I'm also going to define some terms so a) they seem less horrifying, and b) you sound more intelligent when you tell your friends about what you are doing and why (...like, when you're at a cocktail party and some blowhard with a Hummer starts telling you that Al Gore is full of cr*p, you can enlighten him with your modernecomom truths.) And, btw, you have to share what you're now doing with your friends - after all, we're in this together!
I promise to be as descriptive as possible and include associated costs, additional resources, etc.
Here goes:
ModernEcoMom (MEM) green idea #1: Stop your junk mail.
Did you know that the production of junk mail destroys over 100 million trees and wastes 28 billion gallons of water annually? No, well it does. I had no idea, and now I'm even more mad about the garbage I get in my mailbox every day. I even get junk mail from credit card companies that already have me as a customer. That is beyond, beyond wasteful.
There will be more junk mail for this MEM as I just signed up for the Sapling program at www.greendimes.com. For $.10 per day, or $36.00 per year, they will do the legwork to get me off the direct mail/catalog train. And, what's even better, they will plant one tree EVERY month of my subscription. (Appropriate trees get planted in North, Central or South America, India, Senegal or Haiti.)
Greendimes.com works in the U.S. and Canada -- the U.K. is next!
In 2-3 months, I will start noticing a significant change (upwards of a 75% reduction) in the amount of junk mail I receive.
Term #1 defined: carbon footprint
I hear and read about this concept frequently--it is bandied about tv and magazines by plenty of folks who may not be entirely sure what it means. To end the confusion, I went to www.carbonfootprint.com for help.
While "offsetting personal carbon footprints" may seem like something for only the Hollywood and modeling jet-set to do (sidebar: Lancome is offsetting model Elettra Rossellini Wiedemans' air travel-induced footprint), it actually isn't. We can all do simple things to reduce our own created emissions of green house gases.
"A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide." (source carbonfootprint.com)
On a personal level, about 15% of our carbon footprint comes from our individual use of gas, oil and coal. Almost 12% comes from our use of electricty.
The CO2 we product is staggering, but fear not - we can do something about it now. In short, we can sign up for renewable energy, limit our car and air travel, buy local foods and clothing and ditch the bottled water. (More later on all of these tips.)
So, please moms, start today!! We can do it!
Online Resources mentioned in this post:
