The rowing part of Earth Day

The next event is the BMW Eco Regatta to be held on 21 May in Bled. This regatta is a unique sporting event with 32 companies and 32 Eco-Schools participating. The Companies will raise money to donate to the Eco-Schools. The companies will create rowing teams of three employees and one professional rower. They will compete on Lake Bled over a 200m distance.

This event is part of a programme that will see 32 Slovenian Eco-Schools become involved in the 2011 World Rowing Championships and as part of this they will create and build a boat from environmentally friendly materials that will operate in an eco-friendly way.

In the United States a number of rowing clubs were involved in river clean-ups over the weekend. In Boston, Community Rowing Inc. took part in the Annual Earth Day Charles River Cleanup. The Charles River is one of the most popular and well-used rowing rivers in the world, including the venue for the famous Head of the Charles Regatta. More than 2,000 volunteers took part in the clean-up from a number of organisations. Across Boston the Mystic River had its own clean-up with the support of the Gentle Giant Rowing Club.

USRowing actively promoted Earth Day with a list of easy ways to help our environment. World Champion Esther Lofgren (2010 USA women’s eight) put together the list. Here are some of the useful tips:

• Run, bike and walk more – drive less. Try walking or biking for errands; if you live close by, run, bike or walk to work a few days each week. Bike or carpool to practices and carpool to races.
• Drink less bottled water and fewer bottled sports drinks. Drink tap water or use a water filter, and buy multi-serving powdered sports or recovery drinks.
• Carry water in a reusable aluminium, stainless steel or BPA-free plastic water bottle.
• Pick up litter on the water and near the boathouse. If you notice a discarded water bottle floating past your boat, litter on the walk back up from taking down oars or trash in the parking lot – pick it up and recycle or trash it.
• Encourage your team and boat club to help keep your training routes clean.
• Support healthy community initiatives that encourage fitness. Last weekend, the U.S. Women’s National Team in Princeton volunteered at the Princeton Family YMCA’s youth triathlon.
• Do only full loads of laundry. Wash with cold water and hang clothes to dry. As a bonus, this laundry tip will help your unisuits and other performance apparel last much longer!
• Buy locally grown and organic produce. If you have a sunny yard, porch or windowsill, you can also try growing your own vegetables and herbs!
• Buy eco-friendly rowing apparel. Some rowing apparel manufacturers offer recycled or natural-fiber gear.

On Earth Day, 22 April, ocean rower Roz Savage was on day 10 of her Indian Ocean rowing mission from Australia to India. Savage rows to highlight environmental issues and on Earth Day she blogged from the Indian Ocean: “I’m not especially worried for the Earth. When you look back over its entire existence, we have been here for a mere blink of an eye. The planet is going to be fine in the long run. It doesn’t need us, but we desperately need it, and we need it not to change too much. We’ve evolved to live on a fairly pristine kind of Earth, within a fairly narrow temperature range. Too much pollution or too much heat, and we’re going to be in trouble. For all our many flaws, we’re actually quite special, and I’d like to see us be around for a while yet. For a supposedly intelligent species, wouldn’t it just be terribly embarrassing to be responsible for our own demise?”