Don't Despair / What One Person Can Do

If one is conscientious, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the staggering amount of bad news concerning global warming and environmental breakdown. Recent news reports and some TV shows have capitalized on this, helping bring out these helpless and hopeless emotions.

It would be easy, and tempting, to just give up and say it's too overwhelming, what can I do when many governments are not participating or encouraging conservation and renewable energy, what can one person do? How can one person's actions make any difference at all?

Indeed, there is much to be worried about, and many less-conscientious people seem to be deliberately casting doubt and ridicule on worthy causes. Recently, a bumper sticker seen brought out road rage potential in me; it said: "I LOVE Global Warming!!"

Again, you do not personally have to believe in global warming or climate change; that's not the point of this blog.

The point is that Americans use way too much energy and natural resources for our proportional population. We are somewhere around 5 - 9 % of the world's population, but we consume a huge 25% of the world's resources. That's way too much if the rest of the world population is going to enjoy a decent standard of living.

Surely we can reduce our individual consumption, if only slightly, and still enjoy a great lifestyle.

If everyone reading this blog does something right now to reduce their energy drag, the country and the world will be better off for it.

It could be as simple as changing one standard light bulb to compact florescent or LED, or recycling things you previously did not, or installing a little water saving device, or driving less or idling less.

We took another look at what our trash company recycles and were pleased to see there are more things they'll take, such as cardboard including cereal boxes and other similar items. We were able to reduce the trash going to the landfill by about 1/3, and increased our recycling amount by 1/3. What if even 10% of the population did that?

Ever notice how much cotton is stuffed into medical bottles like aspirin, vitamins and cold remedies? This may be too quirky for you, but I am using that cotton for face toner and as alcohol wipes for wounds. Now I don't buy cotton balls anymore.... Use your imagination and ingenuity; we Americans are famous for it.

You don't have to change everything; you can just change a few things. Have you noticed how many appliances and other electronic devices tell you the time of day?!!! Gack, they're everywhere! We have a microwave that tells us the time, and the range below it tells us the time, and when I turn around in the kitchen the radio tells the time. The coffeemaker would tell the time but we unplug it after using it, so that's one less. Then we have to make sure they all indicate that same time.... Do we really have to be reminded of our own mortality in every room of the house, even at night? And all the red, green and blue "eyes" of electronic devices..........one hardly needs a night light to navigate throughout the house with all of them......some of them can be unplugged without harming the device; others should stay on....a very minor difference but it can add up, and bring you more peace.

One of my favorite "green" fantasies is to visualize the electric company's output dipping just slightly..........that enough of us do a few small things that, when combined, really does create a visible dip in energy used. That's when the IREA's & other backward energy companies will take notice.

We have to be our own leaders in this. While government pols are making very slow and incremental changes, we can push change from the bottom; the grassroots level. At the point enough of us do enough small things, there will be a visible difference and the pols will take notice and realize their continued employment will depend on making more significant changes, including providing green tax incentives for their constituents. Don't believe it? Just look at what Australia has done.......their incumbent Prime Minister was voted out, and a greener PM elected, and he has signed the Kyoto protocols! That's a very big change, started by ordinary humans like you and me. (Now the US is the only major industrialized nation to have refused to sign the Kyoto protocol.)

So, please don't despair. Make your little changes and feel better about things. One person CAN change the world. For example, Gandhi created huge changes, starting very simply. So did Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and many others.

Become your own hero.

More websites for Holidays / Made in USA !!

Here are a few more websites that you may wish to check out for this season's gifts, or into the next year. Some are toys only; others have a broader line of products.

These are all "Made in USA" products and although some of them may not be completely "green", you will be reducing your carbon footprint because the products will not have circled halfway around the globe prior to your receiving them.

Enjoy!!

http://toysmadeinamerica.com
http://usmadetoys.com
http://shopforamerica.com
http://madeinusa.org

More Gifting Green Ideas

For practical green giving, you can go to the website listed below. This is takes you to the Governor's Energy Office (Colorado); and for those readers who do not live in Colorado, don't let that deter you. Check out what is here, and then you can probably find something similar for your state. Either way, these are ideas that transcend borders!

www.colorado.gov/energy/resources/green-gifts.asp

Have fun shopping!!!

~ Annie

Green Gifts Part One: 10 Green Toys to Give

Alot of parents and other gift-givers are in a quandary about how to buy safe toys for kids, when so many contaminated toys have made it to stores in the U.S.

Although many of the toxic toys have been taken off the shelf, buyers need to be especially careful this year. There is absolutely no guarantee that the toys in the stores right now are truly safe; it is possible they have just not been discovered as being unsafe.

Coop America (are you a member yet? It's a great subscription: green news, fair trade, discounts, etc - ) www.coopamerica.org has a list of 10 Green (and safe) toys to give.

Please click on this website: www.coopamerica.org/programs/shopunshop/10GreenToys.cfm

GI's go GREEN, save lives in Iraq !

A 5 year old think tank for military innovation has added a positive green twist to the lives of GI's in Iraq. Previously, the Rapid Equipping Force had come up with several ideas to save soldiers' lives, such as robots to search caves in Afghanistan, an acoustic sniper finder and a laser pointer to flag down cars at night.

Instead of a new gadget, this time, Joe Amadee III, of contractor Synovision Solutions, proposed a green solution. How could a an environmentally friendly solution help save lives?

He and an Oklahoma roofing contractor sprayed foam onto soldier's tents at the desert base east of Baghdad.

The huge, heat-absorbing tent barracks were turned into rigid shells of 2-inch insulation. The solution improves soldier's lives in two ways: 1. The soldiers are subject to less extreme temperatures while they are in the tents, and 2. Because the insulation reduced the need to heat the tents, they are going out on fewer trips in their conveys to obtain the fuel. As most people know, many of the deaths and injuries are received while out on convoys.

The more fuel a base uses, the more convoys that have to venture out to obtain fuel. Dan Nolan of Rapid Equipping Force says the price of insulation, which works out to about $30,000 a tent, is worth it. Preliminary data show that insulation tents can cut a base's fuel use by 40 percent, he said.

So the soldiers are more comfortable, and they are safer, plus there is an approximate 40% reduction in fuel use!

Gleaned from Denver Post 11/29/07; by The Los Angeles Times