions will stick!

Now before you quit your job, build a hut in the woods and switch to the Pine Tree Diet, first try taking stock of your lifestyle habits, and ask yourself what you can do to modify your daily choices to have a positive effect on the environment. While you’re contemplating this, why not pour yourself a cup of organically grown or ethically produced tea (in a reusable cup, of course). As you sip one of the many delightful options available from Lady Baker’s Tea (see list below), you’ll realize that you’re already taking a step in the right direction. When you drink one of the teas certified by the Ethical Tea Partnership, not only are you improving working conditions and living standards for small-scale farmers and workers around the world, you’re also helping to promote environmentally sustainable farming practices! Wow, that was easy!

Here's a list of Lady Baker's environmentally responsible teas:

As you can see from this list, Lady Baker’s has an environmentally responsible tea for everyone’s tastes. Some of my favourites include:

• Chai Green, a wonderfully flavourful green tea blended with fresh Asian spices. This one is perfect after an Indian meal – my favourite!
• Organic Blooming Blueberry, a blend of black and rooibos teas with dried PEI blueberries. Its heavenly aroma would soften the heart of even the fiercest Klingon.
• Dapple Apple, a rich and creamy black tea flavoured with dried apples, butterscotch, calendula and sunflower petals. The Betazoids will sense your peace.
• Organic Sencha Cherry, a flavoured sencha green tea with PEI rose petals added – a delightful blend that defies even Vulcan logic.

 Dale Sorensen enjoying a cup of Lady Baker's Tea

It’s empowering to realize that there are many things we can do as individuals to battle climate change. And none of those actions are nearly so terrifying, dangerous or futile as trying to defend ourselves from an intellectually and technologically superior hostile alien race bent on Earth’s destruction. In fact, all the actions we need take are peaceful, healthy and satisfying – just like drinking tea!

Happy Earth Day!

How savvy are you about the environment? Take an Earth Day Quiz and find out!