GettingOutside is essentially Green! Outdoor activities encourage and beckon support for greener lifestyles and outdoor-activism. Doing something outside instead of playing a video game or watching TV is a type of green activism! Just think about the inputs.

It uses way less energy to throw around a football in a field than it does to power a video game console, TV and home entertainment system peripherals; not to mention having the lights on, unless you favor playing video games in the dark! And consider the average home's heating or cooling system; they are rarely idle, which means they are constantly putting a drain on both our resources and environment. Estimates are that buildings and factories use up about 40 percent of all energy consumed globally!  But that's inside. Let's begin to think outside the box... 

Fortunately, people already have! Some buildings are what is called "net-zero," which means that they don’t give off any carbon dioxide or pollutants; particularly effective, well-designed green buildings could even be considered "clean air factories" for they polish and restore air quality – with green roofs and other plants – instead of doing the opposite. In a net zero building, the number of air-scrubbing plants is always significant, and there are usually no heating or cooling systems to be found (unless by natural production or extremely efficient units), nor gas-cooking appliances or other high-current electronics (such as dryers); nothing that can't be powered by energy that the house or building begs and borrows from the earth itself.

Energy is actually manufactured via solar, geothermal and/or wind energy in some net zero buildings. Indeed, maintaining such a household could actually be good for the earth. Unfortunately, most of our living spaces and commercial building are far from green. However, you’ll find that it’s an entirely different story outside! Being outside should always green; and we intend to keep it that way.

No matter what it is you want to do outside, you will always need fresh air, clean water and open spaces to make it possible. For us to continue to enjoy ourselves outside, we will need to begin to conserve what we still have…

Imagine our world many years from now if we don't do anything to stop what has already begun (ozone depletion; exponentially rising GHG levels; land devastated, war-torn; oceans trashed with debris and oil; droughts and heat waves in some places, floods and tornados in others): We'd all have to wear SPF 200 sunscreen or zinc shields if the ozone layer ever completely disappears...

Imagine what the average air quality will be like 100 years of continued fossil fuel dependence later? The temperature? The sea-level? The endangered species list... Will WE ever be on it?

Simply put, humans need access to nature... if we are deprived, we do not thrive! We always will be this way. Indeed, nature is a part of who we are! As our original and lasting provider, almost care-taker, we must take care of nature in return! A large part of taking care of ourselves (longterm stability) has to revolve around taking care of the earth - or else we wouldn't have a home!

The environmental movement is a people movement.

__ and

_now we must ask

Where are people moving?  

.. As you can see - thanks to this image, courtesy of BBC - they're clearly all moving

___Outdoors - for Activity and  Study - by the side of the natural world!

_______And we think that's great!

By combining Outdoor Activity, Green Living, Environmental Protection and the Study of Ecology (which occurs Outside), together we can all help the world along to a more healthy future; and being outside encourages us to respect nature and the environment!  

Nature is worth protecting!

Life is worth protecting!

Both species and habitats should be protected forever not only for their beauty, but also for the intrinsic value these hold (as our only source of a few important resources)!  Note: The images shown above are courtesy of the National Parks Service. 

 This is exactly why we are a part of the environmental  movement  and  we support all green outdoor activities in every humanly possible way we can!

Here are ways that Getting Outside (.com) contributes to the solution:

• Conserve - by operating an Environmentally Friendly Server (Pair Networks has been carbon neutral since 2007)
• Recycle  - we aim to recycle everything we can, even when it's challenging (like bringing all our plastic bags to a drop-off center, and the same goes for collecting all of our spent batteries and even food stuff, bio-trash!)
  
• Reduce  - our use of natural resources (we practice conservation ethics like it's 1952!)
• Re-use - find alternate and second-life purposes for things whenever possible (refilling a plastic water bottle more than once; or washing out a food container and re-using it as tupperware to store leftovers; and this is just the beginning...)

Now is the best time to protect the earth's ecosystems and aim to provide future generations with more!

 Keep reading...   Click Here!