blog action day

today, october 15, people with blogs all over the world are all writing about the same thing. this year's topic is climate change.

whether you agree with al gore and the global warming people or not, the fact of the matter is that the earth is our home, and we need to treat it nicer.

i'm not one to go all crunchy granola and tell people to start skipping deodorant and reusing grey water (although those ideas have merit in the proper setting). i'm talking about small things that you prolly wouldn't even notice you are doing that help out in the end.

take one minute shorter showers. you'll save money on your water bill and whatever you use to heat the water bill, you'll use thousands of gallons less water in a year.

when you get to a parking lot, just park and walk. those people that circle around waiting for a spot or idle for ten minutes waiting for the old lady to load her bags of cat food in the back of her station wagon are wasting time. they are sending carbon monoxide and other pollutants into the air and water. park in the back of the lot and walk. you'll get some fresh air and a little exercise, your car has less chance to get dinged up, you'll prolly even get into the store sooner than if you had tried to find a killer spot. (exceptions to this rule are made in my household if it is raining, especially if i have blow-dried my hair).

walk or bike more places. take the bus or subway. go down to one car per household. we have one car and it works. we walk to rite aid to get milk or whatever. i rode my bike to work when it was warmer. i also have taken the bus around. not as ghetto as it might seem, and, since the bus or subway runs anyways, you aren't adding any extra to traffic, etc.

stop using so much paper. do you really need that printed out? try using a real towel or real napkins instead of paper. more laundry, sure, but it is better for the environment. and sitting down to dinner with cloth napkins can sure dress up a lean cuisine!

there are lots of great resources on and offline to learn more about what you can do and how it matters. every week slate.com's green lantern posts an article about eco-friendly real-life questions like is beer or wine better for the environment? what's the most eco-friendly birth control method? and many more. i have several great green living books. there are green blogs by the thousands.

reduce, reuse, recycle. we all learned the adage in school. now it is time to figure out how to put it into practice in our real lives.