by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Let’s start off 2008 with a review and summary of the basics. Call it what you’d like, going green, Eco-living, sustainability, the bottom line comes down to one thing -

No Impact Man puts it simply as: DON’T WASTE ANYTHING.

Think carefully about not only what you do, but what you have and what happens in the process of having and you’ll see that this covers everything we’ve ever heard about getting “greener” and, more importantly, it’s not complicated at all. It applies to our food, water, vehicles, houses, electronics, clothes, etc.. and all of our habits.

If you’ve been taking steps towards a sustainable lifestyle, keep going. If you haven’t started, do it now. If you’ve done all you can at the moment, tell 10 people about it. I promise that you will make a difference and you’ll smile more. To help you along, here’s a review of the basics:

Peak oil is coming - Get a bicycle, drive green and drive less, fly less.

Peak water is already here - turn off the damn faucet! Even California’s governor, Arnold, “terminates” excess water used by his kids in the shower.

Go for the CFL’s - It saves money and CO2. Here’s an up to date guide to CFLs for all occasions from Grist.

BYOB - Bag and Bottle, that is. Americans throw away more than 60 million plastic bottles each day. It takes around 1,000 years for them to biodegrade. More than 10 million barrels of oil are used to produce bottled water every year in the U.S. (not including transportation). Most tap water is just as safe as bottled water, but if you prefer to abstain from both, get a filter for your tap. I’ve been using Living Water Systems for years. Go to Klean Kanteen for portable stainless steel water bottles.

It’s cool, it’s easy, it’s important - bring your own reusable bag every time you shop and keep plastic and more paper out of landfills. It started at Ikea, spread to San Francisco and Paris…this year, even Whole Foods Market is swearing off plastic bags at check-out.

Stop junk mail and recycle paper. 1/3 of our landfills contain paper (unable to biodegrade normally).

Eat and Buy Locally. It’s about your community and the environment.

Now you’ve got a good start. Get creative and motivated about your life and love for your planet. Our future depends on us. To find out more you can do, go here.

Tags: activism, business, community, culture, travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Green Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.